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PICTORIAL HISTORY 



THE UNITED STATES 



FROM THE 



EARLIEST PERIOD TO THE PRESENT TIME. 



BY 

BENSON J. ' LOSSING. 



Illnstratcb bg Scbtral pnnbrfi) O^ttgrabings, 

iBT LOSSING AND BARRITT. 



C 



HARTFOED: T. BELKNAP. 

NEW TORE: T. BELKNAP i CO., 102 WILLIAM STREET. 
1867. 



Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 18S7, 

BY BENSON J. LOSSIXG, 

lu the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Souiiier: 

District of New York. 



En"^ 



n't 



ELECTkOTTPED BY PRINTED BY 

THOMAS B SMITH C A. ALVORD, 

52 & 84 Beekman Street, N. Y. 16 VandewateMt., N T. 






Directions to the Binder for placing the Plates. 



Portrait of Wii.shin<rtoii. 

De Soto on the Mississippi. 

Governor Carver and Alassasdii. 

Death of AVolfe. - 

Washiiicrton at Kip's Iky. 

Jones Hoarding tlie " Serapis." 

Washington Kesigning bis Commission. 

Hull's Surrender. 

.Japanese Emhassv. 

Grant and Pemlx rtmi. 

Farragut in the Kigging of thr Hartfoid 

Portrait of A lira ham Lincoln. 



Kroiiii 


spiece. 


to face page 44 


•' 78 




2(ri 




■i.i8 




:m; 




3.5x> 




410 




:>!■> 


•• Ur, 


" 710 


.. 


720 



31 



^Q 



PREFACE. 

This work has been prepared with great care, for the purpose of supply- 
ing a want long felt by the reading public, and especially by Heads of Fam- 
ilies. Every important event in the history of the United States, from the 
Aboriginal period to the present time, is presented in a concise, but perspic- 
uous and comprehensive manner, without giving those minute and often 
tedious details, which are valuable to the student, but irksome to the common 
reader. The History of our Republic is herein popularized, and adapted to 
the use of those who may not find leisure to peruse more extensive works 
upon the subject. The materials have been drawn from the. earlier, most 
elaborate, and most reliable historians and chroniclers of our continent. The 
work is constructed upon a new plan, which, it is believed, will be found to 
be the most acceptable yet offered to the public, for obtaining, with facility, 
and fi.xing in the memory, a knowledge of the great events of our truly won- 
derful history. And having visited a greater portion of the localities made 
pemorable by important occurrences in our country, the writer claims, in 
that particular, an advantage over his predecessors in this special field, for 
he has been able to correct errors and give truthful impressions of things and 
events. An endeavor has also been made to show the cause of every import- 
ant event, and thus, by developing the philosophy of our history, to make it 
more attractive and instructive than a bald record of facts. And wherever 
the text appeared to need further elucidation, additional facts have been given 
in foot-notes. 

The arrangement of the work is new. It is in six Periods, each com- 
rnencing where the history naturally divides into distinct epochs. The first 
Period exhibits a general view of the Aboriginal race who occupied the con- 
tinent when the Europeans came. The second is a record of all the Discov- 
eries and preparations for settlement, made by individuals and governments. 
The third delineates the progress of all the Sefthments until colonial gov- 
ernments were formed. The fourth tells the story of these Colonies from 
their infancy to maturity, and illustrates the continual development of Dem- 
ocratic ideas and Republican tendencies which finally resulted in a political 



vi PREFACE. 

confederation. The fifth has a full account of the important events of the 
War for TndeiMndence, and the sixth gives a concise history of the Re- 
public, from its formation to the present time. The Supplement contains 
the Articles of Confederation and the National Constitution. The former 
shows the final result of the efforts of the people of the Colonies, who had 
struggled together for general independence, to form a national organization, 
but which signally failed, because in that League of States the supremacy 
of each was recognized, and the vitality of unity, which is essential to the 
existence of a nation, was wanting. The National Constitution is given in 
its original form, and with all of the amendments since adopted, accompanied 
by explanatory notes. 

The system of concordance interwoven with the notes throughout the 
entire work, is of great importance to the reader. When a fact is named 
which bears a relation to another fact elsewhere recorded in the volume, a 
reference is made to the page where such fact is mentioned A knowledge 
of this relationship of separate events is often essential to a clear view of the 
subject, and without this concordance, a great deal of time would be spent in 
searching for that relationship. With the concordance the matter may be 
found in a moment. Favorable examples of the utility of this new feature 
may be found on page 289. If strict attention shall be given to these refer- 
ences, the whole subject will be presented to the mind of the reader in a 
comprehensive aspect of unity not to be obtained by any other method. 

The engravings are introduced not for the sole purpose of embellishing 
the volume, but to enhance its utility as an instructor. Every picture is 
intended to illustrate a fact, not merely to beautify the page. Great care 
has been taken to secure accuracy in all the delineations of men and things, 
so that they may not convey false instruction. Geographical maps have been 
omitted, because they must necessarily be too small to be of essential service. 
History may be read for the purpose of obtaining general information on the 
subject, without maps, but it should never be studied without the aid of an 
accurate Atlas. 

The author has endeavored to make this work essentially a F.^mily 
History, attractive and instructive ; and the Publishers have generously 
co-worked with him in producing a volume that may justly claim to be 
excellent in every particular. With these few observations concerning the 
general plan and merits of the work, it is presented to the public, with an 
entire wilUngness to have its reputation rest upon its own merits. 

PouoHKEEPSiE, N. T,, June, 1867. 



HISTORY 

OF 

THE UNITED STATES. 




FIRST PERIOD. 

FHE ABORIGINALS. 



CHAPTER I. 

Every cultivated nation had its heroic 

age — a period when its first physical and 

moral conquests were achieved, and when 

•rude society, with all its impurities, was fused and refined in the crucible of 

progress. When civilization first set up its standard as a permanent ensign, in 

the western hemisphere, northward of the Bahamas and the great Gulf, and 



10 THE 'ABORIGINALS. 

the contests for possession began between the wild Aboriginals, who thrust no 
spade into the soil, no sickle into ripe harvests, and those earnest delvers from 
the Old World, who came with the light of Christianity, to plant a new 
empire, and redeem the wilderness by cultivation — then commenced the heroic 
age of America. It ended when the work of the Revolution in the eighteenth 
century was accomplished — when the bond of vassalage to Great Britain was 
severed by her colonies, and when thirteen confederated States ratified a Fed- 
eral Constitution, and upon it laid the broad foundation of our Republic' 

Long anterior to the advent of Europeans in America, a native empire, 
little inferior to old Rome in civilization, flourished in that region of our Con- 
tinent which now forms the south-western portion of our RepubliCj,.and the 
adjoining States of Central America. The Aztec Empire, which reached the 
acmi' of its refinement during the reign of Montezuma, and crumbled into frag- 
ments beneath the heel of Cortez, when he dethroned and destroyed that mon- 
arch," extended over the whole region from the Rio Grande to the Isthmus of 
Darien ; and when the Spaniards came, it was gradually pushing its conquests 
northward, where all was yet darkness and gloom. To human apprehension, 
this people, apparently allied by various ties to the wild nations of North 
America, appeared to be the most efficient instruments in the hands of Provi- 
dence, for spreading the light of dawning civilization over the whole Continent. 
Yet, they were not only denied this glorious privilege, but, by the-very race 
which first attempted to plant the seeds of European society in Florida, and 
among the Mobilian tribes,' and to shed the illumination of their dim Chris- 
tianity over .the dreary region of the North, was their own bright light e.xtin- 
guished. The Aztecs and their neighbors were beaten into the dust of 
debasement by the falchion blows of avarice and bigotry, and nothing remains 
to attest their superiority but the magnificent ruins of their cities and temples, 
and their colossal statuary, which has survived the fury of the Spanish icono- 
clast and the tooth of decay. They form, apparently, not the most insignificant 
atom of the chain of events which connects the history of the Aboriginal nations 
of America with that of our Republic. The position of the tribes of the 
North is difierent. From the beginning of European settlements, they have 
maintained, and do still maintain, an important relation to the white people. 

The first inhabitants of a country properly belong to the history of all sub- 
sequent occupants of the territory. The several nations of red or copper- 
colored people who occupied the present domain of the United States, when 
Europeans first came, form as necessary materials for a portion of the history 
of our Republic, as the Frenchmen' and Spaniards,' by whom parts of the 
territory were settled, and from whom they have been taken by conquest or 
purchase. 

The history of the Indian' tribes, previous to the formation of settlements 
among them, by Europeans,' is involved in an obscurity which is penetrated 



' Page 3G0. ' Page 43. ^ Page 29. * Page ISO. 

*■ Page 51. 6 Page 40. ' Before the year 1C07. 



A 



THE ABORIGINALS. H 

only by vague traditions and uncertain conjectures. Whence came they ? is a 
question yet unanswered by established facts. In the Old World, the monu- 
ments of an ancient people often record their history. In North America, 
such intelligible records are wanting. Within almost every State and Terri- 
tory remains of human skill and labor have been found,' which seem to attest 
the existence here of a civilized nation or, nations, before the ancestors of our 
numerous Indian tribes became masters of the Continent. Some of these 
appear to give indisputable evidence of intercourse between the people of the 
Old World and those of America, centuries, perhaps, before the birth of Christ, 
and at periods soon afterward.^ The whole mass of testimony yet discovered 
does not pi-ove that such intercourse was extensive ; that colonies from the 
eastern heinisphere ever made permanent settlements in America, or remained 
long enough to impress their character upon the country or the Aboriginals, if 
they existed ; or that a high degree of civilization had ever prevailed on our 
Continent. 

The origin of the Indian tribes is referred by some to the Phoenicians and 
other maritime nations, whose extensive voyages have been mentioned by 
ancient writers, and among whom tradition seemed to cherish memories of far- 
off lands beyond the sea, unknown to the earlier geographers. Others perr 
ceive evidences of their Egyptian or Hindoo parentage ; and others find their 
ancestors among the " lost .tribes of Israel," who "took counsel to go forth 
into a further -country where never mankind dwelt, "^ and crossed from north- 
eastern Asia to our Continent, by way of the Aleutian Islands, or by Beh- 
ring's Straits.* These various theories, and many others respecting settlements 
of Europeans and Asiatics here, long before the time of Columbus, unsupported 
as they are by a sufficiency of acknowledged facts, have so little practical value 

' Remains of fortifications, similar in form to tliose of ancient European nations, have been 
discovered. An idol, composed of clay and gypsum, representing a man without arms, and in 
all respects resembling one found in Southern Russia, was dug up near Nashville, in Tennessee. 
Also fireplaces, of regular structure ; weapons and utensils of copper ; catacombs with mummies ; 
oroaments of silver, brass, and copper; walls efforts and cities, and many other things which only 
a people advanced in civilization could have made. The Aboriginals, themselves, have various 
traditions respecting their origin — each nation having its distinct records in the memory. Nearly 
all have traditional glimpses of a great and universal deluge ; and some say their particular pro- 
genitor came in a bark canoe after that terrible event. This belief, with modifications, was current 
among most of the northern tribes, and was a recorded tradition of the half-civilized Aztecs. 
The latter ascribed all their knowledge of the arts, and their religious ceremonies, to a white and 
bearded mortal who came among them ; and when his mission was ended, was made immortal by 
the Great Spirit. 

2 A Roman coin was found in Missouri ; a Persian coin in Ohio ; a bit of silver in Genesee 
county, New York, with the year of our Lord, 600, engraved on it; split wood and ashes, thirty 
feet below the surface of the earth, near Fredouia, New York ; and near Montevideo, South 
America, in a tomb, were found two ancient swords, a helmet and shield, with Greek inscriptions, 
showing that they were made in the time of Alexander the Great, 330 years before Christ. Near 
Marietta, Ohio, a silver cup, finely gilded within, was found in an ancient mound. Traces of u-on 
utensils, wholly reduced to rust, mirrors of isinglas.s, and glazed pottery, have also been discovered 
in the.se mounds. These are evidences of the existence of a race far more civUized than the tribes 
found by modern Europeans. 

3 2 'Esdra.s, xiii. 40-45. 

* The people of north-eastern Asia, and on the north-west coast of America, have a near 
resemblance in person, customs, and languages ; and those of the Aleuti.an Island.s present many 
of the characteristics of both. Ledyard said of the people of Eastern Siberia, "Universally and 
circumstantially they resemble the Aborigines of America." 



12 THE ABORIGINALS. 

for the student of our history, that we will not occupy space in giving a deline- 
ation of even their outlines. There are elaborately-written works specially 
devoted to this field of inquiry, and to those the curious reader is referred. 
The proper investigation of such subjects requires the aid of varied and exten- 
sive knowledge, and a far wider field for discussion than the pages of a volume 
like this. So we will leave the field of conjecture for the more useful and 
important domain of recorded history. 

The New World, dimly comprehended by Europeans, afforded materials for 
wonderful narratives concerning its inhabitants and productions. The few 
natives who were found upon the seaboard, had all the characteristics common 
to the human race. The interior of the Continent was a deep mystery, and 
for a long time marvelous stories were related and believed of nations of giants 
and pigmies ; of people with only one eye, and that in the centre of the fore- 
head ; and of whole tribes who e.xisted without eating. But when sober men 
penetrated the forests and became acquainted with the inhabitants, it was dis- 
covered that from the Gulf of Mexico to the country north of the chain of 
great lakes which divide the United States and the British possessions, the 
people were not remarkable in persons and qualities, and that a great similarity 
in manners and institutions prevailed over that whole e.\tent of country. 

The Aboriginals spoke a great variety of dialects, but there existed not 
more than eight radically distinct languages among them all, from the Atlan- 
tic to the Mississippi, and westward to the Rocky Mountains, namely : Al- 
gonquin, Huron-Iroquois, Cherokee, Catawba, Uchee, Natchez, 
MoBiLiAN, and Dahcotah or Sioux. These occupied a region embraced 
within about twenty-four degrees of latitude and almost forty degrees of longi- 
tude, and covering a greater portion of the breadth of the north temperate 
zone. 

All the nations and tribes were similar in physical character, moral senti- 
ment, social and political organization, and religious belief. They were all of 
a copper color ; were tall, straight, and well-proportioned ; their eyes black 
and expressive; their hair black, long, coarse, and perfectly straight; their 
constitutions vigorous, and their powers of endurance remarkable. Bodily 
deformity was almost unknown, and few diseases prevailed. They were indo- 
lent, taciturn, and unsocial ; brave, and sometimes generous in war ; unflinch- 
ing under torture ; revengeful, treacherous, and morose when injured or 
offended ; not always grateful for favors ; grave and sagacious in council ; often 
eloquent in speech ; sometimes warm and constant in friendship, and occasion- 
ally courteous and polite. 

The men were employed in war, hunting and fishing. The women per- 
formed all menial services. In hunting and fishing the men were assiduous 
and very skillful. They carried the knowledge of woodcraft to the highest 
degree of perfection; and the slightest indication, such as the breaking of a 
twig, or the bending of grass, was often suificient to form a clew to the pathway 
of an enemy or of game. The women bore all buixlens during journeys; 
spread the tents ; prepared food ; dressed skins for clothing ; wove mats for 



THE ABORIGINALS. 



13 




beds, made of the bark of trees and the skins of animals ; and planted and 
gathered the scanty crops of corn, beans, peas, potatoes, 
melons, and tobacco. These constituted the chief agri- 
cultural productions of the Aboriginals, under the most 
fiivorable circumstances. In these labors the men never 
engaged ; they only manufactured their implements of 
war. Their wigwams, or houses, were rude huts, made 
of poles covered with mats, skins, or bark of trees ; and 
all of their domestic arrangements were very simple. 

And simple, too, were their implements of labor. They were made of stones, 
shells, and bones, with which they prepared their food, made their clothing and 
habitations, and tilled their lands. Their food consisted of a few vegetables, 
and the meat of the deer, buffalo, and bear, generally roasted upon the 
points of sticks ; sometimes boiled in water heated by hot 
stones, and always eaten without salt. Their dress in summer 
was a slight covering around the loins. In winter they were 
clad in the skins of wild beasts,' often profusely ornamented 
with the claws of the bear, the horns of the buffalo, the feathers 
of birds, and the bones of fishes. Their faces were often tat- 
tooed, and generally painted with bright colors in hideous 
devices. Their money was little tubes made of shells, fastened wajipum. 
upon belts or strung in chains, and called wampum? It was 
used in traffic, in treaties, and as a token of friendship or alliance. Wampu 
belts constituted records of public transactions in the hands of a chief 

There was no written language in all the 
New World, except rude hieroglyphics, or 
picture writings. The history of the 
nations, consisting of the records of warlike 
achievements, treaties of alliance, and 
deeds of great men, was, in the form of 
traditions, carefully handed down from 
father to son, especially from chief to chief 





i^^^^-.v^C:^^'?^^ 



INDIAN HIEROGLYPHICS.- 



Children were taught the simple 



' Tlie engraving at the head of this chapter represents some Sioux Indians, in their winter and 
fanciful costumes. 

• Wampum is yet in use, as money, among some of the Western tribes, and is manufactured, 
we believe, as an article of commerce on tlie sea-shore of one of the counties of New Jersey. It is 
made of the clear parts of the common clam-shell. This part being split off, a hole is drilled in it, 
and the form, wliich is that of the bead now known as the fcu^fe, is produced by friction. They are 
about half an inch long, generally disposed in alternate layers of white and bluish black, and 
valued, when they become a circulating medium, at about two cents for three of the Ijlack beads, 
or six of the white. They were strung in parcels to represent a penny, three pence, a shilling, 
and five sliillings, of white; and double that amount in black. A fathom of white was worth 
about two dollars and a hal^ and black about five dollars. They were of less value at the time of 
our war for independence. The engraving shows a part of a string and a /icK of wampum. 

3 This is part of a record of a war expedition. The figures on the right and left> — one with a 
gun and the other with a hatchet — denote prisoners taken by a warrior. The one without a head, 
and holding a bow and arrow, denotes that one was killed ; and the figure with a shaded part 
below the cross indicates a female prisoner. Then he goes in a war canoe, with nine companions, 
denoted by the paddles, after which a council is held by the chiefs of the Bear and Turtle tribes, 
mdicated by rude figures of these animals on each side of a fire. 



14 



THE ABORIGINALS. 




INDIAN WEAPONS.-' 




arts practiced among them, such as making wampum, constructing bows, 
arrows, and spears, preparing matting and skins for domestic use, and fashion- 
ing rude personal ornaments. 

Individual and national pride prevailed among the Aboriginals. They 
were ambitious of distinction, and therefore war was the chief vocation, a^ we 
have said, of the men.' They generally went forth in parties of about forty 
bowmen. Sometimes a half-dozen, like knights- 
errant," went out upon the war-path to seek renown in 
combat. Their weapons were bows and arrows, hatch- 
ets (tomahawks) of stone, and scalping-knives of bone. 
Soon after they became acquainted with the Euro- 
peans, they procured knives and hatchets made of 
iron, and this was a great advance in the 
increase of their power. Some wore 
shields of bark; others wore skin dresses 
for protection. They were skillful in stratagem, and seldom met 
an enemy in open fight. Ambush and secret attack wei-e their 
favorite methods of gaining an advantage over an enemy. Their 
close personal encounters were fiei'ce and bloody. They made 
prisoners, and tortured them, and the, scalps* of enemies were 
their trophies of war. Peace was arranged by sachems' in council ; 
and each smoking the same " pipe of peace." called calumet,'^ was 
a solemn pledge of fidelity to the contract. 

With the Indians, as with many oriental nations, women were regarded as 
inferior beings. They were degraded to the condition of abject slaves, and they 
never engaged with the men in their amusements of leaping, dancing, target- 
shooting, ball-playing, and games of chance. They were allowed as spectators, 
with their children, at war-dances around fires, when the men recited the feats 
of their ancestors and of themselves. Marriage, among them, was only a tem- 
porary contract — a sort of purchase — the father receiving presents from the 

' It Was offensive to a chief or warrior to ask him his name, because it implied that his brave 
deeds were unlcnown. Red Jacket, the great Seneca chief (whose portrait is at the head of this 
chapter), was asked his name in court, in compliance witli a legal form. He was very indignant, 
and replied, " Look at the papers which the wliite people keep the most carefully" — (land cession 
treaties) — " they will tell you who I am." Red Jacket was horn near Geneva, New York, about 
1750, and died in 1830. He was the last great chief of the Senecas. For a biographical sketch of 
him, see Lossing's " Eminent Americans." 

' Knights-errant of Europe, sis hundred years ago, were men clothed in metal armor, who 
went from country to country, to win fame by personal combats with other knights. They also 
engaged in wars. For about three hundred years, knights-errant and their e.xploits formed the 
chief amusement of the courts of Europe. It is curious to trace the connection of the spirit of 
knighthood, as exhibited by the one hundred and thirty-five orders that have existed, at 
various times, ui the Old World, with some of tlie customs of the rude Aboriginals of North 
America 

^ a, bow and arrow ; h, a war club ; c, an iron tomahawk ; d, a stone one ; e, a scalping- 
kmfe. 

' They seized an enemy by the hair, and by a skillful use of the knife, cut and tore from the 
top of the head a large portion of the skin. 

' Sachems were the civil heads of nations or tribes ; chiefs were military leaders. 

« Tobacco W.1S in general use among the Indians for smoking, when the white men came. The 
more filthy practice of cheioing it was invented by the white people. The calumet was made of 
pipe-clay, and was often ornamented with feathers. 




Bur.iAL-rLACr. 



THE ABORIGINALS. 15 

husband, in exchange for the daughter, who, generally, after being fondled and 
favored for a few months, was debased to the condition of a domestic servant, at 
best. The men had the right to take wives and dismiss them at pleasure ; and, 
though polygamy was not very common, except among the chiefs, it was not 
objectionable. Every Indian might have as many wives as he could purchase 
and maintain. The husband might put his wife to death if she proved unfaithful 
to him. The affections were ruled by custom, and those decorous endearments 
and attentions toward woman, which give a charm to civilized society, were 
wholly unknown among the Indians ; yet the sentiment of conjugal love was 
not always wanting, and attachments for life were frequent. There was no 
society to call for woman's refining qualities to give it beauty, for they had but 
few local attachments, except for the burial-places of their dead. 

From the fi-ozen North to the tropical South, their funeral ceremonies 
and methods of burial were similar. They laid their dead, wrapped in skins, 
upon sticks, in the bottom of a shallow pit, or placed 
them in a sitting posture, or occasionally folded them 
in skins, and laid them upon high scaffolds, out of the 
reach of wild beasts. Their arms, utensils, paints, 
and food, were buried with them, to be used on their 
long journey to the spirit-land. By this custom, the 
doctrine of the immortality of the soul was clearly and 
forcibly taught, not as distinctively spiritual, but as 
possessing the two-fold nature of matter and spirit. Over their graves they 
raised mounds, and planted beautiful wild-flowers upon them. The Algon- 
quins, especially, always lighted the symbolical funeral pyre, for several nights, 
upon the grave, that the soul might perceive and enjoy the respect paid to the 
body. Relatives uttered piercing cries and great lamentations during the 
burial, and they continued mourning many days. 

Like that of the earlier nations of the world, their religion was simple, with- 
out many ceremonies, and was universally embraced. They had no infidels 
among them. The duaUty of God is the most ancient tenet of Indian faith — 
a prominent tenet, it will be observed, in the belief of all of the more advanced 
oriental nations of antiquity. They believed in the existence of two Great 
Spirits : the one eminently gi'eat was the Good Spirit,' and the inferior was an 
Evil one. They also deified the sun, moon, stars, meteors, fire, water, thun- 
der, wind, and every thing which they held to be superior to themselves, but 

' They believed every animal to have had a great original, or father. The first huffulo, the first' 
bear, the first beaver, the first eagle, etc., was the Maniiou of the whole race of the different crea- 
tures. They chose some one of these originals as their special Jlanitott, or guardian, and hence 
arose the custom of having the figure of some animal for the arms or symliol 
of a tribe, called iotum. For example, each of the Five Nations (see page 12) ^Sfe^^.^ 

was divided into several tribes, designated The Wolf, The Bear, The Turtle, r'^j^ J 
etc., and their respective Mums were rude representations of these animals. ^^ /A 

When they signed treaties with the white people, they sometimes sketched ::ST — ' 
outlines of their Mums. The annexed cut represents the Mum of Teyenda- 
gages, of the Turtle tribe of the Mohawk nation, as affixed by him to a deed. TOTL'.'.r. 

It would be a curious and pleasant task to trace the intimate connection of 
this totemic system with the use of symbolical signet-rings, and other seals of antiquity, and, by suc- 
cession, the heraldic devices of modem times. 



10 THE .ABORIGINALS. 

they never exalted their heroes or prophets above the sphere of humanity. 
They also adored an invisible, great Master of life, in different forms, which 
they called Manitou, and made it a sort of tutelar deity. They had vague 
ideas of the doctrine of atonement for sins, and made propitiatory sacrifices with 
great solemnity. All of them had dim traditions of the creation, and of a great 
deluge which covered- the earth. Each nation, as we have observed, had crude 
notions, drawn from tradition, of their own distinct origin, and all agreed that 
their ancestors came from the North. 

It can hardly be said that the Indians had any true government. It was a 
mixture of the patriarchal and despotic. Public opinion and common usage 
were the only laws of the Indian.' All political power was vested in a sachem 
or chief, who was sometimes an hereditary monarch, but frequently owed his 
elevation to his own merits as a vrarrior or orator. While in power, he was 
absolute in the execution of enterprises, if the tribe confided in his wisdom. 
Public opinion, alone, sustained him. It elevated him, and it might depose 
him. The oflSee of chief was often hereditary, and its duties were sometimes exer- 
cised even by women. Unlike the system of lineal descent which prevails in 
the Old World, the heir to the Lidian throne of power was not the chief's own 
son, but the son of his sister. This usage was found to be universal through- 
out the continent. Yet the accident of birth was of little moment. If the 
recipient of the honor was not worthy of it, the title might remain, but the m- 
fiuence passed into other hands. This rule might be followed, with benefit, by 
civilized communities. Every measure of importance was matured in council, 
which was composed of the ehlers, with the sachem as umpire. His decision 
was final, and wherever he led, the whole tribe followed. The utmost decorum 
prevailed in the public assemblies, and a speaker was always listened to with 
respectful silence. 

We have thus briefly sketched the general chai-acter of the inhabitants of 
the territory of the United States, when discovered by Europeans. Although 
inferior in intellectual cultivation and approaches to the arts of civilization, to 
the native inhabitants of Mexico- and South America, and to a race which 
evidently occupied the continent before them, they possessed greater personal 
manliness and vigor than the more southern ones discovered by the Spaniards. 
They were almost all wanderers, and roamed over the vast solitudes of a fertile 
continent, free as the air, and unmindful of the wealth in the soil under their 
feet. The great garden of the western world needed tillers, and white men 
came. They have thoroughly changed the condition of the land and the people. 
The light of civilization has revealed, and industry has developed, vast treas- 
ures in the soil, while before its radiance the Aboriginals are rapidly melting 
like snow in the sunbeams. A few generations will pass, and no representa- 
tive of the North American Indian will remain upon the earth. 

' It was said of McGillivray, the half-breed emperor of the Creeks, who died in 1793, that, not- 
withstandiug.he called himself " Kinp; of kings," and wag idolized by his people, " he could neither 
restrain the meanest fellow of his nation from the commission of a crime, nor punish him after he 
had committed it. He might persuade, or advise — all the good an Indian king or cliief can do." 

2 Page 43. 



THE ALGONQUINS. 17 

CHAPTER II. 

THE ALGON^QUINS. 

The first tribes of Indians, discovered by the French in Canada,' were in- 
habitants of the vicinity of Quebec, and the adventurers called them Mon- 
tagners, or Mountain Indians, from a range of high hills westward of that city. 
Ascending the St. Lawrence, they found a numerous tribe on the Ottawa 
Iliver, who spoke an entirely different dialect, if not a distinct language. 
These they called Algonquins, and this name was afterward applied to that 
great collection of tribes north and south of Lukes Erie and Ontario, who spoke 
dialects of the same language. They inhabited the territory now included in 
all of Canada, New England, a part of New York and Pennsylvania, the 
States of New Jersey, Delaware, I\Iaryland, and Virginia, eastern North Car- 
olina above Cape Fear, a large portion of Kentucky and Tennessee, and all north 
and west of these States, eastward of the Mississippi. 

The Algonquin nation was composed of several powerful tribes, the most 
miportant of which were the Knisteneaux and Athapascas, in the far north, the 
Ottawas, Chippewas, Sacs and Foxes, Menomonees, Miamies, Piankeshaws, 
Pottowatomies, Kickapoos, Illinois, Shawnees, Powhatans, Corees, Nanticokes, 
Lenni- Lcnapes, or Delawares, Mohegans, the New England Indians, and the 
Abenakes. There were smaller, independent tribes, the principal of which 
were the Susquehannocks, on the Susquehanna in Pennsylvania ; the Manna- 
hoacks, in the hill country between the York and Potomac Rivers, and the 
Monocans, on the head waters of the James River in Virginia. All of these 
tribes were divided into cantons or clans, sometimes so small as to afford only a 
war party of forty bowmen. 

The Knisteneaux yet [1807] inhabit a domain extending across the con- 
tinent from Labrador to the Rocky Mountains, and are the hereditary ene- 
mies of the Esquimaux, their neighbors of the Polar Circle. The Athapascas 
inhabit a belt of country from Churchill's River and Hudson's Bay to within a 
hundred miles of the Pacific coast, and combine a large number of tribes who 
speak a similar language. They, too, are the enemies of the Esquimaux. The 
extensive domain occupied by these tribes and the Esquimaux, is claimed by 
the British, and is under the control of the Hudson's Bay Company. The 
orginal land of the Ottawas was on the west side of Lake Huron, but they 
were seated upon the river in Canada bearing their name, when the French dis- 
covered them. They claimed sovereignty over that region, and exacted tribute 
from those who passed to or from the domain of the Hurons.* They assisted 



' Page 48. 

2 Between the Ottawas and Hurons, was a tribe called Mississaguies, who appear to have left the 
Algonquins, and joined the Five Nations, south of Lake Ontario. Remnants of this tribe are 
still found in Canada. 

- 3 



18 THE ABORIGINALS. 

the latter in a war with the Five Nations' in 1650, and suffered much. The 
Hurons were almost destroyed, and the Ottawas were much reduced in num- 
bers. Some of them, with the Huron remnant, joined the Chippewus. and, 
finally, the whole tribe returned to their ancient seat [1680] in the northern 
part of the Michigan peninsula. Under their great chief, Pontiac. they were 
confederated with several other Algonquin tribes of the north-west, in an 
attempt to exterminate the white people, in 1763.- Within a fortnight, in the 
summer of that year, they took possession of all the English garrisons and 
trading posts in the West, except Detroit, Niagara,^ and Fort Pitt.* Peace was 
restored in 1764-5, the confederation was dissolved, and Pontiac took up his 
abode with the Illinois, where he was murdered.^ '■ This murder,' says Nicol- 
let, "which roused the vengeance of all the Indian tribes friendly to Pontiac, 
brought about the successive wars, and almost extermination of the Illinois na- 
tion." His l^roken nation sought refuge with the French, and their descendants 
may yet [186 7 J be found in Canada. 

Those two once powerful tribes, the Chippewas and Pottawatoiiies, were 
closely allied by language and friendship. The former were on tlie southern 
shores of Lake Superior; the latter occupied the islands and main land on the 
western shores of Green Bay, when first discovered by the French in 17GI. 
These afterward seated themselves on the southern shore of Lake Michigan 
[1701], where they remained until removed, by treaty, to lands upon the Litt'c 
Osage River, westward of Missouri. They are now [1867] the most numerous 
of all the remnants of the Algoxquix tribes. The Chippewas .•md the Sioux, 
west of the Mississippi, wero, for a long time, their deadly enemies. 

The Sacs and Foxes are really one tribe. They were first discovered by the 
French at the southern extremity of Green Bay, in 1680. In 1712 the French 
garrison of twenty men at Detroit," was attacked by the Foxes. The French 
repulsed them, with the aid of the Ottawas, and almost destroyed the assailants. 
They joined the Kickapoos in 1722, in driving the Illinois from their lands on 
the river of that name. The Illinois took refuge with the French, and the 
Kickapoos remained on their lands until 1819, when they went 
to the west bank of the Missouri in the vicinity of Fort Leav- ,-^^^^ 

enworth. The Sacs and Foxes sold their lands to the United 
States in 1830. Black Hawk, a Sac chief, who, with his 
people, joined the English in our second war with Great Brit- 
ain,' demurred, and commenced hostilities in 1832.'' The In- 
dians were defeated, and Black Hawk,= with many of his war- 

, . EI.ACK HAWK. 

nors, were made prisoners. 

Among the very few Indian tribes who have remained upon their ancient 

' Chapter IlL, p 23. = Page 205. ' Page 200. ■" Page 198. 

5 He was buried on the site of the city of St. Louis, iu Missouri. " Neitlier mound nor tablet.'' 
says Parkman, "marked the burial-place of Pontiac. For a mausoleum, a city has risen above the 
forest hero, and the race whom he hated with such burning rancor, trample with unceasing foot- 
steps over his forgotten grave." 

6 Page 180. ' Page 409. " Page 4f,:;. 

9 This picture is from a plaster-cast of the face of Black Hawk, taken when he was a i)risojier In 
New York, iu 1832. See page 463. 




THE ALGONQUINS. 19 

tciritor/, during all t'-:3 vicissitudes of tla-ir race, are tlic Mexomonees, who 
were discovered by the French, ujx)n the shores of Green Bay, in 1699. Tliey 
yet [1867] occupy a portion of their ancient territory, while their southern 
rteiglibors and friends, the Winnebagoes, have gone westward of the Mississippi.' 

The MlAMiES and Piankeshaws inhaljited that portion of Ohio lying be- 
tween the Maumee River of Lake Erie, and the ridge which separates the head 
waters of the Wabash from the Kaskaskias. They were called Twightw'ees by 
the Five Nations, and English. Of all the Western tribes, these have ever 
been the most active enemies of the United States.'^ They have ceded their 
lands, and are now [1867] far beyond the Mississippi. 

The Illinois formed a numerous tribe, twelve thousand strong, when dis- 
covered by the French. They were seated upon the Illinois River, and consisted 
of a confederation of five families, namely, Kaskaskias, Cahokias, Tamaronas, 
Michigamias, and Peorias. Weakened by internal feuds, the confederacy was 
reduced to a handful, by their hostile neighbors. They ceded their lands in 
1818, when they numbered only three hundred souls. A yet smaller remnant 
are now [1867] upon lands west of the Mississippi. It can not properly be said 
that they have a tribal existence. They are among the many extinct commun- 
ities of our continent. \ 

The once powerful Siiawnoese occupied avast region west of the Alleghan- 
ies/ and their great council-house was in the basin of the Cumberlaml River. 
At about the time when the English first landed at Jamestown* [1607], they 
were driven from their country by more southern tribes. Some crossed the 
Ohio, and settled on the Sciota, near the present Chilicothe ; others wandered 
eastward into Pennsylvania. The Ohio division joined the Eries and Andastes 
against the Five Nations in 1672. Suffering defeat, the Shawmoese fled to 
the country of the Catawbas, but were soon driven out, and found shelter with 
the Creeks.5 They finally returned to Ohio, and being joined hj their Penn- 
sylvania brethren, they formed an alliance with the French against the En- 
glish, and were among the most active allies with the former, during the long 
contest known in America as the French and Indian War. They continued 
hostilities, in connection with the Delawares, even after the conquest of the 
Canadas by the English." They were subdued by Boquet in 1763,' and again 
by Virginians, at Point Pleasant, at the mouth of the Great Kenawha, in 1774. ' 
They aided the British during the Revolution, and continued to annoy the 
Americans until 1795, when permanent peace was established.' They were 
the enemies of the Americans during their second war with Great Britain, a 
part of them fighting with the renowned Tecumtha. Now [1867] they are but 

1 The Winnebagoes are the most dissolute of all the Indian remnants. In August, 1853, a treaty 
was made with them to occupy tlie beautifiil country above St. Paul, westward'of the Mississippi, 
between tlie Crow and Clear Water Rivers. 

'' Page 40S. 

' The Alleghany or Appalachian Mountains extend from the Catskills, in the State of New York, 
in a soutli-west direction, to Georgia and Ahabama, and have been called "the backbone of the 
country." Some geographers extend them to the White Mountains of New Hampshire. 

' Page 64. ■• Page 30. ' Page 203. 

' Note 7, page 205. " Note 4, page 237. " Page 374. 



20 THE ABORIGINALS. 

a miserable remnant, and occupy lands south of the Kansas River. The road 
from Fort Independence' to Santa Fti passes through their territory. - 

The PowiiATANS constituted a confederacy of more than twenty tribes, in- 
cluding the Accohannocks and Accomacs, on the eastern shore of the Chesa?- 
peake Bay. Powhatan (the father of Pocahontas^), was the chief sachem or 
emperor of the confederacy, when the English first appeared upon the James 
River, in 1607. He had arisen, by the force of his own genius, from the po- 
sition of a petty chief to that of supreme ruler of a great confederacy. He gov- 
erned despotically, for no man in his nation could approach him in genuine 
ability as a leader and counselor. His court exhibited much barbaric state. 
Through fear of the English, and a selfish policy, he and his people remained 
nominally friendly to the white intruders during his lifetime, but after his 
death, they made two attempts [1622, 1644] to exterminate the English. The 
Powhatans were subjugated in 1644,' and from that time they gradually di- 
minished in numbers and importance. Of all that great confederacy in Lower 
Virginia, it is believed that not one representative on earth remains, or that 
one tongue speaks their dialect. 

C)n the Atlantic coast, south of the Powhatans, were the Corees, Cheraws, 
and other small tribes, occupying the land once inhabited by the powerful Hat- 
teras Indians.^ They were allies of the Tuscaroras in 1711, in an attack upon 
the English, « suffered defeat, and have now disappeared from the earth. Their 
dialect also is forgotten. 

Upon the great peninsula between the Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, were 
the Nanticokes. They were early made vassals, and finally allies, on com- 
pulsion, of the Five Nations. They left their ancient domain in 1710, occu- 
pied lands upon the Susquehanna, in Pennsylvania, until the Revolutionary 
War commenced, when they crossed the Alleghanies, and joined the British in 
the west. They are now [1867J scattered among many tribes. 

The Original People,' as the Lenni-Lenapes (who are frequently called Del- 

' United States fort on the Missouri. Santa Fe is in New Mexico, 765 miles soutli-west of Fort 
Independence. 

2 One of the most eminent of tlie Sliawnoo cliiefs, wag Cornstalk, wlio was generally friendly to 
the Americans, and was always ready to assist in negotiating an honorable peace between them and 
his own people. But he cordially imited with Logan, the Mingo cliief, against the wliite people in 
1774 ; and during the same Ijattle at Point Pleasant, his voice, stentorian in volume, was li^equently 
heard, calling to his men, "Be strong! be .strong!" He made his warriors fight without wavering, 
and actu.ally sunk his tomahawk deep into the head of one who endeavored to escape. He was 
murdered by some exasperated soldiers at Point Pleasant. When he perceived their intent, he 
calmly said to his son, who had just joined him, " My son, the Great Spirit has seen fit that we 
should die together, and has sent you hither for that purpose. It is His will ; let us submit." 
Turning to the soldiers, he received the fatal bullets, and his son, who was sitting near him, was 
shot at the same time. The celebrated Tecumtha — meaning a tiger crouching for his prey — who 
endeavored to confederate all the Western triljes in opposition to the white people, was also a 
Sliawiioe chief. See page 408. 

' Page C6. 4 pajje 108. 

5 This tribe numbered about three thousand warriors when Raleigh's expedition landed on 
Roanoke Island in 1584; when the Knglish made permanent settlements in that vicinit.v, eighty 
years later, tliey were reduced to about fifteen bowmen. 6 Page 1 68. 

' This name has been applied to the whole Algonquin nation. The Lenni-Lenapes claimed to 
have come from beyond the Mississippi, conquering a more ci\'iUzed people on the way, wha 
inhabited tlie great valleys beyond the Alleghany Mountains. 



THE ALGONQUINS. 21 

a\vares) named themselves, comprised two powerful nations, namely, the Minsi 
and the Delawares proper. The former occupied the northern part of New 
Jersey, and a portion of Pennsylvania, and the latter inhabited lower New Jer- 
sey, the banks of the Delaware below Trenton, and the wholo valley of the 
Schuylkill. The Five Nations subjugated them in 1650, and brought them 
under degrading vassalage. They gradually retreated westward before the tide 
of civilization, and finally a portion of them crossed the Alleghanies, and settled 
in the land of the Hurons,' on the Muskingum, in Ohio. Those who remained 
in Pennsylvania joined the Shaw'noese/- and aided the French against the En- 
glisli, during the French and Indian War.^ In 1768, they all went over the 
mountains, and the great body of them became friends of the British during the 
Revolution. They were at the head of the confederacy of Western tribes who 
were crushed by Wayne in 179-4,'' and the following year they ceded all their 
lands on the Muskingum, and seated themselves near the Wabash. In 1819, 
they ceded those lands also, and the remnant now [1867] occupy a territory 
north of the Kansas River, near its mouth. 

The MOHEGANS wei'c a distinct tribe, on the Hudson River, but the name 
was given to the several independent tribes who inhal^ited Long Island, and the 
country between the Lenni-Lenapes and the New England Indians.^ Of this 
family, the Pequods,' inhabiting eastern Connecticut, on the shores of Long 
Island Sound, were the most powerful. They exercised authority over the 
Montauks and twelve other tribes upon Long Island. Their power was broken 
by the revolt of Uncas against his chiefj Sassacus,' a short time before the ap- 
pearance of the white people. The Manhattans were seated upon the Hudson, 
in lower Westchester, and sold Manhattan Island, whereon New York now 
stands, to the Dutch. ^ The latter had frequent conflicts with these and other 
River Indians.' The Dutch w^ere generally conquerors. The Mohawks, one 
of the Five Nations,'" were pressing hard upon them, at the same time, and 
several of the Mohegan tribes were reduced to the condition of vassals of that 
confederacy. Peace was effected, in 1665, l)y the Englisli governor at New 
York. In the mean while, the English and Narragahsets had 
smitten the Pequods," and the remaining independent Mohe- 
gans, reduced to a handful, finally took up their abode upon the 
west bank of the Thames, five miles below Norwich, '° at a place 
still known as Mohetjan Plain. Their burial-place was at Nor- 
wich, and there a granite monument rests upon the grave of 
Uncas. The tribe is now almost e.xtinct — "the last of the Mo- 
hicans" will soon sleep with his fathers." 

' Page 23. = Page 19. = Fourth Period, Chap. XII. ' Page 374. 

' Page 22, » Page 86, ' Page 87. » Page 139. 

° Page 140, " Page 23, " Page 87, '^ Note 4, page 340. 

" Tlie lust known lineal descendant of Uncas, named Mazeon. was buried in the Indian cemetery, 
at Norwich, in 1827, when the remnant of tlie Mohegan tribe, then numbering about sixty, were 
present, and partook of acold collation prepared for them by a lady of that city. The most noted 
leaders among the NewTilngland Indians known to history, are Massasoit, the father of the rf-- 
nowned King Philip; Caunbitant, a very distinguished captain; Hobomok; Canonious; MiaLtn- 
nomoh ; Ninigret, his cousin ; King Philip, the last of the Wampanoags ; Canonchet, and Anna- 
wan. We shall meet them in future pages. 




UNOAS MONUMENT. 



22 THE ABORIGINALS. 

The Aboriginals who inhabited the country from Connecticut to the Saco 
River, were called the New England Indians. The principal tribe;; were the 
Narragansets in Rhode Island, and on the western shores of Narraganset Bay ; 
the Pokonokets and Wampanoags on the eastern shore of the same bay, and in 
a portion of Massachusetts ; the Nipmucs in the center of Massachusetts ; the 
Massachusetts in the vicinity of Boston and the shores southward; and the 
Pawtuckets in the north-eastern part of Massachusetts, embracing the Penna- 
cooks of New Hampshire. These were divided into smaller bands, havin<T 
petty chiefs. The Pokonokets, for example, were divided into nine separate 
cantons or tribes, each having its military or civil ruler, but all holdino- alle- 
giance to one Grand Sachem. They were warlike, and were continually 
engaged in hostilities with the Five Nations, or with the ]\Iohegans. The 
Enghsh and Dutch effected a general peace among them in' 1673. Two years 
afterward [1675], Metacomct (King Philip) aroused most of the New England 
tribes against the English. A fierce war ensued, but ended in the subjugation 
of the Indians and the death of Philip, in 1676.' The power of the New 
England Indians was then completely Ijrokcn. Some joined the more eastern 
tribes, and others took refuge in Canada, from whence they frequently came to 
the border settlements on errands of revenge." These incursions ceased when 
the French dominion in Canada ended in 1763.' When the Puritans came' 
[1620], the New England Indians numbered about ten thousand souls; now 
[1S67] probably not three hundred representatives remain ; and the dialects 
of all, excepting that of the Nnrragansets, are forgotten. 

Eastward of the Saco River were the Abenakes. The chief tribes were tho 
Penobscots, Norridgewocks, Androscoggins, and Passamaquoddies. These, 
with the more eastern tribes of the Micmacs and Etchemins, were made nom- 
inal Christians by the French Jesuits ;" and they were all firm allies of the 
French until the conquest of Canada by the Engli.sh, in 1760." Most of the 
Abenakes, e.xcept the Peiiobscots, withdrew to Canada in 175-4. A few 
scattered families of the latter yet [1867] dwell upon the banks of the Penob- 
scot River, and wanderers are seen on the St. Lawrence. Like other New 
England tribes, thi-y arc rapidly fading, and will, doubtless, be extinct before 
the dawn of another century. 



CHAPTER III. 

THE IIURON-IROQUOIS. 

We now come to consider the most interesting, in many respects, of all the 
aboriginal tribes of North America, called Iroquois by the French. The pre- 
fix "Huron" was given, because that people seemed, by their language, to form 

' Page 128. " Page 130. ' Page 202. * Page 114. ' Page 130. ° Page 20n. 



THE HURON-IROQUOIS. 23 

a part of the Iroquois nation, and like them, were isolated in the midst of the 
Algosquixs, when discovered by the Europeans. The great body of the 
Iroquois occupied almost the whole territory in Canada, south-west of the 
Ottowa River, between Lakes Ontario, Erie and Huron ; a greater portion of 
the State of New Yoi-k, and a part of Pennsylvania and Ohio along the south- 
ern shores of Lake Erie. They were completely surrounded by the ALG::)^'- 
QUixs, in whose southern border in portions of North Carolina and Virginia, 
wei"e the Tuscaroras and a few smaller Iro(|uois tribes.' The Hurons occupied 
the Canadian portions of the territory, and the land on the southern shore of 
Lake Erie, and appeared to be a distinct nation ; but their language was found 
to be identical with that of the Iroquois. The Hurons consisted of four smaller 
tribes, namely, the Wyandots or Hurons proper, the Attiouandirons,' the 
Eries, and the Andastes. The two latter tribes were south of the lake, and 
claimed jurisdiction back to the domains of the Shawnoese." 

Those "Romans of the Western World," the Five Nations, or Iroquois 
proper, formed a confederacy composed of the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, 
Oneida, and Mohawk tribes, all occupying lands within the present State of New 
York. They fancifully called their confederacy the Long House. The eastern 
door was kept by the Mohawks ; the western by the Senecas ; and the Great 
Council fire was with the Onondagas, at the metropolis, or chief village, near 
the present city of Syracuse. The French, as we have observed, gave them 
the name of Iroquois ; the Algonquins called them Mingoes." \t what time 
the confederacy was formed, is not known. It was strong and powerful when 
the French discovered them, in 1609, and they were then engaged in bloody 
wars with their kinsmen, the Wyandots.* 

' The Southern Iroquois were the Tuscaroras, Chowans, Meherrius, and Nottoway.s. The three 
latter were upon the rivers in" lower Virginia, called by their respective names, and were known 
under the general title of Tuscaroras. 

'' Neutral Nation. When the Hurons and Five N.iTiONS were at war, the Attiouandirons (led 
to the Sandusky, and built a fort for each of the belligerents when in that region. But their neu- 
trality did not save them from internal feuds which finally dismembered the tribe. One party 
joined the "Wyandots ; the other the Iroquois. 

3 Page 19. 

* Mingoes, Minquas, and Maquas, were terms more particularly applied to the Mohawk tribe, 
who called themselves Kayingehaga, " possessors of the flint." The confederation assumed the 
title of Aquinuschioni, " united people ;" or as some .say, Konoshioni, " cabin builders." 

5 The time of the formation of the confederation is supposed to have been at about the year 
1539. According to their own tradition, it was about two generations before tlie white people 
came to trade with them. Clarke, in his history of Onondaga county, has given, from the lips of an 
old chief of the Onondaga tribe, that beautiful legend of the formation of the great confederacy, 
which forms the basis of Longfellow's Indian Edda, " Hi-.a.-w.\t-ha." Centuries ago, the stoiy 
runs, tlie deity who presides over fisheries find streams, came from his dwelling-place in the clouds, 
to visit the inhabitants of earth. He was delighted with the laud where the tribes that afterward 
formed the confederacy, dwelt ; and having bestowed many blessings on that land, he laid aside his 
Divine character, and resolved to remain on earth. He selected a beautiful residence on the shore 
of Te-ungk-too (Cross lake), and all the people called him Hi-a-wat-ha, "the wise man." After a 
while, the people were alarmed by the approach of a ferocious band of warriors from the country 
north of the great lakes. Destruction seemed inevitable. The inhabitants thronged around the 
lodge of Hi-a-wat-ha, from all quarters, craving his wise advice in this hour of great perU. After 
solemn meditation, he told them to call a grand council of all the tribes. The chiefs and warriors 
from far and near, assembled on the banks of Lake Oh-nen-ta-ha (Onondaga). The council-fire 
blazed three days before the venerable Hi-a^wat-ha arrived. He had been devoutly praying, in 
silence, to the Great Spirit, for guidance. Then, %vith his darling daughter, a virgin of twelve 
years, he entered Ms wliite canoe, and, to the great joy of the people, he" appeared ou the Oli-uen- 



24 THE AB0RIC4INALS. 

In the year 1649, the Five Nations resolved to strike a final and decisive 
blow against their western neighbors, and, gathering all their warriors, they 
made a successful invasion of the Wyandot, or Huron country. Great num- 
bers of the Wyandots were slain and made prisoners, and the whole tribe was 
dispersed. Some of the fugitives took refuge with the Chippewas ; others 
fled to Quebec, and a few were incorporated into the Iroquois confederacy. 
Yet the spirit of the Wyandots was not subdued, and they claimed and exer- 
cised sovereignty over almost the whole of the Ohio country. They had great 
influence among the Algonquin tribes,' and even as late as the treaty of 
Greenville, in 1795, the principal cession of lands in Ohio to the United 
States was made by the Wyandot chiefs in council." They, too, are reduced to 
a mere remnant of less than five hundred souls, and now [18G7J they occupy 
lands on the Neosho River, a chief tributary of the Arkansas. 

Ecing exceedingly warlike, the Five Nations made hostile expeditions 
against the New England Indians' in the East, the Eries, Andastes, and 

ta-ha. A great sliout greeted him, and as he landed and walked up the bank, a sound like a 
rushing wind was heard ; a dark spot, every moment increasing in size, was descending from the 
clear sky. Fear seized the people ; but Hi-a-wat-ha stood unmoved. Tlie approaching object was 
an immense bird. It came swiftly to earth, cruslied tlie darling daughter of Hi-a-wat-ha — was itself 
destroyed, but the wise man was unharmed. Grief for his berearement prostrated him in the dust 
for three days. The council anxiously awaited his presence. At length he came : the subject of 
the peril from invaders was discussed, and after deliberating a day, the venerable Hi-a-wat-ha 
arose and said : , 

" Friends and Brothers — You are members of many tribes and nations. You have come here, 
many of you, a great distance from your homes. 'We have met for one common purpose — to pro- 
mote one common interest, and tliat is, to provide for our mutual safety, and how it shall best be 
accomplished. To oppose these foes from the north by tribes, singly and alone, would prove our 
certain destruction. We can make no progress in that way. We must unite ourselves into ono 
common band of brothers ; thus united, we may drive the invaders back ; this must be done, and 
we shall be safe. 

"You, the MonAwivS, sitting under the shadow of the 'Great Tree,' whose roots sink deep 
into the eartli, and whose brauclies spread over a vast country, shall be the first nation, because 
you arc warlike and mighty. 

"And you, Oxeidas, a people who recline your bodies against the 'Everlasting Stone,' that 
can not be moved, sliall be the second nation, because you give wise counsel. 

"And you, Oxoxdagas, who have your haljitation at the 'Great Mountain,' and are over- 
shadowed by its crags, shall be the tlurd nation, because you are greatly gifted in speech, and 
mighty in war. 

" And you, Cayugas, a people whose habitation is the ' Dark Forest,' and whose home is every- 
where, shall be the fourth nation, because of your superior cunning in hunting. 

"And you. Senegas, a people who live iu the 'Open Country,' and possess much wisdom, 
shall be the fifth nation, because you understand better the art of raising com and beans, and 
making cabins. 

" You, five great and powerful nations, must unite and have but one common interest, and no 
foe shall be able to disturb or subdue you. If we unite, tlic Great Spirit will smile upon 
us. Brothers, these are the words of Hi-a-wat-ha — let them sink deep into your hearts. I have 
said it." 

They reflected for a day, and then the people of the " Great Tree," the " Everlasting Stone," 
the "Great Mountain," the "Dark Forest," and the " Open Country," formed a league like that of 
the Amphyctioni of Greece. The enemy was repulsed, and the Five Nations became the terror 
of the Continent. Then Hi-a-watha said, 

" The Great Master of Breath calls me to go. I have patiently waited his summons. I am 
ready — farewell !" 

Myriads of singing voices burst upon the ears of the multitude, and the whole air seemed filled 
with music. Hi-a-wat-ha, seated in his white eanoe, rose majestically above the throng, and as a1 1 
eyes gazed in rapture upon the ascending wise man, he disappeared Ibrever in the blue vault of 
heaven. Tlie music melted into low whispers, like the soft summer breeze; and there wero 
pleasant dreams in every cabin of the Five Nations on that blessed niglit. 

' Page 17. • 2 Page 3T4. 3 Page 2a. 



THE HURON-IROQUOIS. 



25 



Miamies in the West,' and penetrated to the domains of the Catawbas' and 
Cherokees^ in the South. Tiiey subjugated the Eries in 1655, and after aeon- 
test of twenty years, brought tlie Andastes into vassalage. They conquered 
the Miamies' and Ottawas' in 1657, and made incursions as far as the Roanoke 
and Cape Fear Rivers to the land of their kindred in language, the Tuscaroras, 
ill 1701." Thirty years afterward, liaviug been joined by the Tuscaroras, and 
the name of the confederacy changed to that of the Six Nations, they made 
war upon the Cherokees and Catawbas.' They were led on by Hi-o-ka-too, a 
Seneca chief The Catawbas were almost annihilated by them, after a battle 
of two days. So determined were the Five Nations to subdue the southern 
tribes, that when, in 1744, they ceded a part of their lands to Virginia, they 
reserved a perpetual privilege of a war-path through the territory. 

In the year 1712, the Tuscaroras having been signally defeated by the 
Carolinians,' came northward, and in 1714 joined the Five Nations. From 
that time the confederacy was known as the Six Nations. They were gen- 
erally the sure friends of the English and inveterate foes of the French.' 




^(f/c^/c^^^ 



They were all friends of the British during the Revolution, except a part of 
the Oneidas, among whom the influence of the Rev. Samuel Kirkland'" was 



' Page 17. = Page 26. 3 Page 27 < Page 17. 5 Page 17 

6 Page 168. ' Page 17. » Page 168. » Page 192. 

•" Samuel Kirkland was one of the most laborious and self-sacrificing of the earlier missionaries, 
who labored among the tribes of the Six Nations. He was bom at Norwich, Connecticut, in 
December, 1741. He was educated at Dr. Wheeloek's school, at Lebanon, where he prepared for 
that missionary work in which he labored forty years. His efforts were put forth chiefly among 



26 THE ABORIGINALS. 

very powerful, in favor of tlie Republicans. The Mohawks were the .most 
active enemies of the Americans ; and they were obliged to leave the State and 
take refuge in Canada at the close of the Revolution. The others were allowed 
to remain, and now [1867] mere fragments of tliat great confederation e.\ist, 
and, in habits and character, they are radically changed. The confederacy 
was forever extinguished by the sale of the residue of the Seneca lands in 
1838. In 1715, the confederacy numbered more than forty thousand soul.? : 
now [1867] they are probably less than four thousand, most of whom are 
upon lands beyond the Mississippi.' 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE CATAWBAS. 

In that beautiful, hilly region, between the Yadkin and Catawba Rivers, on 
each side of tlie boundary line between North and South Carolina, dwelt the 
Catawb-^ nation. They were south-westward of the Tuscaroras, and were 
generally on good terms with them. They were brave, but not warlike, and 
their conflicts were usually in defense of their own territory. They expelled 
the fugitive Shawnoese in 1672," but were overmatched and desolated by the 
warriors of the Five Nations' in 1701. They assisted the white people of 
South Carolina against the Tuscaroras and their confederates in 1712 ;* but 
when, three years afterward, the southern tribes, from the Neuse region to that 
of the St. Mary's, in Florida, and westward to the Alabama, seven thousand 

the Oneidas ; and, during the Revolution, he was active in restraining them from an alliance vrith 
the rest of tlie confederacy against the Patriots. He was exceedingly useful in treaty-making; for 
he had the entire confidence of the Indians. He died at Paris, in Oneida county, in February, 
1808, in the G7th year of his age. See Lossing's "Eminent Americans" for a more elaborate skelcli. 
' The chief men of the Five N.iTioss, known to the white people, are Garangula, who was 
distinguished toward the close of the seventeenth century for his wisdom and sagacity in council, 
and was of the Onondaga tribe. Logan, whose celebrated reply to a white messenger has been 
preserved by Mr Jefferson, was of the Cayuga tribe. To the messenger he said: ''I appeal to any 
wliite man to say if he ever entered Logan's cabin hungry, and he gave him no meat; if ever he 
came cold and naked and he clothed him not." Then speaking of the cruelty of the wliite people, 
who, m cold blood had murdered his family, he said : "They have murdered all the relations of 
Logan — not even sparing my wortien and children. This called on me Ibr revenge ; I have sought 
It. I have killed many. I h.ave nilly glutted my vengeance. For my country, I rejoice at the 
beams of peace. But do not harbor the thought that mine is the joy of fear. Logan never fi;lt 
fear. He will not turn on his heel to save his life. Who is there to mourn for Logan ? Not 
oue!" Joseph Brant (Thayendanega), was the most celebrated of the Mohawk tribe; and Red 
Jacket (Sagoyewatha), was a very reno^\Tied Seneca, greatly distinguished for his eloquence. 
Cornplanter, who lived till past a century in age, was also a distinguished Seneca chief. Red Jacket . 
was very intemperate toward the latter part of liis life. On one occasion a lady inquu-ed after his 
children. He had lost fourteen by consumption. Boning his head, he said : " Red Jacket was 
once a great man, and in favor with the Great Spirit. He was a lofty pine among the smaller trees 
of the forest. But after years of glory, he degraded himself by drinking the tire-water of the white 
man. The Great Spirit has looked upon him in anger, and His lightning has stripped the pine of 
itsbranchesl" 2 Page 19. a Page 23. J Page 1C8. 



THE CHEROKEES 27 

strong, confederated in an attempt to exterminate the Carolinians,' the Cataw- 
bas were among them. 

They were again the active allies of the Carolinians in 1760, when the 
Cherokees made war upon them,' and they remamed true friends of the white 
people afterward. They joined the Americans during the Revolution, and 
have ever since experienced the fostering care of the State, in some degree." 
Their chief village was upon the Catawba River, near the mouth of the Fishing 
Creek, m Yorkville district, South Carolina; and there the remnant of the 
nation, numbering less than a hundred souls, were living upon a reservation, a 
itiW miles square, when the late Civil War began. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE CHEROKEES. 

Of all the Indian tribes, the Cherokees, who dwelt westward and adjoining 
the Tuscaroras' and Catawbas,^ among the high hills and fertile valleys, have 
ever been the most susceptible to the influences of civilization. They have been 
properly called the mountaineers of the South. Their beautiful land extended 
from the Carolina Broad River on the east, to the Alabama on the west, includ- 
ing the whole of the upper portion of Georgia from the head waters of the Ala- 
tamaha, to those of the Tennessee. It is one of the most delightful regions of 
the United States. 

These mountaineers were the determined foes of theShawnoese,"^ and after 
many conflicts, they finally drove them from the country south of the Ohio 
River. They joined with the Catawbas and the white people against the Tus- 
caroras in 1712,' but were members .of the great confederation against the 
Carolinians in 1715,' which we shall consider hereafter. 

The Five N.\tioxs and the Cherokees had bloody contests for a long time. 
A reconciliation was finally effected by the English about the year 1750, and 
the Cherokees became the allies of the peace-makers, against the French. 
They assisted in the capture of Fort Du Quesne in 1758,' but then- irregular- 
ities, on their return along the border settlements of Virginia, gave the white 
people an apparent excuse for killing two or three warriors. Hatred was en- 
gendered, and the Cherokees soon afterward retaliated by spreading destniction 

1 Page 170. 2 Pajre 204. 

' In 1822, a Catawba warrior made an eloquent appeal to the legislature of South Carolina for 
aid. "I pursued the deer for subsistence," he said, "but the deer are disappearing, and I must 
starve. God ordained me for the forests, and my ambition is the shade. But the strength of my 
arm decays, and my feet fail me in the chase. The hand tliat fought for your hberties is now open 
to you for relief" A pension was granted. 

^ Page 25. 5 Page 20^. « Page 19. 

'Page 168. « Page 170. 9 Page 186. 



Og THE ABORIGINALS. 

along the frontiers.' Hostilities continued a greater portion of tliree years, 
when peace was established in 1761, and no more trouble ensued. 

During the Revolution the Cherokees adhered to the British ; and for eight 
years afterward they continued to annoy the people of the upper country of the 
Carolinas. They were reconciled by treaty in 1791. They were friends of the 
United States in 1812. and assisted in the subjugation of the Creeks.^ Civili- 
zation was rapidly elevating them from the condition of roving savages, to agri- 
culturists and artisans, when their removal west of the Mississippi was required. 
They had established schools, a printing press, and other means for improve- 
ment and culture, when they were compelled to leave their farms for a new 
home in the wilderness." They are in a fertile country, waiered by the 
Arkansas and its tributaries, and now [1867] number about fourteen thousand 
souls. They were in a prosperous condition when the late Civil War began." 



CHAPTER yi. 

THE UCHEES. 

In the pleasant country extending from the Savannah River, at Augusta, 
westward to Milledgeville, and along the banks of the Oconee and the head 
waters of the Ogeechee and Chattahooclie. the Europeans found a remnant of 
the once powerful nation of the Uciiees. Their language was exceedingly 
harsh, and totally unlike that of any other people on the continent. They 
claimed to be descendants of the most ancient inhabitants of the country, and 
took great pride in the fact ; and they had no tradition of their ever occupy- 
ing any other territory than the domain on which they were found. They, 
too, have been driven beyond the Mississippi by the pressure of civilization, 
and have become partially absorbed by the Creeks, with whom less than a 
thousand souls yet [1867J remain. They are, in fact, an extinct nation, and 
their language is almost forgotten. 



' Page 204. ' Page 428. 

3 A native Cherokee, named by the white people, George Guess (Sequoyah), who was ignorant 
of every language but his own, seeing books in the missionary schools, and being told that the 
characters represented the words of the spoken English language, conceived the idea of forming a 
WTitten language for his people. He first made a separate character for each word, but tliis made 
the whole matter too voluminous, and he formed a syllabic alphabet of eighty-five characters. It 
was soon ascertained that this was sufficient, even for the copious language of tlie Cherokees. and 
this syllabic alphabet was soon adopted, in the preparation of books for tlie missionary scliools. In 
1826, a newspaper, called the Cherokee Plicemx, printed m the new characters, was established. 
Many of the native Cherokees are now well educated, but the great body of the natives are in ig- 
norance. 

■• Note 4, page 32. 



THE JIOBILIAN TRIBES. 29 

CHAPTER VII. 

THE NATCHEZ. 

Of this once considerable nation, who inhabited the borders of the Missis- 
sippi, where a modern city now perpetuates their name, very little is known. 
When first discovered by the French, they occupied a territory about as large 
as that inhabited by the lichees. It extended north-easterly from the Missis- 
sippi along the valley of the Pearl River, to the upper waters of the Chickasa- 
haw. For a long time they were supposed to belong to the nation of Mobilian 
tribes, by whom they were surrounded, but their language proved them to be a 
distinct people. They were sun-worshippers ; and from this circumstance, 
some had supposed that they had once been in intimate communication with 
the adorers of the great luminary in Central and South America. In many 
things they were much superior to their neighbors, and displayed signs of the 
refinement of a former more civilized condition. They became jealous of the 
French on their first appearance upon the Mississippi, and finally they con- 
spired, with others, to drive the intruders from the country. The French fell 
upon, and almost annihilated the nation, in 1730. They never recovered from 
the shock, and after maintaining a feeble nationality for almost a century, they 
have become merged into the Creek confederacy. They now [186YJ number 
less than three hundred souls, and their language, in its purity, is unknown. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

THE MOBILIAN TRIBES. 

Like the Algonquins and Iroquois nations, the Mobilian was composed of 
a great number of tribes, speaking diflerent dialects of the same language. 
Their territory was next in extent to that of the Algonquins.' It stretched 
along the Gulf of Mexico, from the Atlantic to the Mississippi, more than six 
hundred miles ; up the Mississippi as fir as the mouth of the Ohio ; and along 
the Atlantic to Cape Fear. It comprised a greater portion of the present State 
of Georgia, the whole of Florida, Alabama, and Mississippi, and parts of South 
Carolina, Tennessee, and Kentucky. The nation was divided into three grand 
confederacies of tribes, namely, Muscogees or Creeks Choctaws, and Chick- 
asaws. 

' Page n. 



30 • THE ABORIGINALS. 

MThe Creek Confeilera'-y extotulcd from the 
Atlantic westward to the high lands which sep- 
arate the waters of the Alabama and Tombigbee 
Rivers, including a great portion of the States of 
Alabama and Georgia, and the whole of Florida. 
" Oglethorpe's first interviews' with the natives at 
Savannah, were with people of this confederacy. 

SOrTHERN" IXDIAXS. 01 

The Yamassees, or Savannahs of Georgia and 
South Carolina, and the Seminoles of Florida, were of the Creek confederacy. 
The latter were strong and warlike. They were at the head of the Indian 
confederacy, to destroy the white people, in 1715. '^ When the general dis- 
persion followed that abortive attempt, the Yamassees took refuge with the 
Spaniards of Florida. Small bands often annoyed the white frontier settle- 
ments of Georgia, but they were not engaged in general hostilities until the 
Revolution, when the whole Creek confederacy' took part with the British. 

The most inveterate and treacherous enemy of the white people, have ever 
been the Seminoles. Bands of them often went out upon the war-path, with 
the Y^amassees, to slay the pale-faces. They joined the British in 1812-14; 
and in 1817 they renewed hostilities.* They were subdued by General Jack- 
son, and afterward remained comparatively quiet until 1835, when they again 
attacked the Avhite settlements.' They were subjugated in 1842, after many 
lives and much treasure had been sacrificed." A few of them yet [1867] 
remain in the everglades of Florida, bat a greater portion of the tribe have 
gone w^est of the Mississippi, with the other members of the Creek confederacy. 
The Creeks proper now [1S67] number about fifteen thousand souls. The 
number of the whole confederacy is about twenty-four thousand. They 
occuiiy lands upon the Arkansas and its tributaries, and are among the most 
peaceable and order-loving of the banished tribes. 

In the beautiful country bordering upon the Gulf of Mexico, and extending 
west of the Creeks to the Jlississippi, lived the Choctaws. They were an aeri- 
cultural people when the Europeans discovered them ; and, attached to home 
and (juiet pursuits, they have ever been a peaceful people. Their wars have 
always been on the defensive, and they never liad public feuds with either iheir 
Spanish, French, or English neighbors. They, too, have been compelled to 
abandon their native country for ihe uncidtivated wilderness west of Arkansas, 
between the Arkansas and Red Rivers. They now [18C7] number about thirteen 
thousand souls. They retnin their peaceable character in their new homes. 

The Chickasaw tribe inhabited the country along the Mississippi, from the 
borders of the Choctaw domain to the Ohio River, and eastward beyond the Ten- 
nessee to the lands of the Cherokees' and Shawnees.^ This warlike people were 
the early friends of the English, and the most inveterate foes of the French, 

' Pnsro 102. - Pa.orc 110. 

' This confederacy now fl8G7] consists of tlie Creeks proper, Seminoles, Natcliez. Hichitties, 
and Alnbamas. The {Jreeks, like many other tribes, claim to bo tlie Original People. 

1 Page 448. ' Page 4CG. « Page 468. " Page 27. ^ Pagc 19. 



THE DAHCOTAH OR SIOUX TRIBES. 31 

■\vlio liad twice [173G-1740] invaded their country. Tliey adhered to the 
British during the Revolution, but since that time they have held friendly rela- 
tions with the Government of the United States. The remnant, about tour 
tliousand in number, are upon lands almost a hundred leagues westward of tiie 
Mississippi. 

Thus, with almost chronological brevity, wo have given an outline sketch 
of the history of the Aboriginal nations with whom the first European settlers 
in the United States became acquainted. They have now no legal habitation 
eastw'ard of the Mississippi ; and the fragments of those powerful tribes who 
once claimed sovereignty over twenty-four degrees of longitude and twenty 
degrees of latitude, are now [1867] compressed within a quadrangle of about 
nine degrees, between the Red and Missouri Rivers.' Whether the grave of 
the last of those great tribes shall be within their present domain, or in some 
valley among the crags of the Rocky Mountains, expediency will hereafter- 
determine. • 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE DAHCOTAH OR SIOUX TRIBES. 

The French were the earliest explorers of the regions of the Middle and 
Upper Mississippi, and they found a great number of triljes west of that river 
who spoke dialects of the same language. They occupied the vast domain from 
the Arkansas on the south, to the western tributary of Lake Winnipeg on the 
north, and westward to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. These 
have been classed into four grand divisions, namely, the Winnebagoes, who 
inhabited the country between Lake Michigan and the Mississippi, among the 
Algonquins ;- the Assinniboins and Sioux proper, the most northerly nation ; 
the MiNETAREE Group in the Minnesota Territory, and the Southern Sioux, 
who dwelt in the country between the Arkansas and Platte Rivers, and whoso 
hunting-ground extended to the Rocky Mountains. 

The most uneasy of these tribes were the Winnebagoes, who often attacked 
the Sioux west of the Mississippi. They generally lived on friendly terms 
with the Algonquins, after their martial spirit was somewhat subdued by the 
Illinois, who, in 1640, almost exterminated them. They were enemies to the 

' Mr. Bancroft [II., 253] after consulting- the most reliable authorities on the suhject, makes tli3 
followii)g estimate of the entire Aboriginal population in 1650- Algonquins, 90,000; Eastern 
Sioux, less than 3,000 ; Iroquois, including their soutliern kindred, about 17.000 ; Catawbas, 3,000 , 
Cherokees (now more numerous than ever), 12,000; Mobiliau tribes, 50,000; Uchee.s. 1.000: 
Natchez, 4,000 — m all, 180,000. These were the only nations and tribes tl^-n known, "^'ith tlie 
expansion of our teiTitorv westward and soutliward, 'we have embraced numerous Indian niitions, 
some of them quite populous, until the number of tlie estimate above given has been almost 
doubled, according to tl;e late census. 

"Pago 17. 



32 THE ABORIGINALS 

United States during the second war with Great Britain,' and they confeder- 
ated with the Sacs and Foxes in hostihties against the white people, under 
Black Hawk, in 1832.^ The tribe, now [18G7] less than four thousand strong, 
are seated upon the Mississippi, about eighty miles above St. Paul, the capital 
of Minnesota. Fear of the white people keeps them quiet. 

In the cold, wet country of the North, the Assiniboins yet inhabit their na- 
tive land. Having separated from the nation, they are called " rebels." Their 
neighbors, the Sioux proper, were first visited by the French in 1660. and 
have ever been regarded as the most fierce and warlike people on the continent. 
They also occupy their ancient domain, and are now [1867] about fifteen 
thousand strong. 

Further westward are the Minetarees, Mandans, and Crows, who form the 
MiNETAREE Group. They are classed with the Dahcotahs or Sioux, although 
the languages have only a slight aflinity. The Minetarees and Mandans num- 
ber about three thousand souls each. They cultivate the soil, and hve in vil- 
lages. The Crows number about fifteen hundred, and are wanderers and 
hunters. The Mandans are very light-colored. Some suppose them to be 
descendants of a colony from Wales, who, it is believed, came to America 
under Madoc, the son of a Welsh prince, in the twelfth century.^ 

There are eight in number of the Soutiierx Sioux tribes, namely, the 
Arkansas, Osages, Kansas, lowas, Missouries, Otoes, Omahas, and Puncahs. 
They are cultivators and hunters. They hve in villages a part of the year, 
and are abroad upon their hunting-grounds during the remainder. Of these 
tribes, the Osages are the most warlike and powerful. All of the Southern 
Sioux triljes are upon lands watered by the Missouri and the Platte, and their 
tributaries. 



CHAP TER X. 

THE EXTREME WESTERN TRIBES. 

Within a few years, our domain has been widely expanded, and in our 
newly-acquired possessions on the borders of Mexico and the Pacific coast, and 
the recently organized Territories in the interior of the continent, are numer- 
ous powerful and warlike tribes,^ of whom little is known, and whose history 



' Page 260. a Page 287. 

' It is said that Madoc, son of Prince Owen Gwignedd, sailed from Wales, witli ten ships and 
three hundred men, at about tlio year 1170, on an exploring voyage, and never returned. Many 
learned conjectures have been expressed, and among them the belief that the expedition reached 
the American continent, and became the progenitors of the Mandans, or White Indians, of our 
western plains. 

' The whole number of Indians within tlie [iresent limits of llie United States, in 18G7, accord- 
ing to ofBcial estimates, was a little more tlian 300,000. There are about 15,000 in the States east- 
ward of the Mississippi, principally in New York, Micliigan, and Wisconsin ; the remainder, consist- 
ing of Cherokees. Chootaws, and Seminolcs, being iu Nortli Carolina, Mississippi, and Florida. The 



THE EXTREME WESTERN TRIBES. 33 

has no connection with that of the people of the United States, except the fact 
that they were original occupants of the soil, and that some of them, especially 
the California and Oregon Indians, yet [1867] dispute our right to sovereignty. 
Of these, the Comanches and Apaches of California are the most warUke. The 
Pawnees upon the Great Plains toward the Rocky Mountains are very numer- 
ous, but not so warlike ; and the Utahs, among the Wasatch and neighboring 
ranges, are strong in numbere. Further northward and westward are the 
Blackfeet, Ci'ow, Snake, Nezperces, and Flathead Indians, and smaller clans, 
with petty chiefs, whose domains stretch away toward the Knisteneaux and 
Esquimaux on the extreme north. 

These tribes are rapidly fading in the light of modern civilization, and are 
destined to total annihilation. The scythe of human progi-ess is steadily cut- 
ting its swathes over all their lands ; and the time is not far distant when the 
foot-prints of the Indians will be no more known within the domain of our Re- 
public. In future years, the dusky son of an exile, coming from the far-oif 
borders of the Slave Lake, will be gazed at in the streets of a city at the mouth 
of the Yellow Stone, with as much wonder as the Oneida woman, with her blue 
cloth blanket and bead-work merchandize is now [1867] in the city of New 
York. So the Aboriginals of our land are passing away, and even now they 
may chant in sorrow : 

" We, the rightful lords of yore, 
Are the rightful lords no more ; 
Like the silver mist, wo faU, 
Like the red leaves on the gale — 
Fail, Mke shadows, when the dawning 
Waves the bright flag of the morning." 

J. McLellan, Jk. 

" I will weep for a season, in bitterness fed, 
•For my kindred are gone to the hiUs of the dead; 
But they died not of hunger, or lingering decay — 
The band of the white man hath swept them away." 

HeSRT RoWE SCHOOLCR.IFT. 



number in Jlinnesota and along the frontiers of the Western States and Texas (most of them emi- 
grants from the country eastward of the Mississippi), i.s estimated at 80,000. Those on the Plains 
and among the Rocky Mountains, not within any organized Territory, at 50,000; in Texas, at 
25,000; in New Mexico, at 30,000; in CaUfornia, at 78,000; in Utali. at 10,000; in Oregon and 
Washington Territories, at 20,000;— total, 308,000. For more minute accounts of the Indians, 
see Heckewelder's "History of the Indian Nations;" Schoolcraft's "Algio Researche?;" 
M'Kinney's '• History of the Indian Tribes ;" Drake's " Book of the Indians ;" Catlin's '■ Letters 
and Notes;" Schoolcraft's "Notes on tlie Iroquois." 

To the Department of the Interior of the National Government is intrusted the administration 
of Indian affairs. At this time [1867] the stocks and bonds held by the Department in trust for 
the Indians, from the income of which annuities are paid to them,- amount to more than three 
millions of dollars. 



ii,[„ ff^, *, ^ ^\2'*Jit: 





LLMBLb LCFUEB TliC COINCIL OP SALAMANCA. 

SECOND PERIOD. 
DISCOVERIES. 



CHAPTER I 



SC\\DIN\VIA\ VO\AGES A^D DISCOVERIES. 



AMEEIGO VESPUCCI 



Oye of the most inteiesting of the un- 
solved problems of history, is that which re 
lates to the alleged discovery of America by mariners of north- 
ern Europe, almost five hundred years before Columbus left 
Palos, in Spain, to accomplish that great event. The tales and 
poetry of Iceland abound with intimations of such discoveries ; 
and records of early voyages from Iceland to a continent south- 
westward of Greenland, have been found. These, and the re- 
sults of recent investigations, appear to prove, by the strongest 
circumstantial evidence, that the New England' coast was vis- 
ited, and that settlements thereon were attempted l3y Scandi- 
navian navigators,^ almost five centuries before the great Genoese 
undertook his first voyage in (juest of a Avcstern passage to 
India. 




NORTHMAN 



' The States of our TJaion eastward of New York are collectively called New England. P. 74. 
* The ancients called the territory wliich contains raodera Norway, Sweden, Denmarlc, Lapland, 
Iceland, Finland, etc., by the general name of Scandinavia. 



SCANDINAVIAN VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 



35 




NORMAN snip. 



The navigators of northern Europe were remarkable for their boldness and 
perseverance. They discovered Iceland in the year 860, and colonized it. 
In 890 they colonized Greenland, and planted colonies there also. There was 
traffic, friendly and lucrative, between the colonists of Iceland and Gi'eenland, 
and the parent Norwegians and Danes, as early as the year 950, and no mar- 
iners were so adventurous as these Northmen. In 
the year 1002, according to an Icelandic chronicle, a 
Norwegian vessel, commanded by Captain Lief, sailed 
from Iceland for Greenland. A gale drove the voy- 
agers to the coast of Labrador. They explored the 
shores southward to the region of a genial climate, 
where they found noble forests and abundance of 
grapes. This, it is supposed, was the vicinity of 
Boston. Other voyages to the new-found land were 

afterward made by the adventurous Scandinavians, and they appear to have 
extended their explorations as far as Ehode Island — perhaps as far south as 
Cape May. 

It is further asserted that settlements in that pleas- 
ant climate were attempted, and that the child of a Scan- 
dinavian mother was born upon the shore of Mount Hope 
Bay, in Rhode Island.' In the absence of actual charts 
and maps, to fix these localities of latitude and longitude, 
of course they must be subjects of conjecture only, for 
these explorers left no traces of their presence here, un- 
less it shall be conceded that the round tower at New- 
port,'^ about the origin of which history and tradition are 
silent, was built by the Northmen. 

The period of this alleged discovery was that of the dark ages, when ig- 
norance brooded over Europe, like thick night. Information of tliese voyages 
seems not to have spread, and no records of intercourse with a western conti- 
nent later than 1120, have been found. The great discovery, if maile, was for- 
gotten, or remembered only in dim traditionary tales of the exploits of the old 
" Sea-Kings"^ of the North. For centuries afterward, America was an un- 




TOWER AT NEWPORT. 



1 The old chronicle referred to says that Gudrida, wife of a Scandinavian navigator, gave birth 
to a child in America, to whom she gave the name of Snorre ; and it is further a.sserted that Ber- 
tel Thorwalsden, the great Danish sculptor, was a descendant of this early white American. The 
records of these voyages were compiled by Bishop Thorlack, of Iceland, who was also a descendant 
of Snorre. 

2 This structure is of unhewn stone, laid in mortar made of the gravel of the soil around, and 
oyster-sheU lime. It is a cylinder resting upon eight round columns, twenty-three feet in diameter, 
and twenty-four feet in height It was originally covered with stucco. It seems to have stood 
there when the white people first visited Rhode Island, and the Narraganset Indians, it is as- 
serted, had no tradition of its origin. There can be little doubt, all things considered, of its having 
been constructed by those northern navigators, who made attempts at settlement in that vicinity. 

3 This name was given to bold adventurers of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark, who rebelled 
against Gorm the Old of Norway, and Harold Fairhair of Denmark, their conquerors, forsook their 
country, settled upon the islands of the North Sea, and Greenland, and from thence went forth 
upon phatical expeditions, even as far south as the pleasant coasts of France. They trafficked, as 
well as plundered; and filially sweeping over Denmark and Germany, obtained possession of some 



36 DISCOVERIES. [1492. 

known region. It had no place upon maps, unless as an imaginary island 
without a name, nor in the most acute geographical theories of the learned. 
When Columbus conceived the grand idea of reaching Asia by sailing westward, 
no -whisper of those Scandinavian voyages was heard in Europe. 



CHAPTER 11. 

SPANISH VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 

The first half of the fifteenth century was distinguished for great commer- 
cial activity. Sluggish Europe was just awaking from its slumber of centuries, 
and maritime discoveries were prosecuted with untiring zeal by the people 
inhabiting the great south-western peninsula covered by Spain, Portugal, and 
France. The incentives to make these discoveries grew out of the political 
condition of Europe, and the promises of great commercial advantages. The 
rich commerce of the East centered in Rome, ■when that empire overshad- 
owed the known world. When it fell into fragments, the Italian cities con- 
tinued their monopoly of the rich trade of the Indies. Provinces which had 
arisen into independent kingdoms, became jealous of these cities, so rapidly 
outstripping them in power and opulence ; and Castile and Portugal, in par- 
ticular, engaged in efforts to open a direct trade with the East. The ocean was 
the only highway for such commerce, toward which the rivals could look with 
a hope of success. The errors of geographical science interposed great obsta- 
cles. Popular belief pictured an impassable region of fire beyond Cape Baja- 
dor, on the coast of Africa ; but bold navigators, under the auspices of Prince 
Henry of Portugal, soon penetrated that dreaded latitude, ci'ossed the torrid 
zone, and, going around the southern extremity of Africa, opened a pathway 
to the East, through the Indian Ocean. 

The Portuguese court at Lisbon soon became a 
point of great attraction to the learned and adven- 
turous. Among others came Christopher Columbus, 
the son of a wool-carder of Genoa, a mariner of 
great experience and considerable repute, and then 
in the prime of life. In person he was tall and 
commanding, and, in manners, exceedingly winning 
and graceful, for one unaccustomed to the polish of 
courts, or the higher orders in society. The rudi- 
coLUMBDs ments of geometry, which he had learned in the 

of the best portions of Gaul. Tliey finally invaded the British Islands, and placed Canute upon 
the throne of Alfred. It was araonj; these people that chivalry, as an institution, originated ; and 
back to those " Sea-Kings" we may look for the hardiest elements of progress among the people 
of tlie United States. 




1609.] SPANISH VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 37 

university of Pavia, had been for years working out a magnificent theory in 
his mind, and he came to Lisbon to seek an opportunity to test its truth. 

Fortune appeared to smile beneficently upon Columbus, during his early 
residence in Lisbon. He soon loved and married the daughter of Palestrello, 
a deceased navigator of eminence, and he became possessed of nautical papers 
of great value. They poured new light upon his mind. His convictions 
respecting the rotundity of the earth, and the necessity of a continent in the 
Atlantic Ocean, to balance the land in the eastern hemisphere ; or at least a 
nearer approach of eastern Asia to the shores of western Europe, than geo- 
graphical science had yet revealed, assumed the character of demonstrated 
realities. He was disposed to credit the narratives of Plato and other ancient 
writers, respecting the existence of a continent beyond the glorious, but long- 
lost, island of Atlantis, in the waste of waters westward of Europe. He was 
convinced that Asia could be reached much sooner by sailing westward, than 
by going around the Cape of Good Hope.' He based his whole theory upon 
the fundamental beljef that the earth was a terraqueous globe, which might be 
traveled round from east to west, and that men stood foot to foot at opposite 
points. This, it should be remembered, was seventy years before Copernicus 
announced his theory of the form and motion of the planets [1543], and one 
hundred and sixty years [1633] before Galileo was compelled, before the 
court of the Inquisition at Rome, to renounce his belief in the diurnal revolu- 
tion of the earth. 

A deep religious sentiment imbued the whole being of Columbus, and he 
became strongly impressed with the idea that there were people beyond the 
waste of waters westward, unto whom he was commissioned by heaven to 
carry the Gospel.' With the lofty aspirations which his theory and his faith 
gave him, he prosecuted his plans with great ardor. He made a voyage to 
Iceland, and sailed a hundred leagues beyond, to the ice-fields of the polar cir- 
cle. He probably heard, there, vague traditions of early voyages to a western 
continent,^ which gave strength to his own convictions ; and on his return, he 
laid his plans first before his countrymen, the Genoese (who rejected them), 
and then before the monarchs of England' and Portugal. 

The Portuguese monarch appeared to comprehend the grand idea of Colum- 
bus, but it was too lofty for the conceptions of his council and the pedantic 
wise men of Lisbon. For a long time Columbus was annoyed l)y delays on the 
part of those to whose judgment the king defewed ; and attempts were meanly 
and clandestinely made to get from Columbus the information which he pos- 
sessed. While awaiting a decision, his wife died. The last link that bound 
him to Portugal was broken, and, taking his little son Diego by the hand, he 

' This point was first discovered by Diaz, a Portuguese navigator, wlio named it Stormy Cape. 
But King Jolin, Vielieving it to be that remote extremity of Africa so long sought, named it Gape 
of Good Hope. Vasco de Gama passed it in 1497, and made his way to the East Indies beyond. 

2 His name was suggestive of a mission. Christo or Christ, and Colombo, a pigeon — carrier- 
pigeon. By this combination of significant words in his name, he believed himself to be a Christ, 
or Gospel-hearer, to the heathen, and he often signed his name Christo-ferens, or Clirist-bearer. 

3 Page 34. * Page 46. 



DISCOVERIES. 



[1492. 



departed on foot to lay his proposition before Ferdinand and Isabella," the 
monarchs of Spain — occupants of the united thrones of Arragon and Castile. 

Very poor, and greatly dispirited, Columbus arrived at the gate of the 
monastery of Rabida, near the little port from whence he afterward sailed, and 
begged food and shelter for himself and child. The good Father Marchena 
received him kindly, entered warmly into his plans, and was of essential service 
to him afterward. Through him Columbus obtained access to the court; but 
the war with the Moors, then raging, delayed an opportunity for an audience 
with the monarchs for a long time. Yet he was not idle. He employed him- 
self in the alternate pursuits of science, and engagements in some of the military 
campaigns. He was continually treated with great defei-ence by the court and 
nobility, and at length his importunities were heeded. A council of the learned 
men of the nation was convened at Salamanca, to consider his plans and propo- 
sitions.' The majority pronounced his scheme vain and impracticable, and 
unworthy of the support of the government. But a minoi'ity of the council, 
wiser than the rest, did not acquiesce in this decision, and, with Cardinal Men- 
doza and other officers of government, they encouraged the navigator by prom- 
ises of their continual support. But he became disgusted by procrastination, 
and abandoning the hope of royal aid, he applied to two wealthy dukes for 
assistance. They refused, and he left with a determination to lay his plans before 
the King of France. 

Columbus had been encouraged by Father Mar- 
chena (who had been Isabella's confessor),^ and through 
his intercession, the navigator was recalled before he 
had entered France. He sought and obtained a per- 
sonal interview with the queen. To her he revealed 
all his plans ; told her of the immense treasures that 
lay hidden in that far distant India* which might be 
easily reached by a shorter way, and pleaded eloquently 
for aid in his pious design of carrying the Gospel to the 
heathen of unknown lands. The last appeal aroused 
ISABELLA. the religious zeal of Isabella, and with the spirit of the 

Crusaders,^ she dismissed Columbus with the assurance 

1 Isabella was a sister of the profligate Ileniy the Fourth of Castile and Leon. She was a pious, 
virtuous, and high-minded woman, then almost a phenomenon in courts. She was of middle size, 
and well formed, with a fair complexion,«iuburn hair, and clear, blue eyes. 

2 See the picture at the head of this chapter. The Council was composed of the professors of 
the university, various dignitaries of the Church, and learned friars. They were nearly all preju- 
diced against the poor navigator, and he soon discovered that ignorance and bigotry would defeat 
his purposes. 

3 All Roman Catholics are obliged to confess their sins to a priest. Rich and titled persons 
often had a priest confessor for themselves and their families exclusively. 

* Marco Polo and other travelers had related wonderful stories of the beauty and wealth 
of a country beyond the limits of geographical knowledge, and had thus inflamed the avarice and- 
ambition of tlie rich and powerful. The country was called Zipaiigi, and also Caihay. It included 
China and adjacent islands. • 

5 About 700 years ago, the Christian powers of Europe fitted out expeditions to conquer 
Palestine, with the avowed object of rescuing the sepulcher of Jesus, at Jerusalem, from the hands 
of the Turks. These were called crusades — holy wars. The hves of two millions of people were 
lost in them. 




iG09.] SPANISH VOYAGES AND DISCOVKRIES. 39 

that he should have her aid in fitting out an exploring expedition, even if it should 
require the pawning of her crown jewels to obtain the money. And Isabella was 
faithful to her promise. She fitted out two caravels (light coasting ships), and 
Columbus, by the aid of fi'iends, equipped a third and larger one. With this little 
fleet, bearing one hundred and twenty persons, he left Palos, on the Tinto River, 
in Andalusia, on Friday, the 3d of August, 1492, to explore the stormy Atlantic' 

Columbus started on that perilous voyage without a reliable chart for his 
guidance, and no director in his course but the sun and stars, and the imperfect 
mariner's compass, then used only by a few in navigating the pleasant seas of 
the Old World. After various delays at the Canary Islands, they left them in 
the dim distance behind, on Sunday, the 9th of September. The broad At- 
lantic, mysterious and unknown, was before them. A voyage of great trial for 
the navigator was now fairly entered upon. His theory taught him to believe 
that he would reach Asia in the course of a few days. But weeks wore away • 
the needle'' became unfaithful ; alarm and discontent prevailed, and several 
times his followers were on the point of compelling him to turn back. 

One pleasant evening (the 11th of October), the perfumes of flowers came 
upon the night breeze, as tokens of approach to land. The vesper hymn to the 
Virgin was sung, and Columbus, after recounting the blessings of God thus far 
manifested in the voyage, assured the crews that he confidently expected to see 
land in the morning. Yet they hesitated to believe, for twice before they had 
been mocked by other indications of land 
being near.^ On the high poop of his 
vessel the great navigator sat watching 
until midnight, when he saw the glim- 
mer of moving lights upon the verge of 
the horizon. He called others to con- 
firm his vision, for he was fearful of 
mistake. They, too, perceived blazing 
torches, and at dawn the next morning 
their delighted eyes saw green forests „„^ ^,^„^ „„ 

O •' p THE FLEET OF CGLUSIBUS. 

Stretching along the horizon ; and as 

they approached, they were greeted by the songs of birds and the murmur of 

human voices. 

' Columbus was appointed high-admiral of all seas which he might discover, with the attendant 
honors. AJso viceroy of all lands discovered. He was to have one-tenth of all profits of the first 
voyage, and by contributing an eighth of tlie expense of future voyages, was to have an eighth of 
all the profits. Although Isabella paid the whole expense, the contract was signed, also, by her 
husband. 

2 Needle, or pointer, of the mariner's compass. This instrument was first known in Europe, at 
Amalfi, about 1302. The Chinese claim to have possessed a knowledge of it more tlian 1100 years 
before the birth of Chri.st. The needle was supposed to point toward tlie north star at all times. 
There is a continual variation from this line, now easily calculated, but unknown until discovered 
by Columbus. It perplexed, but did not dismay him. 

3 Tliey Wad seen birds, but they proved to be the petrel, an ocean fowl. Bits of wood and sea- 
weeds had also been seen. These had undoubtedly been seen on the outer verge of the Gulf 
Stream, north-east of the Bahamas, where, according to Lie\itenant Maury [Physical Geography of 
the Sea], there may always be found a drift of sea-'.veed, and sometimes objects that have floated 
from the land. 




40 



DISCOVERIES. 



[1493. 




BANNER OF THE 
EXPEDITION. 



Arrayed in scarlet, and bearing his sword in one hand, 
and the banner of the expedition in the otlier, Columbus 
landed, with his followers, and in the midst of the gorgeous 
scenery and the incense of myriads of flowers, they all knelt 
down and ehaunted a hymn of thanksgiving to God. The 
natives had gathered in wonder and awe, in the grove near 
by, regarding the Europeans as children of their great 
deity, the Sun.' Little did they comprehend the fatal signif- 
icance to them, of the act of Columbus, when, rising from 
the ground, he displayed the royal standard, drew his sword, 
set up a rude cross upon the spot where he landed, and took 
formal possession of the beautiful country in the name of 
Ferdinand and Isabella." The land first discovei-ed by Colum- 
bus was one of the Bahamas, called by the natives Guana- 
liama, but since named by the English, Cat Island. The 
navigator named it San Salvador (Holy Saviour) ; and believing it to be near 
the coast of further India, he called the natives Indians. This name was after- 
ward applied to all the natives of the adjacent continent,^ and is still retained. 

The triumph of Columbus was now complete. After spending some time 
in examining the island, becoming acquainted with the simple habits of the 
natives, and unsuccessfully searching for "the gold, and pearls, and spices of 
Zipangi,"^ he sailed southward, and discovered several other small islands. He 
finally discovered Cuba and St. Domingo, where he was told of immense gold- 
bearing regions in the interior. Impressed with the belief that he had dis- 
covered the Ophir of the ancients, he returned to Spain, where he arrived in 
March, 1493. He was received with great honors,^ but considerations of State 
policy induced the Spanish government to conceal the importance of his dis- 
covery from other nations. This policy, and the jealousy whicli the sudden 
elevation of a foreigner inspired in the Spaniards, deprived him of the honor 
of having the New World called by his name. Americus Vespucius," a Flor- 
entine, unfairly won the prize. In comj^any with Ojeda, a companion of Colum- 



' Almost all the natives of the torrid zone of America worshiped the sun as the cliief visible 
deity. The great temples of tlie sun in Mexico and Peru were among the most magnificent struc- 
tures of the Americans, when Europeans came. 

2 It was a common practice tlien, as now, for the discoverer of new lands to erect some monu- 
ment, and to proclaim the title of his sovereign to the territories so discovered. The banner of the 
expedition, borne on sliore hy Columbus, was a white one, with a greeu cross. Over the initials 
F. and Y. (Ferdinand and Ysabella) were golden mural crowns. 

' Chapter I, page 9. * Note 4, page 38. 

' Columbus carried baclc with him several of the natives, and a variety of the animals, birds, 
and plants of the New "World. They excited the greatest astonishment. His journey from Palos 
to Barcelona, to meet the sovereigns, was like the march of a king. His reception was still more 
magnificent. The throne of the monarch was placed in a pubhc square, and the great of tlie king- 
dom were there to do homage to the navigator. The highest honors were bestowed upon Colum- 
bus: and the sovereigns granted him a coat of arms bearing royal devices, and the motto, "To 
Castile and Leon Columbus gave a new world." 

6 See the protrait of Vespucius at the head of this Chapter. The ItaUans spell his name Amer- 
igo Vespucci [Am-e-ree-go Ves-pute-se]. He died while in the service of the king of Spain, ii: 
1514. He had made several voyages to South America, and explored the eastern coast as far 
southward as the harljor of Rio Janeiro. 



1609] SPANISH VOYAGES AND DI SCO VJIRIES. 41 

bus during his first voyage, Americus visited the West Lidies, and discovered 
and explored the eastern coast of South America, north of the Oronoco, in 
1499. In 1504, ho published a glowing account of the lands he had visited,' 
and that being the first formal announcement to the world of the great discov- 
ery, and as he claimed to have first set foot upon the Continent of the West, 
it was called America, in honor of the Florentine. This claim was not 
founded on truth, for Columbus had anticipated him ; and two years earlier, 
Cabot, in command of an expedition from England, discovered Labrador, New- 
foundland, and portions of the New England coast. 

Columbus made tliree other voyages to the West Indies,'^ established settle- 
ments, and in August, 1498, he discovered the continent at the mouth of the 
Oronoco. This, too, he supposed to be an island near the coast of Asia, and he 
lived and died in ignorance of the real grandeur of his discoveries. Before 
departing on his third voyage, he was appointed Viceroy and High Admiral of 
the New World. During his absence, jealous and unscrupulous men poisoned 
the minds of the king and queen with false statements concerning the ambitious 
designs of Columbus, and he was sent back to Spain in chains. The navigator 
was guilty of serious wrongs, but not against his sovereign. He made slaves 
of the natives, and this offended the conscientious Isabella. But she was soon 
undeceived concerning his alleged political crimes, and he was allowed to depart 
on a fourth voyage. When he returned, the queen was dead, his enemies were 
in power, and he who had shed such luster upon the Spanish name, and added a 
new hemisphere to the Spanish realm, was allowed to sink into the grave in 
obscurity and neglect. He died at Valladolid on the 20th of May, 1506. 
His body was buried in a convent, from -whence it was afterward carried to St. 
Domingo, and subsequently to Havana, m Cuba, where it now remains. 

It was an unlucky hour for the nations of the New World when the eyes of 
Europeans were first opened upon it. The larger islands of the AVest India 
group were soon colonized by the Spaniards ; and the peaceful, friendly, gen- 
tle, and happy natives, were speedily reduced to slavery. Their Paradise was 
made a Pandemonium for them. Bending beneath the weight of Spanish 
cruelty and wrong, they soon sunk into degradation. The women were com- 
pelled to intermarry with their oppressors, and from this union came many of 
the present race of Creoles, who form the numerical strength of Cuba and other 
West India Islands. 

The wonderful stories of gold-bearing regions, told by the natives, and ex- 
aggerated by the adventui-ers, inflamed the avarice and cupidity of the Span- 
iards, and exploring voyages from Cuba, St. Domingo, and Porto Rico, were 
undertaken. The eastern coast of Yucatan was discovered in 1506 ; and 
in 1510, Vasco Nunez de Balboa, with a colony, settled upon the Isthmus 

' First in a letter to Lorenzo de Medici, and tlien [1507] in a volume, dedicated to the Duke of 
Lorraine. These publications revealed what the Spanish Government wished to conceal. Note 4, 
page 47. 

2 In his second voyage [1493], Columbus took with him several horses, a bull, and some cows. 
These were the first animals of the kind taken from Europe to Amerie.i- 




42 DISCOVERIES. [U92. 

of Darien. This was the first colony planted on the continent of America. 
Crossing the Isthmus in search of gold m 1513, Balboa saw the Pacific 
Ocean in a southerly direction from the top of a high 
mountain, and he called it the " South Sea." In full 
costume, and bearing the Spanish flag, he entered its 
waters and took possession of the " seas, lands," etc., '• of 
the South," in the name of his sovereign. 

In the year 1512 Florida was discovered by Juan Ponce 
de Leon, an old visionary, who had been governor of 
Porto Rico. With three ships he sailed for the Bahamas 
in search of a fountain which unlettered natives and 
wise men of Spain believed to exist there, and whose 
waters possessed the quality of restoring old age to the 
B.iLEOA.i bloom of youth, and of making the recipient immortal. 

It was on Easter Sunday,^ March 27, 1512, the Pasquas de Flores^ of the 
Spaniards, when the adventurer approached the shores of the great southern 
peninsula of the United States and landed near the site of St. Augustine. < The 
forests and the green banks were laden with flowers ; and when, soon after 
landing. Ponce de Leon took possession of the country in the name of his sov- 
ereign, this fact and the holy day were regarded, and he called the beautiful 
domain, Florid.a.. He continued his searches for the Fountain of Youth all 
along the coast of the newly-discovered country, and among the Tortugas (Tor- 
toise) Islands, a hundred miles from its southern cape, but without success ; 
and he returned to Porto Rico, an older if not a wiser man. He soon afterward 
went to Spain, where he remained several years. 

While Ponce de Leon was absent in Europe, some wealthy owners of plant- 
ations and mines in St. Domingo, sent Lucas Vasquez d'Ayllon, one of their 
number, with two vessels, to seize natives of the Bermudas, and bring them 
home for laborers. It was an unholy mission, and God s displeasure was made 
manifest. A storm drove the voyagers into St. Helen's Sound, on the coast of 
South Carolina, and after much tribulation, they anchored [1520] at the mouth 
of the Combahee River. The natives were kind and generous ; and, judging 
their visitors by their own simple standard of honor, they unsuspectingly went 
upon the ship in crowds, to gratify their curiosity. While below, the hatches 
were closed, the sails were immediately spread, and those free children of the 
forest were borne away to work as bond-slaves in the mines of St. Domingo. 
But the perpetrators of the outrage did not accomplish their designs. One of 
the vessels was destroyed by a storm ; and almost every prisoner in the other 
refused to take food, and died. The fruit of this perfidy was a feeling of hos- 
tility to white people, which spread throughout the whole of the Mobilian 
tribes,' and was a source of much trouble afterward. 



1 Tliis little picture gives a correct representation of those armed Spaniards who attempted con- 
quests in the New World. Balboa's fellow-adventurers became jealous of his fame, and on their 
accusations he was put to death by the Governor of Darien, in 1517. 

■ Tlie dav in wliich is commemorated in the Cliristian Church the resurrection of Jesus Christ. 

' Feast o"f flowers. ' Page 51. ' Chapter VIII.. page 29. 



1609.] SPANISH VOYAGES AND DISCOVERIES. 43 

Ponce de Leon returned to the West Indies soon after D'Ayllon's voyage, 
bearing the commission of Governor of Florida, with instructions to plant settle- 
ments there. In his attempts to do so, the angry natives, who had heard of the 
treachery of the Spaniards, attacked him furiously. He was mortally wounded, 
and almost all of his followers were killed. D" Ayllon was then appointed governor 
of the country which he had discovered and named Chicora. He went thither 
to conquer it, and was received with apparent friendship by the natives on the 
banks of the Combahee,' near the spot where his great crime of man-stealing 
had been perpetrated. Many of his men were induced to visit a village in, the 
interior, when the natives practiced the lesson of treachery which D'Ayllon had 
taught them, and massacred the whole party. The commander himself was 
attacked upon his own ship, and it was with difficulty that he escaped. He died 
of his wounds at St. Domingo. 

Another important discovery was made in 1517, by Francisco Fernandez 
de Cordova, who commanded an expedition from Cuba : the rich and populous 
domain of Mexico was revealed to the avaricious Spaniards. Cordova's report 
of a people half civilized, and possessing treasures in cities, awakened the keen- 
est cupidity of his countrymen ; and the following year Velasquez, the governor 
of Cuba, sent another expedition to Mexico, under Juan de Grijalva. That 
captain returned with much treasure, obtained by trafficl'iing with the Mex- 
icans. The avarice, cupidity, and ambition of Velasquez were powerfully 
aroused, and he determined to conquer the Mexicans, and possess himself 
of their sources of wealth. An expedition, consisting of eleven vessels, and 
more than six hundred armed men, was placed under the command of Fernando 
Cortez, a brave but treacherous and cruel leader. He landed first at Tobasco, 
and then at San Juan de Ulloa," near Vera Cruz [April 12, 1519], where he 
received a friendly deputation from Montezuma, the emperor of the nation.' 
By falsehood and duplicity, Cortez and his armed companions were allowed to 
march to Mexico, the capital. By stratagem and boldness, and the aid of 
native tribes who were hostile to the Mexican dynasty, Cortez' succeeded; after 
many bloody contests during almost two years, in subduing the people. The 
city of Mexico surrendered to him on the 23d of August, 1521, and the vast 
and populous empire of Montezuma became a Spanish province. 

Florida continued to command the attention of the Spaniards, in whose 
minds floated magnificent dreams of immense wealth in cities and mines within 
its deep forests ; and seven years after the conquest of Mexico [1528], Pamphilo 



' D'Ayllon named this river, Jordan, for he regarded the country as the new Land of Promise. 

' Pronounced San-whahn-da-Ooloo-ah. 

' The Mexicans at that time were malcing rapid advances in the march of civilization. They 
were acquainted with many of the useful arts of enlightened nations, and appear to have lieen as 
far advanced in science, law, religion, and domestic and public social organization, as were the 
Romans at the close of the Republic. 

* Born St Medellon, in Estramadura, Spain, in 1485. He went to St. Domingo in 1504, and 
in 1511 accompanied Velasquez to Cuba. He committed many horrid crimes in Mexico. Yet he 
had the good fortune, unlike the more noble Columbus, to retain the favor of tlie Spanish monarch 
until his death. When, on his return to Spain, he urged an audience with the emperor, and was 
asked who he was, the bold adventurer replied, " I am the man who has given you more provinces 
than your father left you towns." He died m Estramadura, in 1554, at the age of 69 years. 



44 DISCOVERIES. [1492. 

(le Narvaez having been appointed governoi- of that region, went from Cuba, 
with three hundred men,' to conquer it. Hoping to find a wealthy empii-e, 
like Me.xico, he penetrated the unknown interior as far as the southern borders 
of Georgia. Instead of cities filled with treasures, he found villages of huts, 
and the monarch of the country living in a wigwam.'' Disappointed, and con- 
tinually annoyed by hostile savages, who had heard of the treachery at the Com- 
bahee,^ he turned southward, and reaching the shores of Apallachee Bay, near 
St. Marks, he constructed rude boats and embarked for Cuba. The commander 
and. most of his followers perished ; only four escaped, and these wandered from 
tribe to tribe for several years before reaching a Spanish settlement in Mexico. 
Yet the misfortunes of Narvaez did not suppress the spirit of adventure, and 
Florida (the name then applied to all North America) was still regarded by 
the Spaniards as the new Land of Promise. All believed that in the vast 
interior were mines as rich, and people as wealthy as those of Mexico and Yu- 
catan. Among the most sanguine of the possessors of such 
an opinion, was Ferdinand de Soto, a brave and wealthy 
cavalier, who had gained riches and military honors, with 
Pizarro, in Peru.'' He obtained permission of the Spanish 
emperor to conquer Florida at his own expense, and for that 
purpose, was appointed governor of Cuba, and also of Flor- 
ida. With ten vessels and six hundred men, all clad in 
armor, he sailed for the New World early in 1539. Leav- 
DB SOTO. ing his wife to govern Cuba, he proceeded to Florida, and 

on the 10th of June landed on the shores of Tampa Bay. 
He then sent most of his vessels back, and made his way, among hostile sav- 
ages, towaixl the interior of the fancied land of gold.'' He wintered on the 
banks of the Flint River, in Georgia, and in the spring crossed the Appal- 
lachian Mountains, and penetrated the beautiful country of the Cherokees.* 

This, all things considered, was one of the most remarkable expeditions on 
record. For several months, De Soto and his followers wandered over the hills 
and valleys of Alabama, in vain searches for treasure, fighting the fierce Mo- 
bilian tribes,' and becoming continually diminished in number by battle and 
disease. They passed the winter of 1541 on the banks of the Yazoo River, in 
the land of the Chickasaws.* In May of that year, they discovered and crossed 
the Mississippi River, probably not far bel^w Memphis ; and there, in the pres- 
ence of almost twenty thousand Indians, De Soto erected a cross made of a 
huge pine tree, and around it imposing i-eligious ceremonies were performed. 

1 They took with them about forty horses, the first ever landed upon the soil of the present 
United States. These all perished by starvation, or the weapons of the Indians. 

2 Page 13. = Page 42. 

* Pizarro was a follower of Balboa. He discovered Peru m 1524. and in connection with Al- 
magro and Lucque, he conquered it in 1532, after much bloodshed. He was bom, out^of wedlock, . 
in Estramadura, Spam, in 1475. He could neither read nor write, but seemed eminently fitted for 
the field of eftbrt in which he was engaged. He quarreled with Almagro, civil war ensued, and he 
was murdered at Lima, in Peru, in 1541. 

-^ 5 De Soto had a large number of horses. Ho also landed some swine. These rapidly increased 
in the forests. They were the first of their species seen in America, 

6 Page 27. 7 Chapter VIII., p. 29. s Page 30. 





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ii'> 



1609.] ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 45 

f 

To De Soto belongs the honor of first discovering that mighty river of our wide 

continent. After resting two days, the adventurers went up the western shore 
of the Mississippi as far as New Madrid. The ensuing summer and winter 
were spent by them in the wilderness watered by the Arkansas and its tributa- 
ries, and m the spring of 1542 they returned to the Mississippi, at the mouth 
of the Wachita, where De Soto sickened and died, after appointing his succes- 
sor.' In these painful and perilous journeyings, they had inarched full three 
thousand miles. 

The death of their leader was a terrible blow to the followers of De Soto. 
They were now reduced to half their original number ; and, abandoning all 
hopes of finding gold, or a wealthy people, they sought for Spanish settlements 
in Mexico. For many months they wandered over the prairies, and among the 
tributary streams of the Red River, as far as the land of the Comanches,^ when 
impassable mountain ranges compelled them to retrace their steps to the Mis- 
sissippi. At a little Ijelow Natchez they remained until the following July 
[1543], engaged in constructing several large boats, in which they embarked. 
Reaching the Gulf of ISIexico, they ci-ept cautiously along its coast ; and, on the 
20th of September, the little remnant of De Soto's proud army, half naked and 
starving, arrived at a Spanish settlement near the mouth of the Panuco, thirty 
miles north of Tampico. This was the last attempt of the Spanish cotempo- 
raries of Columbus to explore, or to make settlements within the present terri- 
tory of the United States, previous to the appearance of the English' in the 
same field. They were impelled by no higher motive than the acquisition of 
gold, and treachery and violence were the instruments employed to obtain it. 
They were not worthy to possess the magnificent country which they coveted 
only for its supposed wealth in irecious metals ; and it was reserved for others, 
who came afterward, with loftier aims, better hearts, and stronger hands, to 
cultivate the soil, and to establish an empire founded upon truth and justice. 
The Spaniards did finally become possessors of the southern portion of the Con- 
tinent ; and to this day the curse of moral, religious, and political despotism 
rests upon those regions. 



CHAPTER III. 

ENGLISH AND PRKNCH DISCOTERTES. 

With all its zealous vigilance, the Spanish court could not conceal the fact 
that a New World had been discovered,^ and over Continental Europe and the 

' De Soto's followers sunk the body of their leader deep in the Mississippi, .=o that the Indians 
should not lind it. ^ Page 33. 

' Page 46. Wliile De Soto was engaged in tliis expedition, another, no less adventurous,- was 
undertaken by Coronada, at the command of Mendoza, Viceroy of Mexico. He took witli him, 
from the south-eastern shore of the Gulf of California, three hundred and fifty Spaniards, and eight 
hundred Indians. He penetrated the co\mtry to the head waters of tlie Rio del Norte, and onward 
mto the great interior desert, as far as the tbrtieth degree of north latitude. It was a perilous, but 
fruitless expedition. ■■ Page 40. 




46 DISCOVERIES. [1492. 

British Isles, were spread the most extravagant tales of gold-bearing regions 
beyond the Atlantic Ocean. By means of a papal bull,' Portugal and Spain 
vainly attempted to secure to themselves a monopoly of oceanic navigation. 
But in all maritime countries, cupidity and curiosity urged men to brave both 
the perils of the sea and the thundei-s of the Vatican, in search of the western 
paradise and the regions of gold. Monarchs and ^Yealthy subjects projected 
new expeditions. Among those whose zeal in the cause of maritime discovery 
was newly awakened, was Henry the Seventh of England, who had turned a 
deaf oiiv to the appeals of Columbus before his great fiist voyage.' 

The town of Bristol, in the west of England, was 
then one of the most imjxirtant sea-ports in the realm ; 
and among its adventurous mariners who had pene- 
trated the polar waters, probably as far as Greenland, 
was Sebastian Cabot, son of a wealthy Venetian mer- 
chant of Bristol, whose father sought the aid of the 
king in making a voyage of discovery. Willing to 
secure a portion of the prize he had lost, Henry read- 
\ cw/jyf''^ ' ily yielded to the solicitations of Cabot, and gave him 

SEBASTIAN CABOT. ^^^ ^^'^ ^°'^^ * commlssion of discovery, dated March 

16, 1496, which was similar, in some respects, to that 
which Columbus had received from Ferdinand and Isabella;' but unlike his 
Spanish cotemporarics, the English monarch did not bear the expenses of the 
voyage. The navigators were permitted to go, at their own expense, " to search 
for islands or regions inhabited by infidels, and hitherto unknown to Christen- 
dom," and take possession of them in the name of the King of England. They 
were to enjoy the sole right of trading thither — paying to the King, "in lieu 
of all customs and imposts," a fifth of all net profits, and the same proportion 
of the products of all mines. 

According to recent discoveries made in searching the ancient records of 
England, it appears to be doubtful whether the elder Cabot, who was a mer- 
chant and a scientific man, ever voyaged to America. It is certain, however, 
that his son, Sebastian, accompanied, and, doubtless, commanded, the first 
expedition, which consisted of two vessels freighted by his father and others of 
Bristol and of London, and which sailed from the former port in May, 1497. 
They steered north-westerly until they encountered immense fields of ice west- 
ward of Cape Farewell, when they turned to the south-west, and on the 3d of 
July, of that year, discovered the rugged coast of Labrador. Passing Cape 
Charles, they saw Newfoundland ; and, after touching at several points, prob- 
ably as far southward as the coast of Maine, they hastened to England to 
announce the fact that tliey had first discovered a great western continent. 



' This is the name of special edicts issued by the Pope of Rome. Tlicy are written on parch- 
ment, and have a great seal attached, made of wax, lead, silver, or fjold. The name is derived from 
the seal, huUa. On one side, are the head.s of Peter and Paul, and on the other, the name of the Pope 
and the year of his pontificate. Tlie seal of tlie celebrated (/olden bidl of the Emperor Charles IV.. 
was made of gold. That bull became tlie fundamental law of the German Empire, at tlio Diet of 
Nuremburff, a. d. 153G. ^ Page 37. ^ Note 1, pa«e 39 



1609.] ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 47 

The skill and energy of young Cabot secured the confidence of his father 
and friends in his ability to command successfully ; and the following year, 
although he was only twenty-one years of age, he was placed in charge of 
another expedition, fitted out by his family and some Bristol merchants, for the 
purpose of traffic, and of discovering a north-west passage to India, a desire for 
which had now taken hold upon the minds of the commercial world. Ice in the 
polar seas presented an impassable barrier, and he was compelled to go south- 
ward. He explored the coast from the frozen regions of Labrador to the sunny 
land of the Carolinas. Nineteen years afterward [1517] he navigated the 
northern waters, as far r-s the entrance to Hudsons Bay ; and nine years later 
[1526], while in the service of the monarch of Spain,' he explored the coast of 
Brazil, discovered and named the great Rio de la Plata, and penetrated the 
southern continent, in boats, upon the bosom of that river, almost four hundred 
miles. To the Cabots, fiither and son, belong the imperishable honor of first 
discovering the coast of the United States, through at least ten degrees of lati- 
tude. Italy may claim the glory of having given birth to the two great discov- 
erers, Columbus and Americus Vespucius, whose name our continent now 
bears ; while Sebastian Cabot drew his first breath in England.^ 

The immense numbers and commercial importance of the cod fishes in the 
vicinity of Newfoundland, were first discovered and made known by the Cabots ; 
and within five or six years after their first voyages, many fishermen went 
thither from England, Brittany, and Normandy, for those treasures of the deep. 
Every French vessel that went to America, was on a com- 
mercial errand only, until 1523, when Francis the first fitted 
out four ships, for the purpose of exploring the coasts of the 
New World. He gave the command to John Verrazani, an 
eminent Florentine navigator. Verrazani sailed in Decem- 
ber, 1523, but a tempest disabled three of his ships, and he 
was compelled to go with only one. He proceeded due west 
from the Madeiras on the 27th of January, 1524, and first 
touched the American Continent, in March following, near ^'ERRAZA^'I 

the mouth of the Cape Fear River, in North Carolina. After 
seeking a good harbor for fifty leagues further south, he sailed northward, and 

' Sebastian Cabot was bom at Bristol, in 14G7. Ho was invested with the honorable title of 
Chie^Pilot of both England and Spain : and to him England is indebted for her first maritime con- 
nection with Russia, by the establishment of the Russian Trading Company, of which he was 
appointed governor for life. He published a map of the world, and also an account of his southern 
voyages. He died in 1557, at the age of 90 years. 

2 Kjng John of Portugal, like Henry of England, had refused to aid Columbus, and lost the 
great prize. After the return of the navigator, he felt a desire to fit out an expedition for dis- 
coveries in the New World, but the Pope having given to Spain the whole region westward, 
beyond an imaginary line three hundred leagues west from the Azores, he dared not interfere with 
the Spanish mariners. But when the northern voyages of the Cabots became known, King John 
dispatched an expedition in that direction, under Gasper Cortoreal, toward the close of the year 
1500, for the ostensible purpose of seeking a north-west passage to India. Cortoreal coa.sted along 
the shores of Labrador several hundred miles, and then freighting his ship with fifty natives whom 
he' had caught, he returned to Portugal, and sold his living cargo, for slaves. Finding the adven- 
ture profitable, he sailed for another cargo, but he was never heard of afterward. Almost sixty 
years later some Portuguese settled in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, and first imported cattle 
and swme there. 




48 



DISCOVERIES. 



[1492 




^im'. 



explored the coast from the Carolinas to Newfoundland. .He anchored in the 
Bays of Delaware and New York,' the harbor of Newport, and probably that 
of Boston, and held intercoui'se with the natives, who were sometimes friendly 
and sometimes hostile. Verrazani gave the name of New France to the vast 
regions within the latitudes of the coasts which he had discovered. But at that 
time the French King was too much engrossed and impoverished by war with 
the Spanish monarch, to pay much attention to the 
important discoveries of A'^errazani, or to listen to plans 
for future expeditions. Ten years elapsed before Admi- 
ral Chabon induced Francis to encourage another explor- 
ing enterprise, when a plan for making settlements in 
New France was arranged [1534], and James Cartier, a 
mariner of St. Malo, was appointed to the command of 
an expedition. He reached Newfoundland early in 
June, 1534. After exploring its coasts, 
he passed through the Straits of Belle- 
isle, into the Gulf beyond, planted a 
cross with the arms of France upon it, on the shore of Gaspo 
inlet, and took possession of the whole country in the name of 
his king. After discovering the mouth of the great river of 
Canada, he sailed for France, in time to avoid the autumn 
storms on the American coast. 

There was great joy at the French court, in the capital, 
and throughout the whole kingdom, because of the success of 
Cartier. He was commissioned for another voyage ; and in 
May following [1585] he sailed for Newfoundland with three 
ships, accompanied by several young noblemen of France. 
They passed the Straits of Belleisle, and entered the Gulf on the day dedicated 
to St. Lawrence ; and, on that account, Cartier gave the name of the martyr to 
the broad sheet of water over wliich they were sailing. They passed up the 
river which afterward received the same name, and mooring their ships at Que- 
bec, ° proceeded in a pinnace and boats to Hochelaga, where Montreal now 
stands, then the capital of the Huron king.' The natives were everywhere 
friendly and hospitable. 

The land in all that region was very level, except a high mountain in the 
rear of the Indian town. Cartier ascended to its summit, and was so impressed 
with the glorious view that he called it Mont-Real (royal mountain), which 
name the fine city at its base yet retains. After exchanging presents and 
friendly salutations with the Indians, they returned to Quebec, and passed the 
severe winter on board their ships. In the spring, after setting up a cross, and 




ARMS OF Fn.\NCE. 



' Some authors say that Verrazani landed where the lower extremity of New York city is, and 
giving the natives some spirituous liquors, made many of them drunk. Tlie Indians called the 
place Manna-ha-ta, or "place of dnmkenness,'' and they were afterward called Manna-ha-tans. 
But this scene of intoxication probably occurred on board tlie Half-Moon, the exploring ship of 
Hendrick Hudson. See page 59. ^ Pronounced Ke-bec. 3 Page 23. 




1609.] ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 49 

taking formal possession of the country, they returned to France, having lost 
twenty-five seamen with the scurvy, a disease until then unknown. Their de- 
parture was disgraced by an act of treachery, which planted the seeds of hatred 
of the white people among the natives of the St. Lawrence. Cartier, under 
pretense of friendship, decoyed the hospitalsle Huron king on board one of his 
vessels and carried him off to France. 

The results of this voyage were little else than a series 
. of disappointments. Cartier's report of the rigors of the win- 
ter and the barrenness of the land in precious stones and 
metals, was discouraging, and four years elapsed before an- 
other expedition was planned. At length, Francis de la 
Roque, better known as lord of Robertval, in Picardy, ob- 
tained permission of the king to make further discoveries, and 
to plant settlements in New Fk.\nce.' The king invested 
him with the empty title of Viceroy of the whole country. 
Cartier's services Ijeing indispensable, he, too, was commis- 
sioned, but for subordinate command. He was ready long jggj.g„ jcouleman 
before Robertval's extensive preparations were completed, in 1540. 

and being unwilling to bow to the new Viceroy's authority, 
he sailed, with five ships, in June, 1541, some months before the departure of 
his official superior. He had intended to take the Huron king back with him, 
but the broken-hearted monarch had died in France. It was an unfortunate 
occurrence. The natives received Cartier first with coldness, and then showed 
open hostility. Fearing the Indians, the French built a fort upon the island 
of Orleans, a little below Quebec. There they passed the winter without 
accomplishing any important achievement, and in June following [1542], de- 
parted for France, just as Robertval arrived at Newfoundland, with two hun- 
dred persons. Robertval passed up the St. Lawrence, built two more forts 
near Quebec, endured a winter of great distress, and, abandoning the idea of 
settlement, returned to France in the spring of 1543. Six years afterward, he 
acrain sailed for the St. Lawrence, and was never heard of again. The discov- 
eries of Verrazani and Cartier, and also of French fishermen, served as the found- 
ation for a claim by France to the northern portion of the American continent. 
France was now convulsed by the conflicts of religious opinions. It was 
the era of the Reformation there.'^ The doctrines and the teachings of Calvin 
and others, in opposition to the faith and practice of the Roman Catholic 
Church, had already arrayed great masses of the people in violent hostility to 
each other. The religious war was an absorbing idea, and for fifty years the 
French government made no further attempts at discovery or colonization. 
But private enterprise sought to plant ajrench settlement in the land discovered 
by D'Ayllon.' The Huguenots, or French Protestants, who maintained the 
faith of early Christianity, were the weaker party in number, and felt the heavy 
heel of'oppression. They had a powerful friend in Jasper Coligny, admiral of 
France, but a weak protector in the reigning monarch, Charles the Ninth. 

' Page 48. '' Note U, page 62. 3 Page 42. 



50 DISCOVERIES. [U92. 

The fires of persecution were continually burning, and at length Coiigny 
conceived the noble idea of providing a place of refuge for his Protestant 
brethren, beyond the Atlantic. The king granted him a commission for that 
purpose; and early in 1562 [Feb. 28], a squadron, under John Ribault, 
sailed for America. The little Huguenot fleet touched first near the harbor 
of St. Augustine, in Florida.' Sailing northward, they saw the mouth of the 
beautiful St. John's River [May, 1562], and, it being the fifth month of the 
year, they named it the " River of May." Making their way along the coast,, 
they discovered Port Royal entrance, were charmed with the beauty of the 
scene, chose the spot for their future home, and built a small fort, which they 
named Carolina, in honor of the king. Leaving a garrison of twenty-six men 
to defend it, Ribault went back to France with the ships, for reinforcements. 
Bitter disappointment ensued. Civil war was raging in France, and Coiigny 
was almost powerless. The reinforcements were not supplied, and the little 
garrison, though treated with hospitality by the Indians, became very discon- 
tented. Despairing of relief, they built a frail vessel, and, with insufiicient 
stores, they embarked for France. Tempests assailed them, and fomine was 
menacing them with death, when they were picked up by an English bark, and 
conveyed to Great Britain. Thus perished the first seeds of religious freedom 
which the storms of persecution bore to the New World. 

The noble Coiigny was not discouraged ; and, during a lull in the tempest 
of civil commotion, another expedition was sent to America, under the com- 
mand of Laudonniere, who had accompanied Ribault on his first voyage. 
They arrived in July, 1564, pitched their tents on the banks of the St. John's 
River (River of May), and built another Fort Carolina. But there were ele- 
ments of dissolution among these immigrants. Many were idle, vicious, and 
improvident ; and provisions soon became scarce. Under pretext of returning 
to France, to escape famine, quite a large party sailed, in December, in one of 
the vessels. They turned pirates, and depredated extensively upon Spanish 
property in the West Indies. The remainder became discontented, and were 
about to emliark for France, when Ribault arrived with immigrants and sup- 
plies, and took command.^ 

Spanish jealousy and bigotry were now aroused, and when the monarch of 
Spain, the narrow Philip the Second, heard of the settlement of the French 
Protestants within his claimed territory, and of the piracies of some of the 
party, he adopted measures for their expulsion and punishment. Pedro Melen- 
dez, a brave but cruel military chief was appointed Governor of Florida, on 
condition that he would expel the Frenchmen from the soil, conquer the natives, 
and plant a colony there within three years. That was an enterprise exactly 
suited to the character of Melendez. He came with a strong force, consisting 
of three hundred soldiers furnished by the king, and twenty-two hundred vol- 

I Page 42. 

■^ Jaiiies Le Moyne, a skillful painter, was sent with this expedition, with instructions to raako 
colored drawings of every object worthy of preservation. His illustrations of the costume and cus- 
toms of the natives are verv interesting, because authentic. 



]6Q9.J EXGLISH 'AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 51 

unteers — priests, sailors, mechanics, laborers, -women, and children. The fleet 
was scattered by storms, anil with only one third of his original number, Me- 
lendez landed in a fine harbor on the coast of Florida. There he laid the 
foundations of a city, which he named St. Augustine [Sept. 17, 1565], and 
formally proclaimed the king of Spain to be monarch of all Nortli America. 
On hearing of the arrival of the Spaniards, a large party of the French, under 
Ribault, proceeded from the St. John's, by water, to attack them. A tempest 
wrecked every vessel ; and most of the survivors, who fell into the hands of the 
Spaniards, were put to death. In the mean while, Melendez made his way 
through the swamps and forests with a strong force, to the defenseless French 
settlement, where he massacred about nine hundred men, women, and children, 
and over their dead bodies placed an inscription, avowing that he slew them, not 
" because they were Frenchmen, but Lutherans.'" Upon that field of blood 
the monster erected a cross, and laid the foundation of a Christian church to 
commemorate the deed ! 

Charles the Ninth of France was not only a Mcak monarch, but an enemy 
to the Huguenots. He therefore took no steps to avenge the outrage, per- 
petrated under the sanction of the bigot of Spain. But one of his subjects, a 
fiery soldier of Gascony, named Dominic de Gourges, obtained permission to 
inflict retribution. He had suffered Spanish bondage and Spanish cruelty, and 
panted for revenge. He fitted out three ships at his own expense, and with one 
hundred and fifty men, sailed for Florida. He attacked the Spaniards upon the 
St. John's, surprised and captui-ed Fort Carolina, which they occupied, made 
two hundred prisoners, and hanging his captives upon the trees almost upon the 
spot where his countrymen had been murdered, he placed over them the inscrip- 
tion — " I do not this as unto Spaniards or mariners, but unto traitors, robbers, 
and murderers." Too weak to brave the vengeance of Melendez, who was at St. 
Augustine, De Gourges immediately left the coast, and returned to France. 
The natives .were delighted at seeing their common enemies thus destroy- 
ing each other. The Spaniards, however, held possession, and a Spanish 
settlement was ever afterward maintained at St. Augustine, except during a 
few years. 

It was now more than three quarters of a century since Columbus discov- 
ered the West India Islands, and yet no real progress toward a permanent 
European settlement, within the domain of the United States, had been made. 
Although the English seem not to have wliolly relinquished the idea of plant- 
ing settlements in America, it was not until the twentieth year of the brilliant 
reign of Queen Elizabeth, and almost eighty years after the discovery of the 
continent by Cabot,'- that healthy efforts to found colonies in the New "World, 
were made. Sir Martin Frobisher^ (an eminent navigator) and others had 

' The Protestants were often called by the general name of Lutherans, because the later Reforrr- 
ation was commenced by the bold opposition of Martin Luther to the corrupt practices of the Romish 
Church. Note 14, page 62. 2 page 46. 

3 Born in Yorkshire, England ; was trained in the navigator's art ; made several voyages for 
discovery; and died of wounds received in a naval battle near Brest, on the French "co'ast. in 
1594. 



52 DISCOVERIES. [1492. 

explored the north-western coast of North America, to the dreary region north 
of Hudson's Bay,' in search of precious metals and a north-west passage t(j 
India,' but without beneficial results. Newfoundland was visited every year 
by numerous English and French fishing-vessels, and the neighboring continent 
was frequently touched Ijy the hardy mariners. Yet no feasible plans for col- 
onization were matured. Finally, when the public mind of England was turned 
from the cold regions of Labrador and the fancied mineral wealth in its rugged 
mountains, to the milder South, and the more solid benefits to be derived from 
plantations than min s, a new and brilliant era in the history of civilization 
began. This change was produced incidentally by the Huguenot adventurers.^ 
The remnant of Coligny's first colony, who were picked up at sea and taken to 
England, informed the queen of the glory of the climate, and the fertility of 
the soil of Carolina. When De Gourges returned from his foray upon the 
Spaniards,^ Walter Raleigh, then a young man of much promise, was learning 
the art of war with Coligny, in France, and he communicated to his friends in 
England that ciievalier's account of Florida, which was yet a wilderness free 
for the sons of toil. Enterprise was powerfully aroused by the promises of that 
warm and beautiful land, and the Protestant^ feeling of England was strongly 
stirred by the cruelties of Melendez. These dissimilar, but auxiliary causes, 
produced great effects, and soon many minds Avere employed in planning 
schemes for colonizing the pleasant middle regions of North America. The 
first healthy plan for settlement there was proposed by the learned Sir Humph- 
rey Gilbert, a step-brother of Walter Raleigh. He had served witii honor in 
tlie wars of Ireland, France, and the Low Countries, and then was not only prac- 
tically engaged in maritime affairs, but had written and published a treatise on 
the north-west passage to India. Having lost money in a vain endeavor to 
transmute baser metals into gold, he resolved to attempt to retrieve his fortune 
by planting a colony in the New World. In June, 1578, he obtained a liberal 
patent or grant from the queen. Raleigh gave him the aid of his hand and for- 
tune ; and early in 1579, Gilbert sailed for America, with a small squadron, 
accompanied by his step-brother. Heavy storms and Spanish war-vessels com- 
pelled them to return, and the scheme was abandoned for a time. Four years 
afterward [1583] Gilbert sailed with another squadron : and after a series of 
disasters, he reached the harbor of St. John's, Newfoundland. Tiiere he set up 
a pillar with the English arms upon it," proclaimed the sovereignty of his 
queen, and then proceeded to explore the coast southward. After being ter- 
ribly beaten ))y tempests off the shores of Nova Scotia and Maine, and losing 
his largest ship, he turned his vessel toward England. At midnight, in Sep- 
tember, during a gale, his own little bark of ten tons went down, with all on 
board, and only one vessel of the e.xpedition returned to England to relate the 
dreadful narrative. 

The melancholy fate of the second expedition did not dismay the heart of 

' Note 8, page 59. " Page 47. ' " Page 50. 

* Pago 51. ' Note 14, page C2. ^ Note 2, pnge 40, 



4!' 



,li \ 



^^ ///,' 







Raleigh's Kxpedition at Roanoke. 



1609.] 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 



55 




Raleigh. He was a young man of great spirit, ''the most restless, and am- 
bitious, as he was the most versatile and accomplished, of all Elizabeths court- 
iers." He now obtained a patent for himself [April, 
1584r], which made him lord proprietor of all lands 
that might be discovered hj him in America, be- 
tween the Santee and Delaware Rivers. He dis- 
patched Philip Amidas and Arthur Barlow, with 
two well-furnished ships, to explore the American 
coast. Thej approached the shores of Carolina' 
in July, and landing upon the islands of Wocoken 
and Roanoke, which separate the waters of Pamlico 
and Albemarle Sounds from the Atlantic, they took 
possession of the country in the name of Elizaljeth. raleigh. 

They remained a few weeks, exploring the Sounds and trafficking with tho 
natives, and then returned to England with two sons of the forest." The glow- 
ing accounts of the newly-discovered countiy filled Raleigh's' heart with joy ; 
and the queen declared the event to be (what it really was) one of the most 
glorious of her reign. In memorial of her unmarried state, she gave the name 
of Virginia to the enchanting region. Raleigh was knighted, his patent was 
confirmed by act of Parliament, and the queen gave him a monopoly in the sale 
of sweet wines, as a means for enriching him. 

The ardent and ever hopeful Raleigh now indulged 
in brilliant dreams of wealth and power to be derived 
from the New World, and he made immediate prepar- 
ations for planting settlements on his trans-Atlantic 
domains. He dispatched a fleet of seven vessels on 
the 19th of April, 1585, under the command of Sir 
Richard Grenville. He was accompanied by Ralph 
Lane, the appointed governor of the colony, with 
learned companions ; and also by Manteo, the native 
chief They narrowly escaped shipwreck on the Caro- 
lina coast, in June, and in consequence of that danger, 

they named the land where their peril was greatest. Cape Fear. Enterinf 
Oeracock Lilet, tliey landed upon the island of Roanoke, in Albemarle Sound, 
and there prepared for a permanent residence.'' 




RALEIGH S SHIPS. 



' Tlie Freoeh Protestants had given the name of Carolina to the region wliere they attempted 
settlement, and it lias ever sinee retained it. See page 50. 

2 Manteo and Wimchese, natives of the adjacent continent: probably of tlie Hatteras tribe. 

3 Born in Devonshire, England, 1552. He was one of the most illustrious men of the reign of 
Queen Elizabeth, which was remarkable for brilliant minds. His efforts to plant colonies in Amer- 
ica, were evidences of a great genius and indomitable courage and perseverance. He was also a 
line scholar, as well as a statesman, mariner, and soldier. His name will ever Ije lield in reverence 
by all wlio can appreciate true greatness. He %vrote a History of the World, while in prison under 
a false charge of liigh treason, and was beheaded in London, October 29, 1628. 

* The picture of the meeting of the English and natives of Roanoke, on page 53, exhibits 
truthful delineations of the persons and costumes of the Indians found there. They were copied 
and grouped from Harriot's " Brief and True Report of the new found laud of Virginia," wliich was 
pubUshed in 1590. Harriot accompanied the expedition as historian and naturaUst, remained a 



56 DISCOVERIES. [1492. 

The English made some fatal mistakes at the outset. Instead of looking to 
the fruition of seed-time for true riches, they turned from the wealthy soil upon 
which they stood, and went upon vain searches for gold in the forests of the 
adjoining continent. Instead of reciprocating the hospitable friendship of the 
natives, they returned harshness for kindness, and treachery for confidence, 
until a flame of revenge was kindled among the Indians which nothing but the 
blood of Englishmen could quench. Schemes for the destruction of the white 
intruders were speedily planned, and tribes in the interior stood ready to aid 
their brethren upon the seaboard. As soon as Grenville departed with the 
ships, for England, the natives withheld supplies of food, drew the English into 
perilous positions by tales of gold-bearing shores along the Roanoke River, and 
finally reduced the colony to the verge of ruin. At that moment. Sir Francis 
Drake arrived from the West Indies, with his fleet, and afforded them relief 
But misfortune and fear made them anxious to leave the country, and the emi- 
grants Avere all conveyed to England, in June, 1586, by Drake. A few days 
after their departure, a well-furnished vessel, sent by Raleigh, arrived ; and a 
fortnight later, Grenville entered the inlet with three ships well provisioned. 
After searching for the departed colony, Grenville sailed for England, leaving 
fifteen men upon Roanoke. 

The intrepid Raleigh was still undismayed by misfortune. He adopted a 
Avise policy, and instead of sending out mere fortune-hunters,' he collected a 
band of agriculturists and artisans, with their families, and dispatched them 
[April 26, 1587], to found an industrial State in Virginia. He gave them a 
charter of incorporation for the settlement ; and John White, who accompanied 
them, was appointed governor of the colony. They reached Roanoke in July ; 
but instead of the expected greetings of the men left by Grenville, they encoun- 
tered utter desolation. The bones of the fifteen lay bleaching on the ground. 
Their rude tenements were in ruins, and wild deer were feeding in their little 
gardens. They had been murdered by the Indians, and not one was left. 
Manteo" did not share in the Indian hatred of the white people, and like Massa- 
soit of New England,' he remained their friend. By command of Raleigh, he 
received Christian baptism., and was invested, by AVhitc, with the title of Lord 
of Roanoke, the first and last peerage ever created in America. Yet Manteo 
could not avert nor control the storm that lowered among the Indian tribes, and 
menaced the English with destruction. The colonists were conscious that fear- 
ful perils were gathering, and White hastened to England toward the close of 
the year for reinforcements and provisions, leaving behind him his daughter, 
Eleanor Dare (wife of one of his lieutenants), who had just given birth to a 
child [August 18, 1587], whom they named Virginia. Virginia Dake was 
the first offspring of English parents born within the territory of the United 
States.* 



year in Virptinia, and had correct drawings made of the inhabitants, their dwellings, their gardens, 
and ever)- thing of interest pertaining to their costumes, customs, and general characteristics. The 
picture may be accepted as historical.ly correct. ' Page 52. " Note 2, page 55. 

3 Page 114. ' < Note 6, page 78. 




1609.] ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 57 

The great Spanish Armada' was preparing for an invasion of Great Britain, 
when White readied England ; and Raleigh, Grenville, and others, were deeply 
engaged in public affairs. It was not until the following May 
[1589], that White departed, with two ships, for Virginia. 
According to custom, he went by the way of the West Indies, 
and depredated upon Spanish property found afloat. He was 
beaten in an engagement, lost one of his vessels, and was 
obliged to return to England. Raleigh's fortune being mate- 
rially impaired by his munificence in efforts at colonization, he 
assigned his proprietary rights to others ; and it w^as not until 
1590 that White was allowed to return to Roanoke in search 
of his daughter and the colony he had left. Both had then 
disappeared. Roanoke was a desolation ; and, though Raleigh, 
who had abandoned all thoughts of colonization, had five times "^ 

, , , , 1 j> il • i ENGLISH rip;.\TLE- 

sent marmers, good and true, to search tor the emigrants, ^^j^^^ ugo. 

they were never found. ° Eighty years later, the Corees^ told 
the English settlers upon the Cape Fear River, that their lost kindred had lieen 
adopted by the once powerful Ilatteras tribe,' and became amalgamated with 
the children of the wilderness. The English made no further attempts at colo- 
nization at that time ; and so, a century after Columbus sailed for America, 
there was no European settlement upon the North American Continent. Sir 
Francis Drake had Ijroken up the military post at St. Augustine [1585], and 
the Red Men were again sole masters of the vast domain. 

A dozen years after the failure of Raleigh's colonization efforts, Bartholo- 
mew Gosnold, who had been to America, and was a friend of the late proprietor 
of Virginia, sailed in a small bark [March 26, 1602] directly across the Atlan- 
tic for the American coast. After a voyage of seven weeks, he discovered the 
Continent near Nahant [May 14, 1602], and sailing southward, he landed 
upon a sandy point which he named Cape Cod, on account of the great number 
of those fishes in that vicinity. Continuing southward, he discovered Nan- 
tucket, Martha's Vineyard, and the group known as Elizabeth Islands. Upon 
one of them, which he named Elizabeth, in honor of his sovereign, Gosnold and 
his company prepared to found a settlement. Upon an islet, in a tiny LiKe, 
they built a fort and store-house.' Becoming alarmed at the menaces of the 
Indians and the want of supplies, they freighted their vessel with sassafras 



' This was a great naval armament, fitted out by Spain, for tlie invasion of England, in the 
summer of 1588. It consisted of one hundred and fifty ships, two thousand six hundred and fifty 
great guns, and tliirty thousand soldiers and sailors. It was defeated [July 20] by Admirals 
Drake and Howard. 

2 Wliile R.aleigli was making these fruitless searches, the Marquis de la Roche, a wealthy 
French nobleman, attempted to plant a French colony in America. He was commi.'?sioned by the 
King of France for the purpose, and in 1598 sailed for America with a colony, chiefly drawn from 
the prisons of Paris. Upon the almost desert island of Sable, near the coast of Nova Scotia, La 
Roche left forty men, while he returned to France for supplies. He died soon afterward, and for 
seven years tlie poor emigrants were neglected. When a vessel was finally sent for them, only 
twelve survived. They were taken to France, their crimes were pardoned by the knig, and their 
immediate wants were supplied. 3 Page 20. ^ Note 5, page 20. 

■ f^r. Jeremy Belknap, the historian of New Hampshire, discovered the cellar of this storehouse, 
in 1797. 



58 DISCOVERIES. Ll493. 

roots, and returned to England in June, 1602. The glowing accounts of the 
country which Gosnold gave, awakened the enterprise of some Bristol mer- 
chants,' and the following year [1603] they fitted out two vessels for the pur- 
pose of exploration and traffic with the natives. The command was given to 
Martin Pring, a friend of both Raleigh and Gosnold. Following the track of 
the latter, he discovered the shores of jSIaine, near the mouth of the Penobscot 
[June], and coasting westward, he entered and explored several of the larger 
rivers of that State. He continued sailing along the coast as far as Martha's 
Vineyard, trading with the native.? ; and from that island he returned to En- 
gland, after an absence of only six months. Pring made another voyage to 
Maine, in 1606, and more thoroughly explored the country. Maine was also 
visited in 1605, by Captain George Weymouth, who had explored the coast of 
Labrador, in search of a north-west passage to India." He entered the Saga- 
dahock, and took formal possession of the country in the name of King James. 
There he decoyed five natives on board his vessel, and then sailed for England. 
These forest children excited much curiosity ; and the narratives of other mari- 
ners of the west of England, who visited these regions at about the same time, 
gave a new stimulus to colonizing eftbrts. 

The French now began to turn their attention toward the New World 
again. In 1603, De Jlonts, a wealthy French Huguenot,^ obtained a commission 
of viceroyalty over six degrees of latitude in New France,* extending from Cape 
May to Quebec. He prepared an expedition for settlement, and arrived at 
Nova Scotia,' with two vessels, in May, 1604." He passed the summer there, 
trafiicking with the natives ; and in the autumn he crossed over to the mouth 
of the St. Croix (the eastern boundary of Maine), and erected a fort there. He 
had left a few settlers at Port Royal (now Annapolis), under Poutrincourt. 
These De Monts joined the following spi'ing [1605], and organized a perma- 
nent colony. He named the place Port Royal ; and the territory now included 
in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and the adjacent islands, he called Acadie.' 
His efforts promised much success ; but he was thwarted by jealous men. In 
1608, he was deprived of his vice-royal commission, when he obtained a grant 
of the monopoly of the fur trade upon the St. Lawrence, for one year, and 
another commission, to plant a colony elsewhere in New France. The new 
expedition was placed under the command of Samuel Champlain (who accom- 
panied the viceroy on his first voyage), and on the 3d of June, 1608, he 
an'ived, with two vessels, at the mouth of the Saguenay, on the St. Lawrence. 
They ascended the great river, and on the site of Quebec, near where Cartier 
built his fort almost seventy years before,* they planted the first permanent 

' Page 4e. " Page 510. 3 Page 49. ■• Page 48. = Note 2. page 80. 

* De Monts first brought swine, and other domestic animals, into tliis portion of America. 
Some were also taken from thence to French settlements planted in Canada a few years later. The 
company of which he was chief, fitted out four vessels. De Monts commanded the two here men- 
tioned, assisted by Champlain and Poutrincourt. 

" In 1613, Samuel Argall made a piratical visit to these coasts, under the direction of the gov- 
ernor of the Virginia colony. He destroyed the remnant of De Monts' settlement at St. Croix, 
broke up the peaceful colony at Port Royal, and plundered the people of every thing of value. See 
page 12. * Page 49. 



ENGLISH AND FRENCH DISCOVERIES. 



59 




HENRY IIISU: 



French settlement in the New World. The following summer, Champlain 
ascended the Richelieu or Sorel River, the outlet of Lake Champlain, with a 
war party of Huron' and Algonquin" Indians, and discovered the beautiful lake 
which bears his name, in the north-eastern part of the State of New York.' 

The English were not idle while the French were 
explornig, and making efforts at settlement in the 
direction of the St. Lawrence. Several private enter- 
prises were in progress, among the most i'uportant of 
which was that of a company of London merchants 
who sent Henry Hudson, an intimate friend of Captain 
Smith,' to search for a supposed north-eastern ocean 
passage to Lidia. He made two unsuccessful voyages 
to the regions of polar ice [1607-8], when the attempt 
was abandoned. Anxious to win the honor of first 
reacliing India by the northern seas, Hudson applied 

to the Dutch East India Company' for aid. The Amsterdam directors afforded 
it, and on the 4th of April, 1009, Hudson departed from Amsterdam, in com- 
mand of the Half-Moon, a yacht of eighty tons. He 
sought a north-eastern passage ; but after doubling the 
capes of Norway, the ice was impassable. Turning his 
prow, he steered across the Atlantic, and first touching 
the continent on the shores of Penobscot Bay, he 
arrived in sight of the capes of Virginia in August, 
1609. Proceeding northward, he entered the mouths 
of several large rivers, and finally passed the Narrows" 
and anchored in New York Bay. He proceeded almost 
si.xty leagues up the river that bears his name, ^ind 
according to the formula of the age, took possession of the country in the name 
of the States General of Holland.'' He returned to Europe' in November 




THE H.\LF-.MOU.V. 



I Page 22. - 2 Pag;e 17. 

3 Champlain penetrated southward as far as Crown Point ; perhaps south of Ticonderopi. It 
was at about the same time that Hudson went up tlie river that bears his name, as far as \Vater- 
foril, so tliat tliese eminent navigators, exploring at different points, came very near meeting iu the 
wilderness. SLx; years afterward Champlain discovered Lake Huron, and there he joined somo 
Huron Indians in an e.'cpedition against one of the Five Nations in Western New York. Tliey had 
a severe battle in the neighborhood of the present village of Canandaigua. Champlain puljlished 
an account of his first voyage, iu 161H, and a continuation in 1620. He published a new edition 
of these in 16:!2, which contains a history of New France, from the discovery of Verrazani to the 
year 1631. Champlain died in 1634 ■< Page 65. 

5 Dutch mariners, following the track of the Portuguese, opened a successful traffic with East- 
eni Asia, about the year 1594. The various Dutch adventurers, in the India trade, were united in 
one corporate body in 1602, with a capital of over a million of dollars, to whom were given the 
exclusive privilege of trading in the seas east of tho Cape of Good Hope. Tins was the Dutch 
East India Company. 

s Entrance to New York Bay between Long and Staten Islands. 

' This was the title of the Government of Holland, answering, in a degree, to our Congress. 

' Hudson, while on another voyage in .search of a north-west passage, discovered the great Bay 
iu the northern regions, which bears his narne. He was there frozen in the ice during the winter 
of 1610-11. While endeavoring to make his way homeward in the spring, his crew became muti- 
nous. They finally seized Hudson, bound his arms, and placing him and his son, and seven sick 
companions, m an open boat, set them adrift upon the cold waters. They were never heard of 
afterward 



60 DISCOVERIES. ^1492. 

1609, and liis report of the goodly land lie had discovered set in motion those 
commercial measures which resulted in the founding of a Dutch empire in the 
New World. 

With these discoveries commenced the epoch of settlements. The whole 
Atlantic coast of North America had been thoroughly or partially explored, the 
general character and resources of the soil had become known, and henceforth 
the leading commercial nations of Western Europe — England, France, Spain, 
and Holland — regarded the tr,ansat. intic continent, not as merely a rich garden 
without a wall, where depredators trom every shore might come, and, without 
hinderance, bear away its choicest fruit, but as a land where the permanent 
foundations of vast colonial empires might be laid, from which parent states 
would receive almost unlimited tribute to national wealth and national glory. 

AVhen we contemplate these voyages across, the stormy Atlantic, and con- 
imler the limited geographical knowledge of tke ^navigators, the fi'ailty of tlieir 
vessels" and equipments, the vast lalx»rs and oonstant privations endured by 
them, and the dangers to which they were continually exposed, we can not but 
feel the highest respect and reverence for all who were thus engaged in opening 
the treasures of the New World to the advancing nations of Europe. Although 
acquisitiveness, or the desire for worldly possessions, was the chief incentive to 
action, and gave strength to resolution, yet it could not inspire courage to 
encounter the great dangers of the deep and the wilderness, nor fill the heart 
with faith in prophecies of success. These sentiments must have been innate: 
and those who braved the multitude of perils were men of true courage, and their 
faith came from the teachings of the science of their day. History and Song, 
Painting and Sculpture, have all commemorated their deeds. If Alexander the 
Great was thought worthy of having the granite body of Mount Athos hewn 
into a colossal image of himself,^ might not Europe and America appropriately 
join in the labor of fashioning some lofty summit of the Alleghanies^ into a huge 
monument to the memory of the N.wiuators who lifted the vail of forgetful- 
ness from the face of the New World ?' 



' The first ship.s were generally of less than one hundred tons burden. Two of the vessels of 
Columbus were without decks ; and the one in which Frobisher sailed was only twenty-live toua 
burden. 

2 Dinocrates, a celebrated architect, offered to cut Mount Athos into a statue of Alexander Ihc 
Great, so large, tliat it might hold a city in its right hand, and in its left a basin of sufBcient capa- 
city to hold all the waters that poured from the mountain. ^ Note 3, page 19. 

< Page 47 There has been much discussion concerning the claims of certain navigators, to tho 
honor of first discovering the Continent of America. A '• Memoir of Sebastian Cabot,"' illustrated by 
documents from the Rolls, published in London in 1832, appears to prove conclusively that he, and 
not lusfailier, was the navigator who discovered North America^ John Cabot was a man of .science, 
and a merchant, and may have accompanied his son, in his first voyage m 1497. Yet, in the patent 
of February, 1498, in which the first voyage is referred to,are the words, "the land and isles of lato 
found by the said John, in our name, and by our commandment." The first commission being issued 
in the name of .lohn Cabot, tlie discoveries made by those employed hv him, would of course be in 
his name. A little work, entitled " Researches respecting Americus Vcspucius, and his Voyages." 
prepared by Viscount Santarem, ex-prime minister of Portugal, casts just doubts upon the statements 
of Vcspucius, concerning his command on a voyage of discovery when, he claims, he discovered 
South America [page 41] in 1499. He was doubtless an officer under Ojeda; and it is quite cer- 
tain that he got possession of the narratives of Ojeda and published them as his own. Tlie mo."t 
. accessible works on American discoveries, are Irving's "Life of Columbus;" Prescott's "Ferdinand 
and Isabella;" Lives of Cabot and Hudson, iu Sparks's " American Biography, " and Histories of tlu 
United States by Graliam. Bancroft and llildreth. 




THIRD I'ERIOD. 

SETTLEMENTS. 



JOHN bMlTH. 



CHAPTER 



There is a distinction to be observed 
in considering settlements and colonics. 
The act of forming a settlement is not 
cfjnivalent to the establishment of a colony or the founding of a State. It is 
the initiatory step toward suck an end, and may or may not exhibit permanent 
results. A colony become^., such only when settlements assume permanency, 
and organic laws, subservient to those of a parent government, are framed lor 
the guidance of the people. It seems proper, therefore, to consider the era of 
settlements as distinct from that oi colonial organization. 

The period of settlements within the bounds of the thirteen original colonies 
which formed the Confederacy in the War for Independence,' extends from 1607 
to 1733. For fifty years previous to the debarkation [1607] at Jamestown, - 
fishing stations had been established at various points on the Atlantic coast : 
and at St. Augustine,^ the Spaniards had kept a sort of military post alive. 
Yet the time of the appearance of the English in the James River, is the true 
point from which to date the inception or beginning of our great confederacy of 



' Page 229. 



3 Page 5 1 . 



62 SETTLEMENTS. [1607. 

free States. Twelve years [1607 to 1619] were spent by English adven- 
turers in efforts to plant a permanent settlement in Virginia.' For seventeen 
years [1609 to 1623J Dutch traders were trafficking on the Hudson River, 
before a permanent settlement was established in New York.^ Fourteen years 
[1606 to 1620] -were necessary to effect a permanent settlement in Massachu- 
setts ;^ and for nine years [1622 to 1631] adventurers struggled for a foothold 
in New Hampshire.* The Roman Catholics -were only one year [1634-5] in 
laying the foundation of the Maryland colony.' Seven years [1632 to 1639] 
•were employed in effecting permanent settlements in Connecticut ;'' eight years 
[1636 to 1643] in organizing colonial government in Rhwle Island ;" and about 
fifty years [1631 to 1682] elapsed from the landing of the Swedes on South 
River,' before Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania (whose several histo- 
ries of settlements are interwoven), presented colonial features.' Almost sixty 
years [1622 to 1680] passed hj Ijefore the first settlements in the Carolinas 
became fully developed colonies;'" but Georgia, the youngest of the thirteen 
States, had the foundation of its colonial government laid when Oglethorpe, 
with the first company of settlers, Ijegan to build Savannah in the winter of 
1733." The first permanent settlement within the bounds of the original 
colonies, was in 

VIRGINIA. [1607—1619]. 

A century had not elapsed after the discoveries of Columbus [1492],'" 
before a great social and political revolution had been effected in Europe. 
Commerce, hitherto confined to inland seas and along the coasts, was sending 
its ships across oceans. The art of printing had begun its wonderful work :'"' 
and, through its instrumentality, intelligence had become generally diffused. 
jNIind thus acting upon mind, in vastly multiplied opportunities, had awakened 
a great moral and intellectual power, whose presence and strength had not been 
suspected. The Protestant Reformation" had weakened the bonds of spiritual 
dominion, and allowed the moral flvculties fuller play ; and the shadows of feudal 
institutions,'" so chilling to individual effort, were rapidly disappearing before 

' Pa<?e 11. 2 Page T.3. 3 Page 79. * Page 80. 

' Page 82. o Page 89. ' Page 91. « Page 92. 

9 Page 97. '« Page 99. " Page 103 '^ Page 40. 

'3 About tbe year 1450. Rude printing from engraved blocks was done before that time; but 
when Peter SehoeCfer ca.st the first metal types, each letter separately, at about 1450, the art of 
printing truly had birth. John Faust estaljlislicd a printing-office at Mcntz, in 1442. Jolin Gutten- 
berg invented cut metal types, and used them in printing a Bible which was commenced in 1 445. 
and finished in 14G0. The names of these three men are usually associated as the inventors of 
printing. 

'* Commenced by T^^ickliffe, in England, in 1360; by Huss, in Bohemia, in 1405; by Luther, 
in Germany, in 1517. From tliis period until 1562, the movement was general throughout Europe. 
It was an effort to purge the Christian Church of all impurities, by reforming its doctrine jmd 
•■itual. The Reformers protested against some of the practices of the Roman Catholic Church, 
and the movement received the title of the Fiotestant RetbrmatioD. The name of Protestants 
was first given to Luther and others in 1529. 

'' The nature of feudal laws may be illustrated by a single example : AViUiam, the Xormau 
conqueror of England, divided the land of that country into parts called baronies, and gave them 
to certain of his favorites, who became masters of the conquered people on their respective estates. 
For these gifts, and certain privileges, the barons, or masters, were to furnish the king with a stipu- 



5G!9.] VIRGINIA. ^ 63 

the rising sun of the new era in the history of the world. Freedom of thought 
and action expanded the area of ideas, and gave birth to those tolerant princi- 
ples which lead to Ijrotherhood of feeling. The new impulse developed nobler 
motives for human action than the acquisition of wealth and power, and these 
soon engendered healthy schemes for founding industrial empires in the New 
World. Aspirations for civil freedom, awakened by greater religious liberty, 
had begun the work, especially in England, where the Protestants were already 
divided into two distinct parties, called, respectively. Churchmen and Puritans. 
The former supported the throne and all monarchic ideas ; the latter were 
more republican ; and from their pulpits went forth doctrines inimical to kingly 
power. These religious differences had begun to form a basis of political 
parties, and finally became prime elements of colonization. 

Another event, favorable to the new impulse, now exerted a powerful influ- 
ence. A long contest between England and France ceased in 1604. Soldiers, 
an active, restless class in England, were deprived of employment, and would 
soon become dangerous to the pulilic peace. While population and general 
prosperity had greatly increased, there was another large class, who, by idle- 
ness and dissipation, had squandered fortunes, and had become desperate men. 
The soldiers needed employment, either in their own art, or in etiually exciting 
adventures ; and the impoverished spendthrifts were ready for any thing which 
promised gain. Such were the men who stood ready to brave ocean perils and 
the greater dangers of the Western World, when such minds as those of Fer- 
nando Gorges, Bartholomew Gosnold, Chief Justice Popham, Richard Hakluyf, 
Captain John Smith, and others, devised new schemes for colonization. The 
weak and timid James the First,' who desired and maintained peace with other 
nations during his reign, was glad to perceive a new field for restless and 
adventurous men to go to, and he readily granted a liberal patent [April 20, 
1606] to the first company formed after his accession to the throne, for planting 
settlements in Virginia. The English then claimed dominion over a belt of 
territory extending from Cape Fear, in North Carolina, to Halifax, in Nova 
Scotia, and indefinitely westward. This was divided into two districts. One 
extended from the vicinity of New York city northward to the present southern 
boundary of Canada, including the whole of New England, and westward of it. 
and was called North Virgixi,\. This territory was granted to a company 
of "knights, gentlemen, and merchants" in the west of England, called the 
Plymouth Compnn\j? The other district extended from the mouth of the 
Potomac southward to Cape Fear, and was called South Virginia. It was 

lated amount of money, and a stated number of men for soldier.s, when required. Tlie people had no 
voice in tliis matter, nor in any public aS'airs, and were made essentially slaves to tlie i)arons. Out 
of this state of things originated the exclusive privileges yet enjoyed by the nobility of Europe. 
E.fcept in Russia, the people have been emancipated from tliis vassalage, and the ancient forms of 
feudal power have disappeared. 

' He was the Sixth James of Scotland, of the house of Stuart, and son of Mary, Queen of Scot- 
land, by Lord Damley. The crowns of England and Scotland were united by his accession to the 
throne of the former kingdom, in March, 1603. 

- The chief members of the company were Thomas Hanham, Sir John and Raleigh Gilbert (sons 
of Sir Humphrey Gilbert), William Pariver, George Popham, Sir John Popham (Lord Chief Justice 
of England), and Sir Fernando Gorges, Governor of Plymouth Fort. 



64 SETTLEMENTS. [16u7. 

granted to a company of " noblemen, gentlemen and merchants," chiefly resi- 
dents of London, called the London Compuny.^ The intermediate domain of 
almost two hundred miles, ivas a dividing line, so broad that disputes about 
territory could not occur, as neither company was allowed to make settlements 
more than fifty miles beyond its own )>oundary. 

The idea of popular freedom was as yet the heritage of a favored few, and 
the political character of the first colonial charter, under which a permanent 
settlement was made within the territory of the United States, was unfavorable 
to the best interests of all. The king reserved to himself the right of appoint- 
ing all officers, and of exercising all executive and legislati\-e power. The 
colonists were to pay homage to the sovereign, and a tribute of one fifth of the 
net products of gold and silver found in Virginia; yet they possessed no rights 
of self-government. They were to be governed by a council of seven appointed 
by the king, who were allowed to choose a president from among themselves. 
There was also a Supreme Council in England, appointed by the king, who had 
the general supervision of the colonies, under the direction of the monai'ch. 
That charter was the conception of a narrow mind, and despotic temper, and 
proved totally inadequate as a constitution of government for a free people. 

The North Virginia, or Plymouth Comj^any, made the first attempt at set- 
tlement, and fiiiled.^ The South Virginia, or London Company, sent Captain 
Christopher Newport, with three vessels and one hundred and five emigrants 
[Dec, 1606J, to make a settlement upon Roanoke Island,^ where Raleigh's 
colony had perished almost twenty years before. Among them was Bartholo- 
mew Gosnold, the projector of the expedition. They possessed very poor 
materials for a colony. There was wo family among them, and only "twelve 
laborers and a few mechanics." The remainder were " gentlemen,"' many of 
whom were vicious, dissolute men, totally unfit for such an enterprise, and 
quite unworthy to be actors in the glorious events anticipated by Gosnold and 
his enlightened associates at home. The voyage was a long and tedious one. 
Newport pursued the old route by the Canaries and the West Indies, and did 
not arrive upon the American coast until April, 1607, when a storm drove liis 
vessels into Chesapeake Bay, where he found a good harbor. He named the 
capes at the entrance, Charles and Henry, in honor of the king's sons. A 
pleasant point of the Virginia peninsula, between the York and James Rivers, 
which they next landed upon and enjoyed repose, he named Point Comfort ; and 
the noble Powhatan River which he soon afterward entered he called James. 
Sailing up the broad stream about fifty miles, the immigrants landed upon a 
beautiful, shaded peninsula,-' where they chose a site for the capital of the new 
empire, and called it Jamestown. 

' The cliief members of the company were Sir Thomas Gates, Sir George Somers, Richard Halv- 
luyt (the hi,storian), and Edward Maria Wingfield, who was the first governor of Virginia. 

' Page 73. ' ^ Page 55. 

' This jiame was given to wealthy men, who were not engaged in any industrial pursuit, and 
often spent their lives in idleness and dissipation ;' a class which, in our day and country, number, 
happily, very few. Labor is worthily honored as more noble than idleness. 

5 Tliis may be called an island, for the marsh which connects it with the mainland is often over- 
flowed. The currents of the river have washed away large portions of the Otjgiual island. 



1619.] VIRGINIA. (35 

111 feelings had been engendered before they reached the Canary Islands, 
and violent disputes had arisen during the long voyage. As the silly king had 
placed the names of the colonial council in a sealed box, with instructions not 
to open it until their arrival in Virginia, there was no competent authority on 
board to restore harmony. Captain Smith,' who was the most able man amono- 
them, excited the envy of his companions ; and being charged with a design to 
murder the council, usurp government, and proclaim himself king, he was 
placed in confinement. On opening the sealed box, it was discovered that 
Smith was one of the council. He was released from confinement ; but, 
through the influence of AVingfield, an avaricious, unprincipled, but talented 
man, he was excluded fi-om office. Smith demanded a trial upon the absurd 
charges. The accusation was withdrawn, and he took his seat in the council, 
over which Wingfield was chosen to preside. 

Soon after landing, Newport, Smith, and twenty others, ascended the 
James River to the Falls at Richmond, and visited the emperor of the Powhat- 
ans," whose residence was a mile below the foot of the rapids. The title of the 
emperor was Powhatan, which signified supreme ruler, as did Pharaoh in the 
antient Egyptian language — the chief man in Egypt. He was a man of great 
abilit}^ and commanded the reverence of the whole confederation. He appeared 
friendly to the English, notwithstanding his people murmured at their presence; 
and the visitors returned to Jamestown much gratified. 

Early in June, 1607, Newport sailed for England, to obtain more settlers 
and provisions. The little band of emigrants soon perceived the perils of their 
situation. A large portion of their provisions had been spoiled during the 
voyage. They had not planted, therefore they could not reap. The neighborinir 
tribes evinced hostility, and withheld supplies. Poisonous vapor arose from 
the marshes ;■ and before the close of summer, one half of the adventurers per- 
ished by disease and famine. Among the victims was Gosnold. The settlers, 
in their despair, reproached themselves and the leaders of the expedition, and 
longed to depart for the Old World. In the midst of their despondency, the 
survivors discovered that president Wingfield was living on choice stores, and 
was preparing to abandon the colony and escape to the West Indies in the pin- 
nace^ left by Newport. Their indignation was thoroughly aroused, and he was 
deposed. Ratchfie, a man as weak and wicked as Wingfield, was chosen his 
successor. He, too, was speedily dismissed ; and the settlers, with one con- 
sent, wisely turned to Smith as ruler. 

It was a happy hour for the Virginia settlers when Captain Smith took the 
reins of government. All was confusion ; but he soon restored order : and by 
his courage and energy, inspired the Indians with awe, and compelled them to 
bring him supplies of food. In October, wild game became plentiful ; and at 
the beginning of November, the abundant harvest of Indian corn was gathered 

' See portrait at the head of this Chapter. Smith was one of the most remarkable men of his 
time. He was born in Lincolnshire, England ; and after many adventures in Europe, went to 
America. He died in_1631. He wrote a History of Virginia, and several other works. 

' Page 20. "a = A small, light vessel, with sails and oars. 

5 



66 



SETTLEMENTS. 



[1607. 



by the natives, and they supplied the settlers with all they needed. Having 
established a degree of comfort and prosperity, Smith started, with some com- 
panions, to explore the surrounding country. He ascended the Chickahomminy 
River fifty miles from its mouth, and then, with two companions, penetrated 
the vast forest that covered the land. His companions were slain by the na- 
tives, and he was made a captive. After being exhibited in several villages, he 
was taken to Opechancanough,' the eldest brother of Powhatan, who, regarding 
Smith as a superior being, spared his life, and conducted him to the emperor, 
then at Weroworomoco, on the York River.- A solemn council decided that 
the captive must die, and Smith was prepared for execution. His head was 
placed upon a stone, and the heavy clubs of the executioners were raised to 
crush it, when Pocahontas, a child of "ten or twelve years,"' the favorite 




P A H O N T A ! 



daughter of Powhatan, rushed from her fiithcr's side, and casting herself upon 
the captive, besought the king to spare his life. Powhatan consented, and 
Smith was conducted in safety to Jamestown by a guard of twelve men, after 
an absence of seven weeks. 

God, in his providence, overrules evevy thing for good. It is seen in this 
event, for Smith's captivity was a public benefit. He had acquired a knowl- 
edge of the Indian character, and of the country and its resources, and also had 
formed friendly relations with the sachems and chiefs. Had his companions 



' Note 5, page 106. 

2 At Shelly, nearly opposite the mouth of Queeu's Creek, Gloucester County, Virginia. 

3 Page 70. 



1619] TIRGINIA. 67 

possessed half as much energy and honesty as Smith, all -would have been -well. 
But they were idle, improvident, and dissolute. As usual, he found every 
tiling in disorder on his return from the forest. Only forty men were living, 
and a greater portion of them were on the point of escapmg to the West Indies 
in the pinnace ; but the courage and energy of Smith compelled them to re- 
main. Conscious of the purity of their ruler and the wickedness of themselves, 
they hated him intensely, and from that time they plotted for his destruction, 
or the overthrow of his power. 

Captain Newport arrived with supplies and one hundred and twenty im- 
migrants, early in 1608. These were no better than the first adventurers. 
Instead of agriculturalists and mechanics, with families, they were idle "gentle- 
men," "packed hither," as Smith said, "by their friends, to escape ill destin- 
ies." There were also several unskillful goldsmiths, the very men least needed 
in the colony. Some glittering earth in the vicinity of Jamestown, was by them 
mistaken for gold ; and in spite of tlie remonstrances of Smith, the whole indus- 
try of the colony was directed to the supposed treasure. " There was no talk, 
no hope, no work, but dig gold, work gold, refine gold, load gold." Newport 
loaded his vessel with the worthless earth, and returned to England, believing 
himself exceedingly rich ; but science soon jironounced him miserably poor in 
useful knowledge and well-earned reputation. 

The gold-fever had taken strong hold upon the indolent dreamers, and 
Smith remonstrated against idleness and pleaded for industry, in vain. He 
implored the settlers to plow and sow, that they might reap and be happy. 
They refused to listen, and he turned from Jamestown with disgust. With a 
few sensible men, he went to explore the Chesapeake in an open boat, and 
every bay, inlet, and creek, received his attention. He went up the Potomac 
to the falls above Washington city ; and then, after exploring the shores of the 
Rappahannock to the site of Fredericsburg, he returned to Jamestown. A 
few days afterward he returned again to the Chesapeake, carefully explored 
each shore above the mouth of the Potomac, and entered the Patapsco, and ate 
Indian corn on the site of Baltimore. He also went up the Susquehannah to 
the beautiful vale of Wyoming,' and penetrated the forests even to the territory 
of the Five Nations,^ and established friendly relations with the dusky tribes. 
Within three months he traveled full three thousand miles. It was one of the 
most wonderful of exploring expeditions, considered in all its aspects, ever re- 
corded by the pen of history ; and the map of the country, which Smith con- 
structed on his return, is yet in existence in England, and is remarkable for its 
general accuracy. 

Captain Smith returned to Jamestown on the 7th of September, 1608, and 
three days afterward he was formally made president of the settlement. New- 
port arrived soon afterward, with seventy immigrants, ataong whom were two 
females, the first English women ever seen upon the James River." To the 
soil they were compelled to look, chiefly, for their food, and Smith exerted all 

Page 290. = Page 23. ' Page 105. 



63 SETTLEMENTS. [1607. 

his energies to turn the little industry of the settlers to agriculture. He suc- 
ceeded, in a degree, but he had poor materials out of which to form a healthy, 
self-sustaining commonwealth. He Avrote to the Supreme Council' to send over 
a different class of men. "I entreat you," he said, "rather send but thirty 
carpenters, husbandmen, gardeners, fishermen, blacksmiths, masons, and diggers 
of trees' roots, well provided, than a thousand such as we have." Yet, with all 
his exertions, idleness and improvidence prevailed. At the end of two years 
from the first landing at Jamestown, and when the settlement numbered two 
hundred strong men, not more than forty acres were under cultivation. To the 
Indians the white people were compelled to look for their chief supply of food. 

The London Company were disappointed, for the anticipations of sudden 
wealth, in which they had indulged, were not realized, and they sought and ob- 
tained a new charter [June 2, 1609], which gave them more ample privileges. 
The territory of South Virginia- was extended northward to the head of the 
Chesapeake. The Supreme Council was vested with power to fill vacancies in 
its own body, and to appoint a governor for Virginia, whose rule was made ab- 
solute. The lives, liberties, and property of the settlers were at his disposal, 
and they were compelled to contribute a certain share of their earnings to the 
proprietors. Thus they were mere vassals at will, under a petty despotism, 
without any inherent power, then recognized, to cast ofl" the yoke. 

Under that charter. Lord De la Warr (Delaware), an enlightened peer, 
was appointed governor of Virginia, for life, and soon afterward Newport sailed 
for America [June 12, 1609], with nine ships, and more than five hundred 
emigrants.'' Sir Thomas Gates, the governor's deputy, embarked with New- 
port, accompanied by Sir George Somers. Gates, Newport, and Somers, 
were commissioned to administer the government until the arrival of Delaware. 
When near the coast, a hurricane dispersed the fleet, and the vessel bearing the 
commissioners was wrecked on one of the Bermuda Islands. Seven vessels of 
the squadron reached the James River in safety. The colony would have been 
the gainer had these never arrived, for a greater portion of the new immigrants 
were more profligate, if possible, than the first. They were dissolute scions of 
wealthy families, and many of them came to avoid punishment for crimes at 
home. They regarded Virginia as a paradise for libertines, and believed the 
colony to be without a head until the arrival of the governor or his deputy. 
Smith, on the contrary, boldly asserted his authority as president, and main- 
tained it until an accident in autumn compelled him to go to England for sur- 
gical aid," when he delegated his authority to George Percy, brother of' the 
duke of Northumberland. 

When the idle and profligate settlers were released from the control of 

' P.ijjc 64. ' Pag-e 63. 

^ Domestic animals were now first taken to Virginia They consisted of six mares, one horse, 
six himdrcd swine, a few sheep and goats, and five hundred domestic fowls. Two years later one 
hundred cows and some other cattle were brought over. 

■" While passing down the James River, in a boat, from the Falls, Smith's bag of powder ignited, 
and the explosion almost killed him. His wounds were so severe as to require the most skillful 
surger}'. 



1G19.] ■ VIRGINIA. 69 

Smith, they gave tliemselves up to every irregularity of life Their ample 
stock of provisions was rapidly consumed. The Indians had great respect for 
Smith, and were friendly while he remained, but after his departure, they 
openly showed their contempt for the English, withheld supplies of provisions, 
and conceived a plan for the total extermination of the white intruders. Fam- 
ine ensued, and the winter and spring of 1610 wore long remembered as "the 
starving time." Those who went to the cabins of the Indians, for food, were 
treacherously murdered ; and finally a plan was matured by the natives for 
striking a blow of utter extermination. Again Pocahontas performed the part 
of a guardian angel.' On a dark and stormy night she hastened to Jamestown, 
revealed the plot, and was back to her couch before the dawn. Thus, she saved 
the colonists by placing them on their guard. Yet death hovered over them. 
The horrors of destitution increased, and the settlement which numbered five 
hundred persons when Smith left, was reduced to sixty within six months after 
his departure. The commissioners' finally arrived. They constructed a rude 
vessel upon the barren island where they were wrecked, and in it reached 
Virginia, in June, 1610. Instead of being greeted by a flourishing people, 
they were met by a mere remnant, almost famished. There appeared no way 
to obtain food, and Gates determined to sail immediately for Newfoundland,' 
and distribute the immigrants among the English fishing vessels there. James- 
town was utterly abandoned, and toward Hampton Roads" the dejected settlers 
sailed in four pinnaces. Early the next morning white sails greeted their 
vision. Lord Delaware had arrived with provisions and immigrants ; and that 
very night, Jamestown, abandoned to pagans in the morning, was made vocal 
with hymns of thanksgiving to the true God, by the returned settlers. 

Governor Delaware was a virtuous and prudent man, and under his admin- 
istration the colony began to prosper. Failing liealth compelled him to return 
to England the following spring [March, 1611] : and he left the government 
in the hands of Percy, Smith's successor, who managed with prudence until the 
arrival of Sir Thomas Dale, with supplies.* Dale was an experienced soldier, 
and, assuming the government, he ruled by martial law. Early in September 
following, Sir Thomas Gates arrived with six well-furnished ships, and three 
hundred immigrants. With this arrival came hope for the colony. A large 
portion of the new settlers were sober, industrious men, and their arrival gave 
great joy to the four hundred colonists at Jamestown. Gates assumed the 
functions of governor, and Dale went up the river to plant new settlements at 
the fnouth of the Appomattox and near the Falls.' And now a wise change in 
the domestic policy of the colony was made. Hitherto the land had been 
worked in common, and the product of labor was deposited in public storehouses, 
for the good of the community. The industrious created food for the indolent, 
and an incentive to effort was wanting. That incentive was necessary ; and it 
was found in the plan of making an assignment of a few acres of land to each 

' Page 6G. » Page 68. ^ Page 41. * Note 3, page 297. 

* Delaware afterward sailed for Virginia, to resume the reins of governmeut, but died on the 
voyage, " Near the present City Point, and Richmond. 



70 SETTLEMENTS. [1607. 

man, to be cultivated for his own private benefit. This regulation gave a pow- 
erful impulse to industry. Larger assignments were made, and soon the com- 
munity system was abandoned, and industry on private account created an 
ample supply of food for all.' 

A third charter was obtained by the London Company, on the 22d 
of March, 1612, by which the control of the king was annulled. The 
Supreme Council was abolished, and the whole company, sitting as a demo- 
cratic assembly, elected the officers, and ordained the laws, for the colony- 
Yet no political privilege was granted to the settlei's. Their very exist- 
ence as a body politic, was completely ignored. They had no voice in the 
choice of rulers and the enactment of laws. Yet they were contented ; and at 
the beginning of 1613 there were a thousand Englishmen in Virginia. At 
about this time an event occurred, which proved of permanent benefit to the 
settlement. Powhatan had continued to manifest hostile feelings ever since the 
departure of Smith. For the purpose of extorting advantageous terms of peace 
from the Indian king, Captain Argall (a sort of buccaneer),'' bribed an Indian 
chief, with a copper kettle, to betray the trusting Pocahontas into his hands. 
She was induced to go on board his vessel, where she was detained as a prisoner 
for several months, until Powhatan ransomed her. In the mean while, a mutual 
attachment had grown up between the maiden and John Rolfe, a young En- 
glishman of good family. He had instructed her in letters and religion ; and, 
with the consent of Powhatan, she received the rite of Christian baptism, and 
became the wife of Rolfe, in April, 1613. This union brought peace, and 
Powhatan was ever afterward the friend of tlie English. 

Prosperity now smiled upon the settlement, yet the elements of a perma- 
nent State were wanting. There were no families in Virginia, and all the 
settlers indulged in anticipations of returning to England, which they regarded 
as home. Gates went thither in March, 1614, leaving the administration of 
government with Sir Thomas Dale, who ruled with wisdom and energy for 
about two years, and then departed, after appointing George Yeardley deputy- 
governor. During Yeardley's administration, the culture of the tobacco plant' 
was promoted, and so rapidly did it gain in favor, that it soon became, not only 
the principal article of export, but the currency of the colony. And now 
[1617J Argall, the buccaneer, was appointed deputy-governor. He was a des- 
pot in feelings and practice, and soon disgusted the peojjle. He was succeeded 
by Yeardley, who was appointed governor in 1619 ; and then dawned the natal 
morning of Virginia as a Republican State. Yeardley abolished martial law, 



' A similnr result was seen in the operations of tlie Plymoutli colony. See page 116. 

' Note V, page 58. 

^ This plant, yet very extensively cultivated in Virp;inia and the adjoininfr States, was first 
discovered by Sir Francis Drake, near Tabaoo, m Yucatan : hence its name. Drake and Raleigh 
tirst introduced it into England. King James conceived a great hatred of it, and \vrote a treatise 
against its use. He forbade its cultivation in England, but could not prevent its importation from 
Virginia. It became a very profitable article of commerce, and the streets of Jamestown were 
planted with it. Other agricultural productions were neglected, and while cargoes of tobacco were 
preparing for England, the necessaries of life were wanting. The money value of tobacco was about 
sixty-six cents a pound. 



1619.] NEW YORK. 71 

released the planters from feudal service to the colony,' and established repre- 
sentative government.' The settlement was divided into eleven boroughs, and 
two representatives, called burgesses, were chosen by the people for each. 
These, with the governor and council, constituted the colonial government. 
The burgesses were allowed to debate all matters pertaining to the good of the 
colony : but their enactments were not legal until sanctioned by the company 
in England. The most important event of that year occurred on the 28th of 
June. On that day, the first representative assembly ever convened in Amer- 
ica, met at Jamestown. Then and there, the foundations of tlie Virginia 
commonwealth were laid. The people now began to regard Virginia as their 
home, and "fell to building houses and planting corn." Within two years 
afterward, one hundred and fifty reputable young women were sent over to 
become wives to the planters,' the tribe of gold-seekers and "gentlemen" was 
extinct, for " it was not the will of God that the new State should be formed 
of such material ; that such men should be the fathers of a progeny born on the 
American soil, who wore one day to assert American liberty by their eloquence, 
and defend it by their valor." ' 



CH A P T ER I I. 

KEW YORK [icon — k; 2 3]. 

In a preceding chapter,^ we have considered the discovery and exploration 
of the river, bearing his name, by Henry Hudson, then in the service of the 
Dutch East India Company. On liis return to England [Nov. 1609], he for- 
warded to his employers in Amsterdam," a brilliant account of his discoveries in 
America. Jealous of the maritime enterprise and growing power of the Dutch, 
the British king would not allow Hudson to go to Holland, fearing he might be 
employed in making further discoveries, or in planting settlements in America. 
This narrow and selfish policy of James was of no avail, for the ocean pathway 
to new and fertile regions, once opened, could easily be traversed by inferior 
navigators. This fact was soon demonstrated. In 1610, some wealthy mer- 
chants of Amsterdam, directors of the Dutch East India Company,' sent a ship 
from the Texel, laden with merchandise, to ti'afiic with the Indians upon the 
Mauritius,* as the present Hudson River was then called. Hudson's ship (the 
Ha/f-Moon^) was also sent hither the same year on a like errand ; and for three 

' Page 68. 

■ Yeardley found the people possessed with an intense desire for that freedom which the 
English constitution gave to every subject of the realm, and it was impossible to reconcile that feel- 
ing with the exercise of the arbitrary power whicli had hitherto prevailed. He, therefore, formed 
a plan for a popular assembly as similar to the English parliament as circumstances would allow. 

3 Page 105. « Bancroft. s Page 59. ^ Page 59. 

' Note 5, page 59. s go named, in honor of Prince Maurice, of Nassau. ^ Page 59. 



72 " SETTLEMENTS. [1609 

years afterward, private enterprise dispatched many vessels from Holland, to 
traffic for furs and peltries. Among other commanders came the bold Adrian 
Block, the first navigator of the dangerous stmit in the East River, called 
Hell-Gate. Block's vessel was accidentally burned in the autumn of 1G13. 
when he and his companions erected some rude huts for shelter, near the site 
of the Bowling Green, at the foot of Broadway, New York. These huts formed 
the germ of our great commercial metropolis. During the ensuing winter 
they constructed a vessel from the fine timber which grew upon Manhattan 
Island, and early in the spring they sailed up Long Island Sound on a voyage 
of discovery which extended to Nahant. Block first discovered the Connecticut 
and Thames Rivers, and penetrated Narraganset Bay to the site of Provi- 
dence. 

Intent upon gain, Dutch trading vessels now frequently ascended the Mau- 
ritius, and a brisk trade in furs and peltries was opened with the Indian tribes, 
almost two hundred miles from the ocean. The traders built a fort and store- 
house upon a little island just below Albany, in 1614, which they called Fort 
Nassau ; and nine years later. Fort Orange was erected near the river, a little 
south of the foot of the present State-street, in Albany, on the site of Albany. 
There is a doubt about a fort being erected on the southern extremity of Man- 
hattan Island, at this time, as some chroniclers have asserted. It is probable 
the trading-house erected there was palisaded, as a precautionary measure, for 
they could not well determine the disposition of the Indians. 

On the 11th of October, 1614, a special charter was granted to a company 
of Amsterdam merchants, giving them the monopoly of trade in the New 
World, from the latitude of Cape May to that of Nova Scotia, for three years. 
The territory was named New Netherl.\nd, in the charter, which title it held 
until it became an English province in 1664.' Notwithstanding it was included 
in the grant of James to the Plymouth company,^ no territorial jurisdiction 
being claimed, and no English settlements having been made northward of 
Richmond, in Virginia, the Dutch were not disturbed in their traffic. The 
popular story, that Argall entered the Bay of New York on his return from 
Acadie in 1613, and made the Dutch traders promptly surrender the place to 
the English crown, seems unsusceptible of proof 

Success attended the Dutch from the beginning. The trade in furs and 
peltries became very lucrative, and the company made an unsuccessful applica- 
tion for a renewal of their charter. More extensive operations were in contem- 
plation; and on the 3d of June, 1621, the States General of Holland* 
incorporated the Dutch West India Company, and invested it with almost 
regal powers, for planting settlements in America from Cape Horn to New- 
foundland ; and in Africa, between the Cape of Good Hope and the Tropic of 
Cancer, The special object of its enterprise was New Netherland, and espe- 
cially the region of the Mauritius.^ The company was not completely organized 

' Pago 144. 2 Pat^e 63. 

3 See Brodliead's " History of the State of New York," Appeudix E, where the matter is dis- 
cussed at some Icngtli. * Note 7, page 59. * Page 71. 



1620.] 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



73 



until the spring of 1623, when it commenced operations -with vicor. Its first 
efforts were to plant a permanent colony, and thus establish a plausible pretext 
for territorial jurisdiction, for now the English had built rude cabins on the 
shores of Massachusetts Bay.' In April, 1623, thirty families, chiefly Wal- 
loons (French Protestants who had fled to Holland), arrived at Manhattan, 
under the charge of Cornelius Jacobsen May, who was sent to reside iu New 
Netherland, as first director, or governor. Eight of the fam- 
ilies went up the Mauritius or Hudson River, and settled at 
Albany ; the remainder chose their place of abode across the 
channel of the East River, and settled upon lands now co\ - 
ered by the eastern portions of Brooklyn, and the Navy 
Yard." Then were planted the fruitful seeds of a Dutch 
colony — then were laid the foundations of the future com- 
monwealth of New York.' The territory was erected into 
a province and the armorial distinction of a count was 
granted.' 




SEAL OF XEW NETH- 
ERLAND. 



CHAPTER III. 



MASSACHtrSETTS [lOOG— lG2n]. 



Soon after obtaining their charter, in 1G06, the Plymouth Company' 
dispatched an agent in a small vessel, with two captive Indians, to examine 
North A^irginia. This vessel was captured by a Spanish cruiser. Another ves- 
sel, fitted out at the sole expense of Sir John Popham, and commanded by 
Martin Pring, was sent, and reached America. Pring confirmed the accounts 
of Gosnold and others," concerning the beauty and fertility of the New Eno-Uind 
region. The following year [1607], George Popham' came, with one hundred 
immigrants, and landing at the mouth of the Sagadahoc or Kennebec [August 
21], they erected there a small stockade, a storehouse, and a few huts. All 
but forty-five returned to England in the vessels ; those remained, and named 
their settlement *S?. George. A terrible winter ensued. Fire consumed their 
store-house and some of their provisions, and the keen frosts and deep snows 



' Page 78. 

' The first white child bom in New Netherland was Sarah Rapelje, daughter of one of the 
Walloon settlers. Her birth occurred on the 7th of June, 1625. She has a number of descendants 
on Long Island. 3 Page 144. 

< Several hundred years ago, there were large districts of country in England, and on the con- 
tinent, governed by Earls, who were subject to the crown, however. These districts were called 
counties, and the name is still retained, even in the United States, and indicates certain judicial and 
other jurisdiction. New Netherland was constituted a county of Holland, having all the individual 
privileges appertaining to an earldom, or separate government. The armorial distinction of an earl, 
or count, was a kind of cap, called coronet, seen over the shield in the above engraved repre- 
sentation of tlie seal of New Netherland. The figure of a beaver, on the shield, is emblematic of 
the Hudson River regions (where that animal then abounded), and of one of the grand objects of 
settlement there, the trade in furs. ' Page 63. " Page 58. ' ' Note 2, i^ago 63. 



74 SETTLEMENTS. [160G. 

locked the waters and the forests against the fisherman and hunter. Famine 
menaced them, but relief came before any were made victims. Of all the com- 
pany, only Popham, their president, died. Lacking courage to brave the perils 
of the wilderness, the settlement was abandoned, and the immigrants went back 
to England [1608] at the very time when the Frenchmen, who were to build 
Quebec,' were upon the ocean. Traffic with the Indian tribes was continued, 
but settlements were not^again attempted for several years.^ 

Only the coast of the extensive country was seen by the several navigators 
who visited it. The vast interior, now called New England, was an unknown 
land, until Captain John Smith, with tlic mind of a philosopher and the courage 
of a hero, came, in 1614, and explored, not only the shores but the rivers 
which penetrated the wilderness. Only himself and four London merchants 
had an interest in the expedition, which proved higlily successful, not only in 
discoveries, but in trade. AVith only eight men, Smitli examined the region 
between Cape Cod and the Penobscot, constructed a mtyj} of the country, and 
after an absence of less than seven months, ho returned to England, and laid a 
report before Prince Charles (afterward the unfortunate king who lost his head), 
the heir apparent to the throne. The prince, delighted with the whole account, 
confirmed the title which Smith had given to the territory delineated on the 
map, and it was named New En(;land. Crime, as usual, dimmed the luster 
of the discovery. Hunt, commander of one of the vessels of tiie expedition, 
kidnapped twenty-seven of the Indians, with Squanto,^ their chief, as soon as 
Smith had departed, took them to Spain and sold some of them into slavery.* 
And now, at various points from Florida to Newfoundland, men-stealers of dif- 
ferent nations, had planted the seeds of hatred and distrust,^ whose fruits, in 
after years were wars, and complicated troubles. 

At the close of 1614, the Plymouth company employed Smith to make 
fiirther explorations in America and to plant a colony. He sailed in the spring 
of 1615, but was driven back by a tempest. Ho sailed again on the 4th of 
July following. His crew became mutinous, and finally his vessel was cap- 
tured by a Frencli pirate, and they were all taken to France. Smith escaped 
to England, in an oj)on boat, and arousing the sluggish energies of the Ply- 
mouth company and others, they planned vast schemes of colonization, and he 
was made admiral for life. Eager for gains, some of tiie members, joining 
with others, applied for a new charter. It was withheld for a long time. 
Finally, the king granted a charter [November 3, 1620] to forty of the wealth- 
iest and most powerful men in tlie realm, who assumed the corporate title of The 
Council of Plymouth, and superseded the original Plymouth Co.mpany." 
The vast domain of more than a million of square miles, lying between the fortieth 
and forty-eighth degree of north latitude, and westward to the South Sea,' 



' Page 49. 

'^ Tlie celebrated Lord Bacon, and others, fitted out an expedition to Newfoundland in 1610, 
but it was un.successful. ' Page 1 14. 

* When some benevolent friars heard of Hunt's intentions, they took all of tlio Indians not yet 
sold, to instruct them as missionaries. Among them was Squanto. 

" See pages 42 and 49. ' Page 63. • ^ Page 42. 



1620.] MASSACHUSETTS. 75 

was conveyed to them, as absolute owners of the soil. It was the finest portion 
of the Continent, ami now embraces the most flourishing States and Territories 
of our confederacy. This vast monopoly was unpropitious, in all its elements, 
to the founding of an empire. It wa» not the will of God that mere speculators 
and mercenary adventurers like tliese should people this broad land. The same 
year when that great commercial monopoly was formed [1G20], a company of 
devout men and women in Holland, who had been driven from England by a 
persecuting government, came to tlie wilderness of the New World, not to seek 
gold and return, but to erect a taliernacle, where tliey might worship the Great 
God in honest simplicity and fi-ecdom, and to plant in the wilderness the found- 
ation of a commonwealth, based upon truth and justice. AVho were tliey? 
Let History answer. 

Because the pope of lionie would not sanction an important measure 
desired by a greater part of the people, King Henry the Eighth of Eughmd 
defied the authority of tlie head of the Church, and, by the Art of Sii/)ixiti<iri/,- 
Parliament also cast otf the papal yoke. Yet religious freedom for tlic ])eople 
was not a consequence, for the king w-as virtually pope of Great Biitain. 
Heresy was a high crime ; and expressions of freedom of thought and opinion 
were not tolerated. The doctrines and rituals of the Romish church were 
enforced, while the uvthori/y of the pope was denied. The people discovered 
that in exchanging spiritual masters, they had gained nothing, except that the 
thunders of excommunication' had lost their effect upon the public mind, and 
thus one step toward emancipation was gained. Henry's son, Edward, estab- 
lished a more liberal Protestantism in England [1574], and 
soon the followers of Luther and Calvin' drew the tangible 
line of doctrinal difference which existed between them. The 
former retained or allowed many of the ceremonials of tlie 
church of Rome ; the latter were more austere, and demanded 
extreme simplicity in worship, and great purity of life. For 
this they were called Puritans, in derision ; a name which 
soon became honorable. AVhen Parliament established a 
liturgy for the church, the Puritans refused conformity, for 
they acknowledged no authority but the Bible in matters of 
religion. They became a distinct and influential party in 
the State [1550J, and were specially commended by the con- 
tinental reformers. 




' The people, whose proclivities were toward Protestantism, deprecated the influence of the 
queen (Cnthavino of Arragon), who was a zealous Roman Catholic, and desired her divorce from 
the monarch. The king was very willing, for he wished to marry the beautiful Anne Boleyn. 
Pope Julius the Third refused to sanction a divorce, when the king, on whom had been conferred 
the title of " Defender of the Faith," quarreled with the pontiff, and professed Protestantism. 

■^ An .\ctof Parliament, adopted in 1534, which declared the king of England the superior head 
of the Church in that realm, and made Protestantism tlie established religion of England. 

' The Pope of Rome assumes the right to excommunicate, or expel from Christian communion, 
whomsoever he pleases. In former times, even kings were not exempt. An excommunicated 
person lost social caste ; and for centuries this was an iron rod in the liand of ecclesiastics to keep 
the people iu submission to spiritual authority. Happily for mankind, this species of despotism has 
lost its power, and commands the obedience of only the ignorant and enslaved. 

' See note 14, page 62. Calvin was the leading FrcnchRefonner. 



76 SETTLEMENTS. [1606. 

Romanism was re-established in England in 1553, by Mary, the daughter 
and successor of Henry the Eighth, who was a bigoted persecutor of Protestants 
of every name. Lutherans and Calvinists were equally in peril. The fires of 
persecution were lighted, and the first Protestant martyrs were consumed at the 
stake.' Her reign was short, and she is known in history as the bloody Mary. 
She was succeeded by her half-sister, Elizabeth, in 1558, who was a professed 
Protestant, and the flames were extinguished. Elizabeth was no Puritan. 
She endeavored to reconcile the magnificent rituals of the Romish Church with 
the simple requisitions of the gospel. There was no affinity, and trouble 
ensued. The Puritans, struggling for power, asserted, in all its grandeur, the 
doctrine of private judgment in religious matters, and of untrammeled religious 
liberty. From this high position, it was but a step to the broad rock of civil 
freedom. The Puritan pulpits became the tribunes of the common people, and 
the preachers often promulgated the doctrine, that the sovereign was cmienable 
to public ojjiinou when fairly expressed. This was the very essence of demo- 
cratic doctrine, and evinced a boldness hitherto unparalleled. The jealousy 
and the fears of the queen were aroused ; and after several years of efibrt, the 
TItirty-itiiie Articles of belief, which constitute the rule of faith in the Church 
of England, were confirmed [1571] by an Act of Parliament. 

And now bigotry in power began its wicked work. In 1583, a court of 
high commission was established, for the detection and punishment of Non- 
conformists,^ with powers almost as absolute as the Roman Inquisition. Per- 
secution began its work in earnest, and continued active for twenty years. The 
Puritans looked to the accession of James of Scotland, which took place in 
1604,° with hope, but were disappointed. He was the most contemptible mon- 
arch that ever disgraced the chair of supreme government in England. A 
brilliant English writer^ says, "He was cunning, covetous, wasteful, idle, 
drunken, greedy, dirty, cowardly, a great swearer, and the most conceited man 
on earth." The pure in heart could expect no consideration from such a man. 
When he was fairly seated on the English throne, he said of the Puritans, " I 
will make them conform or I will harrie them out of the land." There were 
then more than thirty thousand of them in England. During the first year of 
James!s reign, three hundred of their ministers were silenced, imprisoned, or 
exiled. The long struggle of the established church with the Roman Catholics 
on one hand, and the Puritans on the other, was now decided. It had been a 
struggle of three quarters of a century, not so much for toleration as for 
supremacy ; and the Church of England was the final victor. During these 
trials, England lost some of her best men. Among the devout ones who fled 



' Jnlin Eogers, a jiious minister, and Jolm Hooper, Bisliop of Gloucester, were tlie first wlio 
suffered.. 

= This was tlie title of all those Protestants in England who refused to conform to tlie doctrines 
and ceremonials of the Established Church. This name was first given in 1572. Ninety years 
afterward [1662], 2,000 ministers of the Establisiied Church, unwilling to subscribe to tlie Thirty- 
nine Articles, seceded, and were called Dissenters ; a name yet applied to all British Protestants 
who are not attached to tlie Church of England. 

3 See note 1, page 63. • < Charles Diel^ens. 



1630.] MASSACHUSETTS. 77 

from persecution, was the Reverend John Robinson, pastor of a flock gathered 
in the northern counties. Informed that there was " freedom of religion for all 
men in Holland,'' he fled thither, with his people, in 1608, and established a 
church at Leyden. They were soon joined by others from their native country. 
Their purity of life and lofty independence commanded the admiration of the 
Dutch ; and their loyalty to the country from which they had been driven, was 
respected as a noble virtue. There they learned many of those sound political 
nia.xims which lie at the foundation of our own government ; for there those 
principles of civil liberty, which lay almost dormant in theory, in England, 
were found in daily practice. 

At Leyden, the English exiles were charmed by the narratives of the Dutch 
voyagers to America. They felt that they had now no home, no abiding place 
— that they were only Pilgrims — and they resolved to go to the New AVorld, 
far away from persecutions, where they might establish a colony, with religious 
freedom for its basis. A deputation went to England in 1617,' and through the 
influence of jjowerful fi-iends,'' obtained the consent of the Plymouth Company 
to settle in North Virginia,^ and also a promise from the king that he would 
wink at their heresy, and let them alone in their new home. They asked no 
more. Some London merchants formed a partnership with them, and furnished 
capital for the expedition.'' Captain John Smith, 
the founder of Virginia and explorer of New En- 
gland, offered his services, but on account of his 
aristocratic notions, they were declined. Two 
ships {y^peedwefl and May-Fhu-o-) were pur- 
chased and furnished, ° and in the summer of 1620, 
a portion of the Pilgrims in Holland — ''the 
youngest and strongest" — embarked from Delft- 
Haven for England." Robinson and the larger 
portion of his flock remained at Leyden till a more jut-flowdr. 

convenient season,' and elder Brewster accompanied 

the voyagers as their spiritual guide. The two ships loft Southampton, 
in England, on the 5th of August, 1620. The courage of the captain and 
company of the Speedwell failed, and the vessels put back to port. The sails 
of the May-Flower were again spreaxl, in the harbor of Plymouth, on the 6th 




' John Carver .and Robert Cushman. 

° Sir Edward Sandys [page 105] was one of their chief advocates in England. " Tage G.S. 

* The services of each emigrant were valued as a capital of ten pounds, and bclouged to the 
company. All profits were to be reserved till the end of seven years, when all the lauds, houses, 
and every production of their joint industry, were to be valued, and tlie amount divided among tlie 
shareholders, according to their respective interests. Tliis was a community of interest, similar, in 
character, to those which have been proposed and attempted in our day, under the respective titles 
of Communism, Fourierism, and Socialism. It failed to accomplish its intended purpose, and was 
abandoned. 

' The Speeilwdl was a vessel of 60 tons; the ilay-Flmoer of 180 tons. 

" See engraving on page 104. Tliis is a copy of a picture of Tlie Emlarlcation of the Pik/rtms 
m the Rotunda of the National Capitol, painted by Professor Robert W. AVeir, of the MilUary 
Academy, at West Point, New York. 

' Mr. Robmson was never permitted to see America. Notes 3. and 5, page 116. 



78 SETTLEMENTS. [IGOG. 

of September, and forty-one men, most of them with fimilies' (one hundred and 
one in all) — the winnowed remnant of the Pilgrisis who left Delft-Haven — 
crossed the stormy Atlantic. These were they who came to the New World to 
enjoy liberty of conscience and freedom of action, and to lay, broad and deep, a 
portion of the foundations of our happy Republic. After a boisterous passage 
of sixty-three days, thee May-Flower anchored within Cape Cod.' Before 
proceeding to the shore, the Pilgrims agreed upon a form of government, and 
committed it to writing.' To that^rs^ constitution of (jovernment ever sub- 
scribed by a whole people, the forty-one men affixed their names, and then 
elected John Carver to be their governor.' In the cabin of the May-Flower 
the first republican government in America was solemnly inaugurated. That 
vessel thus became truly the cradle of liberty in America, rocked on the free 
waves of the ocean. 

The May-Flower was tossed about on the ocean for two long months, and 
the approach to land was a joyful event for the settlers. Exploring parties 
were sent out,* and after many hardships, they selected a place for landing. It 
was on the 22d day of December, 1620, that the Pilgrim Fathers first set 
foot upon a bare rock on the bleak coast of Massachusetts Bay, while all 
around, the earth Avas covered with deep snow." They called the landing-place 



' The following are tlicir names: John Carver, William Bradford, Edward Winslow, William 
Brewster, Isaac AJlerton, Captain Miles Standish, John Alden, Samuel Fuller, Cliristopher Martin, 
William MuUms, Wilham Wliite, Richard Wan-en, John Howland, Stephen Hopkins, Edward Tilly, 
Jolm Tilly, Peter Brown, Richard Britteridge, George Soule, Richard Clark, Ricliard Gardiner, 
Francis Cook, Thomas Roger.?, Thomas Tinker, John Ridgdale, Edward Fuller, John Turner, Fran- 
cis Eaton. James Chilton, John Crackston, John Billington, Moses Fletcher, John Goodman. Degory 
Priest, Thomas Williams, Gilbert Winslow, Edward Margeson, Jolm Allerton, Thomas EnglLsh, Ed- 
ward Doley, Edward Leister. Howland was Carver's servant; Soule was Winslow's servant; and 
Dotey and Leister were servants of Hopkins. 

^The foolish statement has often been made, that the PiLGRLMS intended to land at Manhattan 
Island (New York), but the commander of the May-Flower, having been bribed hy the Dutch to do 
so, landed them further east beyond the Dutch possessions. Tlie story is a fable. Coppin, the 
. pilot, had been on the coast of New England before, and, in navigating the ifuy-Flou-er, he only 
followed his old track. 

' The following is a copy of the instrument: " lu the name of God, Amen. We, whose names 
are underwritten, the loyal subjects of our dread sovereign lord, king James, by the grace of God, 
of Great Britain, France, and Ireland, king, defender of the faith, etc., having undertaken, lor the glory 
of God and the advancement of the Christian faith, and honor ol our king and countrj', a voyage to 
plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia, do, by these presents, solemnly and mutually, 
in the presence of God and of one another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil 
body politic, for our better ordering and preservation, and furtherance of the ends aloresaid ; and by 
virtue hereof, to enact, constitute, and frame just and equal laws, ordinances, acts, constitutions, 
and offices from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient lor the general good 
of the colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience. In witness whereof we 
liave hereto subscribed our names, at Cape Cod, the 11th of November, in the year of the reign of 
our sovereign Lord, King James of England, France, and Ireland, the Eighteenth, and of Scotland 
the Fiftv-fourth. Anno Domini, 1620." 

' John Carver was born in England, went with Robinson to Holland, and on the 3d of April, 
1G2I, while governor of the Plymouth colony, he died. 

' Their leader was Miles Standish, a brave soldier, who had served in the Netherlands. He 
was very active in the colony as miUl.-iry commander-in-chief, in both fighting and treating with the 
Indians, and is called "The Hero of New England." He was a magistrate many j-ears, and died 
at Duxbury, Massachusetts, in I65G. 

" While the explorers were searching for a landing-place, the wife of William White, a bride but 
n short time before leaving Holland, gave birth to a son, "the first Englishman born in New En- 
gland." They named him Peregrine, and the cradle in which he was rocked js yet preserved. Ho 
died in Marshfield in 1704. 




KflEEi'm© ®F ^®"^7Ems[®iR CAm^^TEffi ims) wA'B^^^mi?. 



1680.] NEW HAMPSHIRE. 79 

New Plymouth, and there a flourishing village is now spread out.' Dreary, 
indeed, was the jn-ospect before them. Exposure and priva- 
tions had prostrated one half of the men before the first blow 
of the axe had been struck to erect a habitation. Faith and 
hope nerved the arms of the healthy, and they began to build. 
One by one perished. The governor and his wife died on 
the 3d of April, 1621 ; and on the first of that month, forty- 
six of the one hundred immigrants were in their graves. Nine- 
teen of these were signers to the Constitution. At one time chair.^ 

only seven men were capable of assisting the sick. Fortun- 
ately, the neighboring tribes, weakened by a pestilence,^ did not molest them. 
Spring and summer came. GamB became plenty in the forest, and they caught 
many fishes from the waters. They sowed and reaped, and soon friends from 
England joined them.^ The settlement, begun with so much sorrow and suffer- 
ing, Ijecame permanent, and then and there the foundations of the common- 
wealth of Massachusetts were laid. 




CHAPTER lY. 

NEW HAMPSHIRE. [1622-1680.] 

The enterprising Sir Fernando Gorges, who, for many years, had been 
engaged in traffic with the Indians on the New England coast, projected a set- 
tlement further eastward tlian Plymouth, and foi- that purpose became associ- 
ated with John Mason, a merchant, afterward a naval commander, and always 
"a man of action." Mason was secretary to the Plymouth Council, for New 
England,'' and was well acquainted with all matters pertaining to settlements in 
the New World. Gorges and Mason obtained a grant of land in 1622, extend- 
ing from the Merrimac to the Kennebec, and inland to the St. Lawrence. 
They named the territory Lacoxia. Mason had obtained a grant the previous 
year, extending from Salem to the mouth of the Merrimac, which he had named 
Mariana. The same year, a colony of fishermen, under David Thompson, 
seated themselves at Little Harbor, on the Piscataqua River, just below Ports- 
mouth. Another party, under two brothers named Hilton, London fishmong- 
ers, commenced a settlement, in 1623, a few miles above, at Dover ; but these 
were only fishing stations, and did not flourish. 



' "Plymouth Rock" is fiimous. It is now [1867] in two pieces. One part rem.iins in its orig- 
inal position at Hedge's Wharf; Plymouth ; the otlier is in the center of the town, surrounded by an 
iron railing. It was dragged thither, in l'?74, by twenty yoke of oxen, and over it the Whigs [note 
4, page 226] erected a liberty-pole. 

- This was the throne upon which sat the first Christian monarch of New England. Governor 
Carver was at the head of a new State, and, as cliief magistrate, held the .same relative position as 
king James of England, wliose seat was richly ornamented and covered with a canopy of silk and 
go:d. 'Page 114. * Page 115. ' Page 74 



80 SETTI. EMEKTS. [1634. 

In the year 1629, the Rev. Mr. Wheelwright (a brother-in-law of the cele- 
brated Anne Hutchinson, who was banished from the Massachusetts colony on 
a charge of sedition, in 1637) purchased from the Indians the wilderness be- 
tween the Merrimac and the Piscataqua, and founded Exeter. The same year 
Mason obtained from Gorges exclusive ownership of that same portion of La- 
CONIA. He named the domain New Hampshire, and in 1631 built a house 
upon the site of Portsmouth, the name which he gave to the spot.' Other set- 
tlements upon the Piscataqua, and along the present coast of Maine, as far as 
Portland, were attempted. At the latter place a company had a grant of land 
forty miles square, and formed an agricultural settlement in 1631, called 
LlGONiA.'' Pemaquid Point was another settlement, which remained an inde- 
pendent community for almost forty years. Trading houses were established 
as far east as Machias, but they were broken up by the French, and the west- 
ern limits of Acadie were fixed at Pemaquid Point, about half way from 
the Penobscot to the Kennebec. The several feeble and scattered settlements 
in New Hampshire formed a coalition with the flourishing Massachusetts colony 
in 1641, and remained dependencies of that province until 1680, when they 
were separated by order of the king, and New Flampshire became a royal prov- 
ince. Its first government consisted of a governor and council appointed by 
the king, and a house of representatives elected by the people. Then was 
founded the commonwealth c^ New Hampshire. 



CHAPTER V. 

MARYLAND. [1634.] 

A LARGE portion of the American colonies were the fruitful growth of the 
seeds of civil liberty, wafted hither by the fierce gales of oppression in some 

' Mason had been governor of Portsmonth, in Hampshire County, England, and these names 
were given in memory of his former re.sidence. 

" The people of these eastern settlements, which formed the basis of the present commonwealth 
of M.\IXE, did not like the goverament attempted to be established by tlie proprietor, and, taking 
political power into their own hands, placed tliemselves under the jurisdiction of Ma.s.sachusetts in 
1652. Tlie territory was erected into a county, and called Yorkshire. In 1621, king James, as 
sovereign of Scotland, placed tlie Scottish seal to a cliarter granting to Sir William Alexander, after- 
ward [1633] earl of Stirling, the whole territory eastward of the State of Maine, under tlie title of 
Nova Scolia, or New Scotland. The French had already occupied places along tlie coast, and called 
the country Acadie. Tlie Scotch proprietor never attempted .settlements, eitlier in tliis territory or in 
Canada wtiicli Cliarles the First had granted to liim. and the whole country had passed into the liands 
of the French, by treaty. The earl died in 1640, and all connection of his family with Nova Scotia 
cea.sed. His title was "held afterward by four successors, the last of whom died in 1739. In- 1750, 
William Ale.xander (General Lord Stirling during our War for Independence) made an unsuccessful 
claim to the title. The next claimant was Alexander Humphrey, who commenced operations in 
the Scottish courts in 1815, and by forgeries and frauds was partially successful. Tlie whole was 
exposed in 1833. Humphrey was in tliis country in 1852, pressing !iis claims to tlie monopoly of 
the Eastern Fisheries, by virtue of the grants of kings James and Charles more than two hundred 
years agol 



1634.] MARYLAND. 81 

form. Maryland, occupying a space between North and South Virginia,' was 
first settled by persecuted Roman Catholics from England and Ireland. While 
king James worried the Puritans on one hand, for non-conformity,' the Roman 
Catholics, at the other end of the religious scale, wei-e subjected to even more 
severe penalties. As the Puritans increased in numbers and influence, their 
cry against the Roman Catholics grew louder and fiercer ; and, while defend- 
ing themselves from persecution with one hand, they were inflicting as severe a 
lash upon the Romanists with the other. Thus sulyected to twofold opposition, 
the condition of the Roman Catholics became deplorable, and, in common with 
other sufferers for opinion's sake, their eyes were turned toward free America. 
Among the most influential professors of Catholicism was George Calvert, an 
active member of the London Company,^ and Secretaiy of State at the time 
when the Pilgrims^ were preparing to emigrate to America. He was so much 
more loyal in action to his sovereign than to his fiiith, that he did not lose the 
king's tavor, although frankly professing to be a Roman Catholic ; and for his 
services he was created an Irish peer in 1621, with the title of Lord Baltimore. 
He also obtained from James, a grant [1622] to plant a Roman Catholic colony 
on a portion of Newfoundland. He called the territory Avalox, but his scheme 
was not successful. The barren soil, and French aggressors from Acadie, were 
too much for the industry and courage of his colonists, and the settlement was 
abandoned. 

Foiled in his projects in the east. Lord Baltimore went to Virginia in 1628, 
Avith a view of establishing a colony of his brethren there. But he found the 
Virginians as intolerant as the crown or the Puritans, and he turned his back 
upon their narrow prejudices, and went to examine the beautiful, unoccupied 
region beyond the Potomac. He was pleased with the country, and applied for 
a charter to establish a colony there. The London Company was now dis- 
solved,* and the soil had become the property of the monarch. King Charles 
the First, then on the throne, readily granted a charter, but before it was com- 
pleted. Lord Baltimore died. This event occurred on the 25th of April, 1632, 
and on the 20th of June following, the patent was issued to Cecil, his son and 
heir. In honor of the queen, Henrietta Maria,' the 
province was called Maryland. The territory de- 
fined in the charter extended along each side of 
Chesapeake Bay, from the 30th to the 45th degree 
of north latitude, its western line being the waters of 
the Potomac. 

It is believed that the Maryland charter was 
drawn by the first Lord Baltimore's own hand. It 
was the most liberal one yet granted by an English 
monarch, both in respect of the proprietor and the 
settlers. The government of the province was mde- ^^'^'^' ^""^^^^ ''°'^" Baltimore. 

' Pi^e 63. = Note 2, page 76. ' Page 63. ■• Page 77. ' Page 107. 

' She was a Roman Catholic, and sister of Louis the Thirteenth of France. 

6 




82 SETTLEMENTS. [1632. 

pendent of the crown, and equality in religious rights and civil freedom was 
secured to everj Christian sect. Unitarians, or tlio.se who denied the doctrine 
of the Trinity, as well as all unbelievers in Divine revelation, were not covered 
by this mantle of toleration. The king had no power to levy the smallest tax 
upon the colonists, and all laws were invalid until sanctioned by a majority of 
the freemen, or their deputies. Under such a wise and liberal charter the 
colony, when planted, flourished remarkably, for those persecuted by the 
Puritans in New England, and the Churchmen in Virginia, there sought 
refuge, and found peace. 

Emigration to Maryland commenced in 1633. The first company, mostly 
Roman Catholics, sailed for America on the 2d of December of that year, 
under Leonard Calvert, brother of the proprietor, and appointed governor of 
the province. They arrived in March, 1634, and after saiHng up the Potomac. 
us far as Mount Vernon, they descended the stream, almost to its mouth. 
They landed upon an estuary of the Chesapeake, purchased an Indian village, 
and laid the foundation of a town [April, 1634 1, which they named St. Mary.' 
The honesty of Calvert, in paying for the land, secured the good will of the 
Indians ; and, unlike the first settlers of most of the other colonies, they experi- 
enced no sufibrings from want, or the hostilities of the Aboriginals. 

Popular government was fii-st organized in Maryland on the 8th of March. 
1635, when the first legislative assembly was convened at St. Mary. Every 
freeman being allowed to vote, it was a purely democratic legislature. As the 
number of colonists increased, this method of making laws was found to be in- 
convenient, and in 1639, a representative government was established, the 
people being allowed to send as many delegates as tliey pleased. The first rcp- 
resentati^^ assembly made a declaration of rights, defined the powers of the 
proprietor, and took measures to secure to the colonists all the civil liberties 
enjoyed by the people of Old England. Then was founded the commonwealth 
of Maryland. 



CHAPTER VI. 

CONNECTICUT. [1G3 2— 163 9.] 

Adrian Block,' the Dutch navigator, discovered and explored the Con- 
necticut River, as far as the site of Hartford, in 1614, and named it Versc/ie, 



' Trading posts were established a little earlier tlian tliis, within the Maryland province. In 
1631, "WiUiani Claybome obtained a license from the king to traffic witli tlie Indians; and when 
Calvert and his company came, lie had two settlements, one on Kent Island, nearly opposite An- 
napolis, and anotlier at the present Havre de Grace, at the moulh of the Susquehannah. He refused 
to aclcnowledge tlie authority of Baltimore, and trouble ensued. He collected his people ou tlie 
eastern shore of Maryland in 1635, with a determination to defend liis claims by force of arms; and 
in May quite a .severe slsirmisli ensued between his forces and tho.se of the colonists. Claybome's 
men were taken prisoners, and he fled to Virginia. He was declared guilty of treason, and sent to 
England for trial. His estates were forfeited ; but, being acquitted of the charge, he returned to 
Maryland and incited a rebellion. See page 151. ' Page 12. 




Hooker's Emigration to Connecticut. 



1639.] CONNECTICUT. 85 

or Fresh Water River.' Soon afterward Dutch traders were upon it3 banks, 
and mio-ht have carried on a peaceful and profitable traffic with the Indians, had 
honor and honesty marked their course. But the avaricious agent of the Dutch, 
imprisoned an Indian chief on board his vessel, and would not release him until 
one hundred and forty fathoms of wampum'' had been paid. The exasperated 
Indians menaced the traders, and near the site of Hartford, at a place yet known 
as Dutch Point, the latter commenced the erection of a fort. The Indians were 
finally conciliated, and, at their request, the fort was abandoned for awhile. 

A friendly intercourse was opened between the Dutch of New Netherland 
and the Puritans in 1627.' With the guise of friendship, but really for the 
purpose of strengthening the claims of the Dutch to the Connecticut valley, by 
having an English settlement there under the jurisdiction of New Netherland, 
Governor Minuit' advised the Puritans to leave the barren land of Massachusetts 
Bay, and settle in the fertile region of the Fresh Water River. In 1631, a 
Mohegan cliief, then at war with the powerful Pequods,'' desirous of having a 
strong barrier between himself and his foes, urged the English to come and 
settle in the Connecticut valley. The Puritans clearly perceived the selfish 
policy of both parties, and hesitated to leave. The following year [1632], 
however, Governor Winslow, of the Plymouth colony," visited that fertile region, 
and, delighted with its appearance, resolved to promote emigration thither. 
In the mean while, the Council of Plymouth' had granted the soil of Connecticut 
[1630] to the Earl of Warwicke, who, in 1631, transferred his interest to Lord 
Say-and-Seal, Lord Brooke, John Hampden, and others. The eastern bound- 
ary of the territory was " Narraganset River," and the western (like all other 
chartei's at that time) was the South Sea, or Pacific Ocean." The Dutch 
became apprised of these movements of the English ; and perceiving no advan- 
tage (but detriment) to themselves, they purchased of the Indians the land at 
Hartford and vicinity, completed their fort, and placed two cannons upon it, in 
1633, with the intention of preventing the English ascending the river. 

Although the Plymouth people were aware of the preparations made by 
the Dutch, to defend their claim, they did not hesitate, and in October, 1633, 
Captain William Holmes and a chosen company arrived in the Connecticut 
River, in a sloop. Holmes bore a commission from Governor Winslow to make 
a settlement, and brought with him the frame of a house. When he approached 
the Dutch fort, the commander menaced him with destruction if he attempted 
to pass it. Holmes was not intimidated, and sailing by unhurt, he landed at 
the site of Windsor, and there erected his house. Seventy men were sent by 
the Dutch the following year, to drive him from the country. They were kept 
at bay, and finally a parley resulted in peaceful relations." Holmes's colony 
flourished, and in the autumn of 1635, a party of si.xty men, women, and chil- 
dren, from the Puritan settlements, commenced a journey through the wilder- 



' Connecticut is the Ennrlisli ortliojiraphy of the Indian word Quon-eh-ta-cut, wliich signifies "the 
long river." " Probaljly about four hundred dollars. See note 2, page 13. 

' Page 75. * Page 139. ' Page 21. » Page 70. 

Page 74. ' Page 42. " See note ?, page 142. 




86 SETTLEMENTS. [1632. 

ness [Oct. 25] to join liim. With their cattle,' they made their slow and dreary 
■way a liundred miles through dark forests and dismal swamps ; and when they 
arrived upon the banks of the Connecticut [Nov. 25], the ground was covered 
with deep snow, and the river was frozen. It was a winter of gieat trial for 
them. Many cattle perished.^ A vessel bearing food for the colony was lost 
on the coast, and the settlers were compelled to subsist upon acorns, and scanty 
supplies of Indian corn from the natives. Many of them made their way to the 
fort, then just erected at Sayljrook, near the mouth of the river, and returned 
to Boston by water. Spring opened, and the necessities of 
those who remained were supplied. They erected a small 
house for worship on the site of Hartford, and in April, 
1636, the first court, or organized government was held 
there. At about the time when this company departed, a 
son of Governor Winthrop,^ of Massachusetts, Hugh Peters, 
and Henry Vane, arrived at Boston from England, as com- 
FiEST MELTiM HOUSE missioncrs for the proprietors of Connecticut, with instruc- 
tions to build a fort at the mouth of the river of that name, 
and to plant a colony there. The fort was speedily built, and the settlement 
was named Saybrook, in honor of the two peers named in the charter.* 

Another migration of Puritans to the Connecticut valley, more important, 
and with better results, now took place. In June, 1636, Rev. Thomas Hooker, 
the "light of the western churches,"* with other ministers, their famihes, and 
flocks, in all about one hundred, left the vicinity of Boston for the new land 
of promise. It was a toilsome journey through the swamps and forests. They 
subsisted upon berries and the milk of their cows which they took with them, 
and on the 4th of July, they stood upon the beautiful banks of the Connecticut. 
On the 9th, Mr. Hooker preached and administered the communion in the little 
meeting-house at Hartford, and there a great portion of the company settled. 
Some chose Wethersfield for a residence ; and others, from Roxbury, went up 
the river twenty miles, and settled at Springfield. There were now five dis- 
tinct English settlements upon the Connecticut River, yet they were scattered 
and weak. 

Clouds soon appeared in the morning sky, and the settlers in the Connecti- 
cut valley perceived the gathering of a fearful storm. The powerful Pequod 
Indians" became jealous of the white people, because they appeared to be the 
friends of their enemies, the Mohegans on the west, and of their more powerful 
foes, the Narragansetts, on the cast. They first commenced petty annoyances ; 
then kidnapped children, murdered men in the forests, and attacked families on 



' This was tlio first introduction of cattle into Connecticut. 

- Tlie loss in cattle was estimated at about one thousand dollars. 

' Page in. * Paprc 85. 

' Thomas Hooker was a native of Leicestershire, England, where lie was l)om in 1586. He 
was silenced, because of his non-conformity, in 1630, wlien he left the ministry, and founded a 
grammar school at Cambridge. He was compelled to flee to Holland, from wlienoe lie came to 
America with Mr. Cotton, in 1633. He wa.s a man of great benevolence, and was eminently use- 
ful. He died in July, 1047, at the age of sixty-one years. ° Page 21. 



1639.] CONNECTICTJT. 87 

the outskirts of the settlement at Sajbrook. Their allies of Block Island' cap- 
tured a Massachusetts trading vessel, killed the captain^ [J'^lji 163GJ, and 
plundered her. The Puritans in the east were alarmed and indignant, and an 
inefficient expedition from Boston and vicinity penetrated the Pequod country. 
It did more harm than good, for it resulted only in increasing the hatred antl 
hostility of the savages. The Pequods became bolder, and finally sought an 
alliance with their enemies, the Narragansetts, in an effort to exterminate the 
white people. At this critical moment a deliverer appeared when least expected. 
Roger Williams, who for his tolerant opinions had been banished from 
Massachusetts,' was now a friendly resident in the country of the Narragan- 
setts, and heard of the proposed alliance. Forgetting the many injuries he hnd 
received, he warned the doomed people of the Bay colony, of impending danger. 
At the risk of his own life, he descended Narraganset Bay in an open canoe, 
on a stormy day, and visited Miantonomoh, the renowned sachem, at his 
seat near Newport, while the Pequod embassadors were there in council. The 
latter menaced Williams with death ; yet that good man remained there three 
days, and effectually prevented the alliance.' And more — he induced the Nar- 
ragansetts to renew hostilities with the Pequods. By this generous service the 
infant settlements were saved from destruction. 

Although foded m their attempt at alliance, the Pequods were not ilis- 
heartened. During the ensuing winter tliey continued their murderous depre- 
dations. In the spring, the authorities of the English settlements on the 
Connecticut declared war against the Pequods [May, lGo7], and the Massachu- 
setts and Plymouth colonies agreed to aid them. Soon, Captain Mason, who 
was in command of the fort at Saybrook,' and Captain John Underbill, a brave 
and restless man, sailed in some pinnaces, with about eighty white men and 
seventy Mohegan Indians under Uncas,'' for Narraganset Bay. There Mian- 
tonomoh, with two hundred warriors, joined them, and they marched for the 
Pequod country. Their ranks were swollen by the brave Niantics and others, 
until five hundred '•bowmen and spearmen" were in the train of Captains 
Mason and Underbill. 

The chief sachem of the Pequods, was Sassacus, a fierce warrior, and tlie 
terror of the New England tribes.' He could summon almost two thousand, 
warriors to the field ; and feeling confident in his strength, he was not properly 
vigilant. His chief fort and village on the Mystic River, eight miles north- 
east of New London, was surprised at dawn the 5th of June, 1G37, and 
before sun-rise, more than six hundred men. women, and children, perished by 
fire and sword. Only seven escaped to spread the dreadful intelligence abroad, 
and arouse the surviving warriors. The Narragansetts turned homeward, and 
the English, aware of great peril, pressed forward to Groton on the Thames, 



' This island, which lies nearly south from the eastern border of Connecticut, was visited bj- 
Adrian Block, the Dutch navigator, and was called by his name. At the time in question, it was 
thickly populated with fierce Indians. 

' John Oldham, the first overland explorer of the Connecticut River. ' Page 89. 

' Page 91. ' Page 80. ' Page 21. ' Page 22. 



88 SETTLEMENTS. [1632. 

and there embarked for Saybrook. They had lost only two killed, and less 
than twenty wounded. 

The brave Sassacus had hardly recovered from this shock, when almost a 
hundred armed settlers, from Massachusetts, under Captain Stoughton, arrived 
at Saybrook. The terrified Pequods made no resistance, but fled in dismay 
toward the wilderness westward, hotly pureued by the English. Terrible was 
the destruction in the path of the pursuers. Throughout the beautiful country 
on Long Island Sound, from Saybrook to New Haven, wigwams and cornfields 
were destroyed, and helpless women and children were slain. With Sassacus 
at their head, the Indians flew like deer before the hounds, and finally took 
shelter in Sasco swamp, near Fairfield, where, after a severe battle, they all 
surrendered, except Sassacus and a few followers. These fled to the Mohawks,' 
where the sachem was treacherously murdered, and his people were sold into 
slavery, or incorporated with other tribes. The blow was one of extermination, 
relentless and cruel. " There did not remain a sannup or squaw, a warrior or 
child of the Pequod name. A nation had disappeared in a day." The New 
England tribes' were filled with awe, and for forty years the colonists were 
unmolested by them. 

With the return of peace, the spirit of adventure revived. In the summer 
of 1637, John Davenport, an eminent non-conformisf minister of London, with 
Theophilus Eaton and Edward Hopkins, rich merchants who represented a 
wealtliy company, arrived at Boston. They were cordially received, and 
urgently solicited to settle in that colony. T!ie Hutchinson controversy* was 
then at its height ; and perceiving the religious agitations of the people, they 
resolved to found a settlement in the wilderness. The sagacious Puritans. 
while pursuing the Pequods, had discovered the beauty and fertility of the 
country along the Sound from the Connecticut to Fairfield, and Davenport and 
his companions heard tlieir report with joy. Eaton and a few others explored 
the coast in autumn, and erecting a hut^ near the Quinipiac Creek (the site of 
New Haven), they passed the winter there, and selected it for a settlement. 
In the spring [April 13, 1638] Davenport and others followed, and under a 
wide-spreading oak,° the good minister preached his first sermon. They pur- 
chased the lands at Quinipiac of the Indians, and, taking the Bible for their 
guide, they formed an independent government, or " plantation covenant, ' ' upon 
strictly religious principles. Prosperity blessed them, and they laid the found- 
ations of a city, and called it New II.wen. The following year, the settlers 
at Windsor, Hartford, and Wethersfield, met in convention at Hartford [Jan- 
uary 24, 1639], and adopted a written constitution, which contained very liberal 
provisions. It ordained that the governor and legislature should be elected 
annually, by the people, and they were required to take an oath of allegiance 
to the commonwealth, and not to the king. The General Assembly, alone. 



Page 23. " Pajro 22. = Note 2, pa^e 16. ' Pago 120. 

On the comer of Cliurch and George-streets, New Haven. 

At the intersection of George and College-streets, New Haven. 



1G36.] RHODE ISLAND. 80 

could make or repeal laws ; and in every matter the voice of the people was 
heard. This was termed the Connecticut Colony ; and, notwithstanding it 
and the New Haven colony were not united until 1665, now was laid the found- 
ation of the commonwealth of Connecticut, which was governed l)y the 
Hartford Constitution for more than a century and a half 



CHAPTER VII. 

RHODE ISLAND. [1G3 C— 1 G -1 3 .] 

The seed of the Rhode Island commonwealth was planted by brave hands, 
made strong by persecution. The first settler in Rhode Island was William 
Blackstone, a non-conformist minister,' who was also the first resident upon the 
peninsula of Shawmut, where Boston now stands." Not liking the '' lords 
brethren" in Massachusetts any more than the "lords bishops" of England, 
from whose frowns he had fled, ho withdrew to the wilderness, and dwelt high 
up on the Seekonk or Pawtucket River, which portion of the stream still bears 
his name. There he planted, and called the place Rehoboth.' Although he 
was the first settler, Blackstone was not the founder of Rhode Island. He 
always held allegiance to Massachusetts, and did not aspire to a higher dignity 
than that of an exile for conscience' sake. 

Roger Williams, an ardent young minister at Salem,' became the instru- 
ment of establishing the foundations of a new commonwealth in the wilderness. 
When he was banished from Massachusetts, toward the close of 1635,^ he 
crossed the Ijorders of civilization, and found liberty and toleration among the 
heathen. After his sentence,' his bigoted persecutors began to dread the influ- 
ence of his enlightened principles, if he should plant a settlement beyond the 
limits of existing colonies, and they resolved to detain liim. Informed of 
their scheme, he withdrew from Salem in the dead of winter [Jan., 1636J, and 
through deep snows he traversed the forests alone, for fourteen weeks, sheltered 
only by the rude wigwam of the Indian, until he found the hospitable cabin' of 

' Note 2, page 76. ^ Tage 118. 

^ Room. The name was significant of his aim — he wanted room outside of tlie narrow confines 
of what he deemed Puritan intolerance. 

* Roger Wilhams was born in Wales, in 1599, and was educated at Oxford. Persecution drove 
him to America in 1631, when he was chosen assistant minister at Salem. His extreme toleration 
did not find there a genial atmosphere, and he went to Plymouth. There, too, he was regarded 
with suspicion. He returned to Salem in 1634, formed a separate congregation, and in 1635, tlie 
general court of Massachusetts passed sentence of banishment against him. He labored zealously 
in founding the colony of Rhode Island, and had no difficulty with any people who came thero, 
except the Quakers. He died at Providence, in April, 1683, at the age of eighty-four year:^. 

' Page 119. 
Williams was allowed six weeks after the pronunciation of his sentence to prepare for his 
departure. 

Massasoit had become acquainted with the manner of building cabins adopted by the settlers 
at fishing-stations on the coast, and had constructed one for himself They were much more com- 
fortable than wigwams. See page 13. 



90 



SETTLEMENTS. 



[IGUG. 



Massasoit, the chief sachem of the Wampanoags,' at Mount Hope. There he 
was entertained until the buds appeared, when, being joined by five friends from 
Boston, he seated himself upon the Seekonk, some distance below BLickstone's 
plantation. He found himself within the territory of the Plymouth Company.' 
Governor Winslow' advised him to cross into the Narragansett country, where 
he could not be molested. With his companions he embarked in a light canoe, 
paddled around to the head of Narraganset Bay, and upon a green slope, near 
a spring,' they prayed, and chose the spot for a settlement. Williams obtained 




(Ta^i: i HyV^' ^ '^n^ 



a grant of land from Canonicus, chief sachem of the Narragansetts, and in com- 
memoration of " God's merciful providence to him in his distress," he called the 
place Providence. 

The freedom enjoyed there was soon spoken of at Boston, and persecuted 
men fled thither for refuge. Persons of every creed were allowed full liberty 
of conscience, and lived together 'happily. The same liberty was allowed in 
politics as in religion; and a pure democracy was established there. Each 
settler was required to subscribe to an agreement, that he would submit to such 
rules, "not affecting the conscience," as a majority of the inhabitants should 
adopt for the public good. Williams reserved no political power to himself, and 
the leader and follower had equal dignity and privileges. The government was 



' Page 22. ' Page 63. ' P.n.ee 85. 

* This spring is now [1861] beneath some tine sycamores on llie west side of Benefit street, in 
Providence. 



1G43.] RHODE ISLAND. 91 

entirely in the hands of the people. Canonieus, the powerful Narragansett 
chief, became much attached to Williams, and his influence among tliem, as wc 
have seen,' was very great. He saved his persecutors from destruction, yet 
they had not the Christian manliness to remove the sentence of banishment, and 
receive him to their bosoms as a brother. He could not compress his enlarged 
views into the narrow compass of their creed ; and so, while they rejoiced in 
their deliverance, they anathematized their deliverer as a heretic and an outcast. 
But he enjoyed the favor of God. His settlement was entirely unmolested 
during the Pecpiod Avar," and it prospered wonderfully. 

Roger Williams opened his arms wide to the persecuted. Early in 1638, 
while Mrs. Hutchinson was yet in prison in Boston, ° her husband, with Wil- 
liam Coddington, Dr. John Clarke, and sixteen others, of concurrent religious 
views,' accepted the invitation of Williams to settle in his vicinity. Mianto- 
nomoh gave them the beautiful island of Aquiday^ for forty fathoms of white 
wampum.'' They called it Isle of Rhodes, because of its fancied resemblance to • 
the island of that name in the Levant, and upon its northern verge they planted 
a settlement, and named it Portsmouth. A covenant, similar to the one used 
by Williams,' was signed by the settlers ; and, in imitation of the Jewish form 
of government under the judges, Coddington was chosen judge, or chief ruler, 
with three assistants. Others soon came from Boston ; and in 1639, Newport, 
toward the lower extremity of the island, was founded. Liberty of conscience 
was absolute ; love was the social and political bond, and upon the seal ■which 
they adopted was the motto. Amor vliicit omnia — "Love is all-powerful.'' 
Although the Rhode Island and the Providence plantations were separate in 
government, they were united in interest and aim. Unwilling to acknowledge 
allegiance to either Massachusetts or Plymouth,' they sought an independent 
charter. For that purpose Roger Williams went to England in 1643. The 
whole parent country was then convulsed with civil war." After much delay, 
he obtained from Parliament (which was then contending fiercely with the 
king) a free charter of incorporation, dated March 24, 1644, and all the settle- 
ments were united under the general title of Rhode Island and Providence 
Plantations. Then was founded the commonwealth of Rhode Islaj^d. 



' Page 87. " Page 87. ' Page 120. ' Note 2, pago 120. 

' This was the Indian name of Rhode Island. It is a Narragansett word, signifying Peaceable 
Isle. It is sometimes spelled Aquitneclc, and Aquitnet. 

' Note 2, page 13. They also gave the Indians ten coats and twenty hoes, on condition that 
they should leave the island before the next winter. 

' Page 90. The following is a copy of the government compact : " We, whose names are 
underwritten, do swear solemnly, in the presence of Jehovah, to incorporate ourselves into a bodv 
politic, and, as He shall help us, will submit our persons, lives, and estates, unto our Lord Jesns 
Christ, the King of kings, and Lord of Hosts, .and to all those most perfect and absolute laws of His, 
given us in His holy Word of truth, to be guided and judged thereby." 

° This unwillingness caused the other New England colonies to refuse tlie application of Bhode 
Island to become one of the Confederacy, in 1643. See page 121. 

° Note 3, page 108. 



92 SETTLEMENTS. [1631. 

CHAPTER VIII. 

DELAWARE. NEW JERSEY, AND PENNSYLVANIA. [1G31— 1G82.] 

It is cliiEcult to draw the line of demarcation between the first permanent 
settlements in the provinces of Delaware, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania, for 
they bore such intimate relations to each other that they may be appropriately 
considered as parts of one episode in the history of American colonization. We 
shall, therefore, consider these settlements, in close connection, in one chapter, 
commencing with 

DELAWARE. 

It was claimed hj the Dutch, that the territory of New Netherland' ex- 
tended southward to Cape Ilenlopen. In Juno, 1629, Samuel Godyn and 
others purchased of the natives the territory between the Cape and the mouth 
of the Delaware River. The following year, two ships, fitted out by Captain 
De Vries and others, and placed under the command of Peter Heyes, sailed 
from the Texel [Dec. 12, 1630] for America. One vessel was captured ; the 
other arrived in April, 1631 ; and near the present town of Lewiston, in 
Delaware, thirty immigrants, with implements and cattle, seated themselves. 
Heyes returned to Holland, and reported to Captain De Vries.' That mariner 
visited America early the following year [1632J, but the little colony left by 
Heyes was not to bo found. Difficulties with the Indians had provoked .savage 
vengeance, and they had exterminated the white people. 

Information respecting the fine country along the Delaware had spread 
northward, and soon a competitor for a place on the South River, as it wa.s 
called, appeared. Ussclincx, an original projector of the Dutch West India 
Compq,ny,^ becoming dissatisfied with his associates, visited Sweden, and laid 
before the enlightened monarch, Gustavus Adolphus, well-arranged plans for a 
Swedish colony in the New World. The king was delighted, for hi» attention 
had already been turned toward America ; and his benevolent heart w as full of 
desires to plant a free colony there, which should become an asylum for all 
persecuted Christians. While his scheme was ripening, the danger which 
menaced Protestantism in Germany, called him to the field, to contend for the 
principles of the Reformation. ^ He marched from his kingdom with a strong 
army to oppose the Imperial hosts marshaled under the banner of the Pope on 
the fields of Germany. Yet the care and tumults of the camp and field did not 
make him forget his benevolent designs ; and only a few days before his death. 

' Page 12. 

' De Vries was an eminent navigator, and one of Godyn's friends. To secure his valuable 
services, the purchasers made him a partner in tlieir enterprise, witli patroon [page 139] privileges, 
and the first expedition was arranged by liira. He afterward came to America, and was one of 
the most active men in the Dutch colonies. On his return to Holland, he published an account (jf 
his voyages. ' Page 72. ' Note 14, page G2. 



1682.] yiEW JERSEY. 98 

at the battle of Lutzen [Nov. 6, 1632], Gustavus recommended the enterprise 
as "the jewel of his kingdom." 

The successor of Gustavus ■nas his daughter Christina, then onlj six years 
of acre. The government was administered by a regency,' at the head of Avhicli 
was Axel, count of Oxenstierna. He was the earliest and most ardent sup- 
porter of the proposed great enterprise of Gustavus ; and in 1634 he issued a 
charter for the Swedish West India Company. Peter Minuit," who had been 
recalled from the governorship of New Netherland, and was also dissatisfied 
with the Dutch West India Company, went to Stockholm, and oflFered his serv- 
ices to the new corporation. They were accepted, and toward the close of 1637 
he sailed from Gottenburg with fifty emigrants, to plant a colony on the west 
side of the Delaware. He landed on the site of New Castle, in April, 1638. 
and purchased from the Indians' the territory between Cape Henlopen and the 
Falls of the Delaware, at Trenton. They built a church and fort on the site 
of Wilmington, called the place Christina, and gave the name of New Sweden 
to the territory. The jealousy of the Dutch Avas aroused by this "intrusion," 
and they hurled protests and menaces against the Swedes.* The latter contin- 
ued to increase by immigration ; new settlements were planted ; and upon Tin- 
icum Island, a little below Philadelphia, they laid the foundations of a capital 
for a Swedish province.^ The Dutch AVest India Company'' finally resolved to 
expel or subdue the Swedes. The latter made hostile demonstrations, and 
defied the power of the Dutch. The challenge was acted upon ; and toward 
the close of the summer of 1655, governor Stuy vesant, with a squadron of seven 
vessels, entered Delaware Bay.' In September every Swedish fort and settle- 
ment was brought under his rule, and the capital on Tinicum Island was 
destroyed. The Swedes obtained honorable terms of capitulation ; and for 
twenty-five years they prospered under the rule of the Dutch and English pro- 
prietors of New Netherland. 

NEWJERSET. 

All the territory of Nova C^sarea, as New Jersey was called by the 
English, was included in the New Netherland charter,^ and transient trading 
settlements were made [1622], first at Bergen, by a few Danes, and then on 
the Delaware. Early in 1623, the Dutch built a log fort near the mouth of 
Timber Creek, a few miles below Camden, and called it Nassau.^ In June, 

' A regent is one who exercises tlie power of king or emperor, during the absence, incapacity, 
or childhood of the latter. For many years, George the Third of England was incapable of ruling 
on account of his insanity, and his son who was to be his successor at his death, was called the 
Prince Regent, because Parliament had given him power to act as king, in the place of his father. 
In the case of Christina, three persons were appointed regents, or rulers. 

' Page 139. " The Delawares. See page 20. * Page 143. 

' This was done about forty years before William Penn became proprietor of Pennsylvania. 

' Page 72. ' Page 143. ' Page 72. 

° It was built under the direction of Captain Jacobus May, who had observed attempts made 
by a French sea-captain to set up the arms of France there. The fort was built of logs, and was 
little else than a rude block-house, with palissades. [See note 1, page 127.] A Uttle garrison, left to 
protect it, was soon scattered, and the fort was abandoned. 



94 SETTLEMENTS. [1631. 

1623, four couples, who had been married on the voyage from Amsterdam. 
v/ere sent to plant a colony on the Delaware. They seated themselves upon 
the site of Gloucester, a little below Fort Nassau, and this was the commence- 
ment of settlements in West Jersey. 

Seven years later [1630] Michael Pauw bought from the Indians the lands 
extending from Hoboken to the Raritan, and also the whole of Staten Island, 
and named the territory Pavotiia.^ In this purchase, Bergen was included. 
Other settlements were attempted, but none were permanent. In 1631, Cap- 
tain Heyes, after establishing the Swedish colony at Lewiston,- crossed the 
Delaware, and purchased Cape ^lay' from the Indians ; and from that point to 
Burlington, traders' huts were often seen. The English became possessors of ■] 
New Netherland in 1664, and the Duke of York, to whom the province had 
been given, ^ conveyed to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret [June 24, 
1664], all the territory between the iVo;-^/j and Soufh (Hudson and Delaware) 
Rivers, and northward to the line of forty-one degrees and forty minutes, under 
the title of Nova Casarea or New Jersey. Soon afterward several families 
from Long Island settled at Elizabethtown,^ and there planted the first fruitful 
seed of the New Jersey colony, for the one at Gloucester withered and died. 
The following year, Philip Carteret, who had lieen appointed governor of the 
new province, arrived with a charter, fair and liberal in all its provisions. It 
provided for a government to be composed of a representative assembly" chosen 
by the people, and a governor and council. The legislative powers resided in 
the assembly; the executive powers were intrusted to the governor and his 
council. Then [1665] was laid the foundation of the commonwealth of New 
Jersey. 

pennsylvania. 

A new religious sect, called Quakers,' arose in England at about the com- 
mencement of the civil wars [1642 — 1651] which resulted in the death of 
Charles the First. Their preachers were the boldest, and yet the meekest of 
all non-conformists." Purer than all other sects, they were hated and perse- 
cuted by all. Those who came to America for " conscience' sake" were perse- 
cuted by the Puritans of New England," the Churchmen of Virginia and 
Maryland, and in a degree by the Dutch of New Amsterdam ; and only in 
Rhode Island did they enjoy freedom, and even there they did not always dwell 
in peace. In 1673, George Fox, the founder of the Quaker sect, visited all his 
brethren in America. He found them a despised people everywhere, and his 

' Until the period of our War for Independence, the point of land in Pavonia-, on which Jerse)' 
City, opposite New York, now stands, was called Paulus' Hook. Here was the scene of a bold 
exploit bv Americans, under Major Henry Lee, in 1779. See page 298. 

' Page 92. ' Named in honor of Captain Jacobus Mey, or May. ' Page 159. 

' Page 159. " Note 3, page 159. 

' Tills name was given by Justice Burnet, of Derby, in 1G50, who was admonished by George 
Fox, when he was cited before tlie magistrate, to tremble and qualx at the Word of (he Lord, at the 
same time Fox quiiked, as if stirred by mighty emotions. Sea page 122. 

' Note 2, page 76. ° Page 75. 



ir,82.] 



P K N N S Y L V A N I A . 



Iieart yearned for an asylum for his brctlircii. Among the most influential of 
his converts was William Penn,' son of the renowned admiral of tliat nnnie. 
Tlirough him the sect gained access to the ears of the nohility, and soon the 
Quakers (iossessed the western half of New Jersey, by purchase from Lord 
Berkeley.' The first company of immigrants landed in the autumn of lt>7;), 
and named the place of debarkation Sii/i'in.' Tiiey established a democratic 
form of government ; and, in November, 11181. the first legislative assembly of. 
Quakers ever convened, met at Salem. 




"X 



While these events were progressing, Penn, who liad been chief peace-maker 
when disputes arose among the proprietors and the jjcopk;, took measures to 
plant a new colony beyond the Delaware. He applied to Charles the Second 
for a charter. The king remembered tlie services of Admiral Penn,' and gave 
his son a grant [March 14, 1081 1 of " three degrees of latitude by five degrees 



' William Penn wa.s born in London, in October, 1(;44, and was cdncated at O.xford. He wan 
remarkable, in liis youth, for brilliant talents; and while a student, having hoard the preaching of 
Quakers, he was drawn t« them, and suffered expulsion from his father's roof in eon.sec|Ueni'e. Ho 
went abroad, obtained courtly manners, studied law after his return, and was again driven from 
liomo for assoeiating with Quakers. He then became a preacher atnont; them, and remained in 
that conneetioii until his death. After a life of great activity and eonsiderablu BuH'eriiiK, lie died in 
England, in 1718, at the age of seventy-four years. ' Page 119. 

' Now the capital of Salem county. New .Jersey. 

* He was a very efficient naval commander, and by his skill eoiitribiiti'd to the defeat of tho 
Dutch in 1GG4. Tlic king gave him the title of Huron ibr his services. Note 15, page G2. 



96 SETTLEMENTS. [1631. 

of longitude west of the Delaware," and named the province Pennsylvania, in 
honor of the proprietor. It included the principal settlements of the Swedes. 
To these people, and others within the domain, Penn sent a proclamation, filled 
with the loftiest sentiments of republicanism. William Markham, who bore the 
proclamation, was appointed deputy-governor of the province, and with him 
sailed (May, 1681] quite a large company of immigrants, who were members 
or employees of the ComfKiny of Free Traders,' who hatl purchased lands of 
the proprietor. In May, the following year, Penn published a frame of gov- 
ernment, and sent it to the settlers for their approval. It was not a constitu- 
tion, but a code of wholesome regulations for the people of the colony." He 
soon afterward obtained by grant and purchase [Aug. 1682] the domain of the 
present State of Delaware, which the Duke of York claimed, notwithstanding it 
was clearly not his own. It comprised three counties, Newcastle, Kent, and 
Sussex, called The Territories. 

Penn had been anxious, for some time, to visit his colony, and toward the 
close of August, 1682, he sailed in the Welcome for America, with about one 
hundred emigrants. The voyage was long and tedious ; and when he arrived 
at Newcastle, in Delaware [Nov. 6], he found almost a thousand new comers 
there, some of whom had sailed before, and some after his departure from En- 
gland. He was joyfully received by the old settlers, who then numbered almost 
three thousand. The Swedes said, "It is the best day we have ever seen;" 
and they all gathered like children around a father. A few days afterward, he 
proceeded to Shackamaxon (now Kensington suburbs of Philadelphia), where, 
andei' a wide-spreading elm, as tradition declares, he entered into an honorable 
treaty with the Indians, for tlieir lands, and established with them an everlast- 
ing covenant of peace and friendship. " We meet," said Penn, " on tlje broad 
pathway of good faith and good will ; no advantage shall be taken on either 
side ; but all shall be openness and love." And so it was. 

"Tlioult finil," said tlie Quaker, "in me and in mine, 
But friends and brothers to tlieo and thine, 
Who abuse no power and admit no line 

'Tv\ ixt the red man and the white. 

And briglit was tlie spot wliere tlie Qual^er came. 
To leave his hat, his drab, and liis name, 
Tliat will sweetly sound from the trump of Fame, 
Till its final blast shall die." 

On the day after his arrival, Penn received from the agents of the Duke of 
York,' in the presence of the people, a formal surrender of The Territories ; 

' Lands in the new province were offered for about ten cents an acre. Quite a number of pur- 
chasers united, and called themselves The Company of Free Trade's, with whom Penn entered into 
an agreement concerning the occupation of the soil, laying out of a city, &e. 

° It ordained a General Assembly or court, to consist of a governor, a council of seventy, chosen 
by the freemen of the colony, and a house of delegates, to consist of not less tlian two hundred 
members, nor more than five hundred. Tlieso were also to be chosen by tlie people. Tlie proprietor, 
or his deputy (the governor), was to preside, and to have a tliree-fold voice in the council ; that is, on 
all questions, lie was to have three votes lor every one of the councillors. ' Page 144 



1G82.] 



THE CAROLINAS. 



97 



and after resting a few days, he proceeded to visit 
his bretliren in New Jersey, and the authorities 
at New York. On liis return, he met the General 
Assembly of tiie province at Chester,' when he 
declared the union of The Territories with Pennsyl- 
vania. He made a more judicious organization of the 
local government, and then were permanently laid the 
foundations of the commonwealth of Pennsylvania. 




.■^ilMisly house. 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CAROLINAS. [ 1 C 2 2 — 1 G 8 .] 

Unsuccessful efforts at settlement on the coast of Carolina, were made 
during a portion of the sixteenth century. These we have already considered.^ 
As early as 1609, some dissatisfied people from Jamestown settled on the 
Nansemond; and in 1622, Porey, then Secretary of Virginia, with a few 
friends, penetrated the country beyond the Roanoke. In 1630, Charles the 
First granted to Sir Robert Heath, his attorney-general, a domain south of 
Virginia, si.\ degrees of latitude in width, extending from Albemarle Sound to 
the St. John's River, in Florida, and, as usual, westward to the Pacific Ocean. 
No settlements were made, and the charter was forfeited. At that time. Dis- 
senters or Nonconformists' suifered many disabilities in Virginia, and looked to 
the wilderness for freedom. In 1653, Roger Green and a few Presbyterians 
left that colony and settled upon the Chowan River, near the present village of 
Edenton. Other dissenters followed, and the colony flourished. Governor 
Berkeley, of Virginia,' wisely organized them into a separate political commu- 
nity [1663], and William Drummond,' a Scotch Presbyterian minister, Avas 
appointed tiieir governor. They received the name of Albemarle County 
CoJonij, in honor of the Duke of Albemarle, who, that year, became a proprietor 
of the territory. Two years previously [1661], some New England" adventur- 
ers settled in the vicinity of Wilmington, on the Cape Fear River, but many 
of them soon abandoned the country because of its poverty. 

Charles the Second was famous for his distribution of the lands in the New 
World, among his friends and favorites, regardless of any other claims, Abo- 



' The picture is a correct representation of the buildinsr at Chester^ in Pennsylvania, wherein 
the Assembly met. It Wivs yet standing in 1860. Not far from the spot, on the shore of the Dela- 
ware, at the mouth of Chester Creek, was also a solitary pine-tree, which marked the place where 
Penn landed. 

" Pages 55 to 57 inclusive. ' Note 2, page Y6. ■* Page 7S. 

^ Drummond was afterward executed on account of liis participation in Bacon's revolutiimury 
■'icts. See note 5, page 112. • Pa^e 108 



98 SETTLEMENTS. [1622. 

rigiiial or European. In 1663, he granted the whole territory named in Sir 
Robert Heath's charter, to eight of his principal friends,' and called it Caro- 
lina.^ As the Chowan settlement was not within the limits of the charter, the 
boundary was extended northward to the present line between Virginia and 
North Carolina, and also southward, so as to include the whole of Florida, 
except its peninsula. The Bahama Islands were granted to the same proprie- 
tors in 1667.^ Two years earlier [1665], a company of Barbadoes planters 
settled upon the lands first occupied by the New England people, near the 
present Wilmington, and founded a permanent settlement there. The few 
settlers yet remaining were treated kindly, and soon an independent colony, with 
Sir John Yeamans' as governor, was established. It was called the Clarendon 
Covnty Colony, in honor of one of the proprietors. Yeamans managed 
prudently, but the poverty of the soil prevented a rapid increase in the popula- 
tion. The settlers applied themselves to the manufacture of boards, shingles, 
and staves, which they shipped to the AVest Indies ; and that business is yet the 
staple trade of that region of pine forests and sandy levels. Although the 
settlement did not flourish, it continued to exist; and then was founded the 
commonwealth of North Carolina. 

The special attention of the proprietors was soon turned toward the more 
southerly and fertile portion of their domain, and in January. 1670, they sent 
three ships with emigrants, under the direction of William Sayle^ and Joseph 
West, to plant a colony below Cape Fear. They entered Port Royal, landed 
on Beaufort Island at the spot where the Huguenots built Fort Carolina in 
1564,° and there Sayle died early in 1671. The immigrants soon afterward 
abandoned Beaufort, and sailing into the Ashley River,' seated themselves on 
its western bank, at a place a few miles above Charleston, now known as Old 
Town. There they planted the first seeds of a South Carolina colony. West 
exercised authority as chief magistrate, until the arrival of Sir John Yeamans, 
in December, 1671, who was appointed governor. He came with fifty families, 
and a large number of slaves.' Representative government was instituted in 
1672' under the title of the Carteret Cnnnty Colony. It was so called in 
honor of one of the proprietor,?. ^ Ten years afterward they abandoned the spot ; 



' Lord Clarendon, his prime minister ; General Monk, just created Duke of Albemarle ; Lord 
Ashley Cooper, afterward Earl of Shaftesbury ; Sir George Carteret, a proprietor of New Jersey ; 
Sir William Berkeley, Governor of Virginia; Lord Berkeley, Lord Craven, and Sir John Colleton. 

' It will be perceived [note 1, page 55] that the name of Carolina, given to territory south of 
Virginia, was bestowed in honor of two kings named Charles, one of France, the other of England. 

^ Samuel Stephens succeeded Drummond as governor, in 16S7 ; and in 1668, the first popular 
Assembly in North Carolina convened at Edenton. 

* Yeamans was an impoverished English baronet, who had become a planter in Barbadoes, to 
mend his fortune. He was successful, and became wealthy. 

' Sayle had previously explored the Carolina coast. Twenty years before, he had attempted to 
plant an "Eleutharia." or place dedicated to the genius of Liberty [see Elexiiheria. Anthon's Class- 
ical Dictionary], in the isles near the coast of Florida. 

" Page 50. ' Pago ICC. 

' This was the commencement of negro slavery in South Carolina. Yeamans brought almost 
two hundred of them from Barbadoes. From the commencement. South Carolina lias been a 
planting State. ' Note 5, page ICo. 

'" He was also one of the proprietors of New .Ter.sey. See page 119. 



1680.J GEORGIA. 99 

aiid upon Oyster Point, at the junction of Ashley and Cooper Rivers,' nearer 
the sea, they founded the present city of Charleston.'' Immigrants came from 
various parts of Europe ; and many Dutch families, dissatisfied with the English 
rule at New York,^ went to South Carolina, where lands were freely given 
them ; and soon, along the Santee and tlie Edisto, the wilderness began to 
blossom under the hand of culture. The people would have nothing to do with 
a government scheme prepared by Shaftesbury and Locke,* but prefen-ed simple 
organic laws of their own making. Then were laid the foundations of the com- 
monwealth of South Carolina, although the history of the two States, under 
the same proprietors, is inseparable, until the period of their dismemberment, 
in 1729.^ 



CHAPTER X . 

GEORGIA. [113 3.] 

Georgia was the latest settled of the thirteen original English colonies in 
America. AVhen the proprietors of the Carolinas surrendered their charter" to 
the crown in 1729, the whole country southward of the Savannah River, to 
the vicinity of St. Augustine, was a wilderness peopled by native tribes,' and 
claimed by the Spaniards as part of their territory of Florida.' The English 
disputed this claim, and South Carolina townships were ordei'ed to be marked 
out as far south as the Alatamaha. The dispute grew warm and warlike, and 
the Indians, instigated by the Spaniards, depredated upon the frontier English 
settlements.' But, while the clouds of hostility were gathering in the firma- 
ment, and grew darker every hour, it was lighted up by a bright beam of be- 
nevolence, which proved the harbinger of a glorious day. It came from England, 
where, at that time, poverty was often considered a crime, and at least four 
thousand unfortunate debtors were yearly consigned to loathsome prisons. The 
honest and true, the noble and the educated, as well as the ignoi-ant and the 
vile, groaned within prison walls. Their wailings at length reached the ears 
of benevolent men. Foremost among these was James Edward Oglethorpe,'" a 
brave soldier and stanch loyalist, whose voice had been heard often in Parlia- 
ment against imprisonment for debt. 

A committee of inquiry into the subject of such imprisonments, was ap- 



' These were so called in honor of Ashley Cooper, Earl of Sliaftesbury. The Indian name of 
the former was Ee-a-ivah, and of the latter E-ti-wan. 

■ Charleston was laid out in 1680 by Jolin Culpepper, who had been surveyor-general for 
North Carohna. See page.166. ^ Page 164. ■* Page 164. ^ Page 17 i. 

" Page 171. ' Page 29. » Page 42. " Page 170. 

'° See portrait, page 104. General Oglethorpe was horn in Surrey, England, on the 21st of De- 
cember, 1698. He was a soldier by profession. In 1745, he was made a brigadier-general, and 
Ibught against Charles Edward, the Pretender, who was a grandson of James the Second, and 
claimed rightful heirship to the throne of England. Oglethorpe refused the supreme command of 
llie British army destined for America m 177D. He died, June 30, 178!5, aged eighty-seven years. 



100 SETTLEMENTS. [1733. 

pointed by Parliament, and General Oglethorpe ^^•as made chairman of it. His 
report, embodying a noble scheme of benevolence, attracted attention and 
admiration. He proposed to open the prison doors to all virtuous men within, 
Avho would accept the conditions, and with these and other sufferers from pov- 
erty and oppression, to go to the wilderness of America, and there establish a 
colony of freemen, and open an asylum for persecuted Protestants' of all lands. 
The plan met warm resjionses in Parliament, and received the hearty approval 
of George the Second, then [1730] on the English throne. A royal charter for 
twenty-one years was granted [June 9, 1732J to a corporation " in trust for 
the poor," to establish a colony within the disputed territory south of the Sa- 
vannah, to be called Georgia, in honor of the king." Individuals subscribed 
large sums to defray the expenses of emigrants hither ; and within two years 
after the issuing of the patent, Parliament had appropriated one hundred and 
eighty thousand dollars for the same purpose.^ 

The sagacious and brave Oglethorpe was a practical philanthropist. He 
offered to accompany the first settlers to the wilderness, and to act as governor 
of the new province. With one hundred and twenty emigrants he left England 
[Nov., 1732], and after a passage of fifty-seven days, touched at Charleston 
[Jan., 1733], where he was received with great joy by the inhabitants, as one 
who was about to plant a barrier lietween them and the hostile Indians and 
Spaniards.'' Proceeding to Port Royal, Oglethorpe landed a large portion of 
his followers thci-e, and with a few others, he coasted to the Savannah River. 
Sailing up that stream as fiir as Yamacraw Bluff, he landed, and cho.se the spot 
whereon to lay the foundation of the capital of a future State.* 

On the 12th of February, 1733, the remainder of the immigrants arrived 
from Port Royal. The winter air was genial, and with cheerful hearts and 
willing hands they constructed a rude fortification, and commenced the erection 
of a town, which they called Savannah, the Indian name of the river." For 
almost a year the governor dwelt under a tent, and there he often held friendly 
intercourse with the chiefs of neighboring tribes. At length, when he liatl 
mounted cannons upon the fort, and safety was thus secured, Oglethorpe met 



' Note 14, page 62. 

- The domain granted by the charter extended alon<r the const from the ,S.ivannah to tlie .\la- 
taraaha, and westward to the Pacific Ocean. Tlie trustees appointed by tlie crown, pos.sessed all 
legislative and executive power ; and, therefore, while one side of the seal of (he new province 
expressed the benevolent character of the sclieme, by the device of a group of toiling silkworms, 
and the motto, Non sibi, sed aiiis ; the other side, bearing, between two urns the genius of 
" Georgia Augusta," with a cap of Uberly on her head, a spear, and a horn of plenty, was a false 
emblem. Tliere was no political liberty lor the people. 

^ Brilliant visions of vast vintages, immense productions of silk for British looms, and all the 
wealth of a fertile tropical region, were presented for the contemplation of the commercial acumen 
of the bu.siness men of England. These considerations, as well as the promptings of pure benev- 
olence, made donations lilieral and numerous. ' Page 99.. 

' Some historians believe that Sir Walter Raleigh, while on his way to South America, in 1595, 
went up the Savannah River, and held a conference witli the Indians on this very spot. This, 
probably, is an error, for nothing appears in the writings of Raleigh or his cotemporaries to warrant 
the inference tli.at he ever saw the North American continent. 

" Tlie streets were laid out with great regularity; public squares were reserved; and the houses 
were all built on one model — twenty-four by sixteen feet, on the ground. 










LETHURPEb FUbr INPEIME^N -(MIH 1 HL InWA>« 



1733.] GEORGIA. 103 

fifty chiefs in council [May, 1733], with To-mo-chi-chi,^ the principal sachem 
of the lower Cree'c confederacy.^ at their head, to treat for the purchase of 
lands. Satisfactory arrangements were made, and the English obtained sover- 
eignty over the whole domain [June 1, 1733] along the Atlantic from the Sa- 
vannah to the St. John's, and westward to the Flint and the head waters of the 
Chattahoochee. The provisions of the charter formed the constitution of gov- 
ernment for the people ; and there, upon Yamacraw Bluff, where the flourishing 
city of Savannah now stands, was laid the foundation of the commonwealth of 
Georgia, in the summer of 1733. Immigration flowed thither in a strong and 
continuous stream, for all were free in religious matters ; yet for many years 
the colony did not flourish.' 

Wonderful, indeed, were the events connected with the permanent settle- 
ments in the New World. Never in the history of the race was gi-eater hero- 
ism displayed than the seaboard of the domain of the United States exhibited 
during the period of settlements, and the development of colonies. Hardihood, 
faith, courage, indomitable perseverance, and untiring energy, were requisite 
to accomplish all that was done in so short a time, and under such unfavorable 
circumstances. While many of the early immigrants were mere adventurers, 
and sleep in deserved oblivion, because they were recreant to the great duty 
which they had self-imposed, there are thousands whose names ought to be per- 
petuated in brass and marble, because of their faithful performance of the 
mighty task assigned them. They came here as sowers of the prolific seed of 
human liberty ; and during the colonizing period, many of them carefully nur- 
tured the tender plant, while it was bursting into vigorous life. We, who are 
the reapers, ought to reverence the sowers and the cultivators with grateful 
hearts. 

' To-mo-chi-chi was then an aged man, and at hi.s first interview with Oglethorpe, he presented 
him witli a buffalo skin, ornamented with the picture of an eagle. " Here," said the chief, "is a little 
present: I give you a buffalo's skin, adorned on the inside with the head and feathers of an eagle, 
which I desire you to accept, because the eagle is an emblem of speed, and the buffalo of strength. 
The English are swift as the bird, and strong as the beast, since, like the former, they (lew over 
vast seas to the uttermost parts of the earth ; and like the latter, they are so strong that nothmg 
can withstand theui. The feathers of an eagle are soft, and signify love ; the buffiilo's skin is 
warm, and signifies protection ; — therefore I hope the Enghsh wili protect and love our little fam- 
iUes." Alas! the wishes of the venerable To-mo-chi-chi were never reahzed, for the white people 
more often plundered and destroyed, than loved and protected the Indians. 

To-mo-chi-chi died on the 5tli of October, 1139, at his own town, four miles from Savannah, 
aged about ninety-seven years. He loved General Oglethorpe, and expressed a desire that his 
body might be laid among tlie English at Savannah. It was buried tliere with public honors. — See 
the Gentleman's Magazine, 1740, page 129. K 

" Page 30. ' Pages 171 and 173. ' 




JVilEb EUttAKD OtLLUlOliPL 



CHAPTER 



Having briefly traced the interesting 
events which resulted in the founding of sev- 
eral colonies by settlements we will now con- 
sider the more important acts of establishing permanent commonwealths, all of 
which still exist and flourish. The colonial history of the United States is 
comprised within the period commencing when the several settlements along the 
Atlantic coasts became organized into political communities, and ending when 
representatives of these colonies met in general congress in 1774,' and confeder- 
ated for mutual welfare. Tliere was an earlier union of interests and efforts. 
It was when the several English colonies aided the mother country in a long 
war against the combined hostilities of the French and Indians. As the local 
histories of the several colonies after the commencement of that war have but 
little interest for the general reader, we shall trace the progress of each colony 
only to that period, and devote a chapter to the narrative of the French and 
Indian war.^ 



' Page 228. 



Page 179. 



1619,] VIRGINIA. 10.j 

As we have already observed, a setllemeiit acquires the character of a 
rolontj only when it has become permanent, and the people, acknowledging 
allegiance to a parent State, are governed by organic laws.' According to 
these conditions, the earliest of the thirteen colonies represented in the Con- 
gress of 1774, was 

VIRGINIA. [1019.] 

That was an auspicious day for the six hundred settlers in Virginia when 
the gold-seekers disappeared,^ and the enlightened George Yeardley became 
governor, and established a representative assembly [June 28, 1619] — the first 
in all America." And yet a prime element of happiness and prosperity was 
wanting. There were few xuhlte women In. the colony. The wise Sandys, the 
friend of the Pilgrim Fa(he?-s,' was then treasurer of the London Company,' 
and one of the most influential and zealous promoters of emigration. During 
tlie same year w'hen the Puritans sailed for America [1G20], he sent more than 
twelve hundred emigrants to Virginia, among whom were ninety young women, 
"pure and uncorrupt," who were disposed of for the cost of their passage, a^ 
wives for the planters.'' The following year si.xty more were sent. The fam- 
ily relation was soon established ; the gentle influence of woman gave refine- 
ment to social life on the banks of the Powhatan ;' new and powerful incentives 
to industry and thrift were created ; and the mated planters no longer cherished 
the prevailing idea of returning to England.^ Vessel after vessel, laden with 
immigrants, continued to arrive in the James River, and new settlements were 
planted, even so remote as at the Falls,' and on the distant banks of the Poto- 
mac. The germ of an empire was i-apidly expanding with the active elements 
of national organization. Verbal instructions would no longer serve the pur- 
poses of government, and in August, 1621, the Company granted the colonists 
a written Constitution,'" which ratified most of the acts of Yeardley." Pro- 
vision was made for the appointment of a governor and council by the Conipan}^, 
and a popular Assembly, to consist of two burgesses or I'cpresentatives from 
each borough, chosen by the people. This body, and the council, composed 
the General Assembly, which was to meet once a year, and pass laws for the 

' Pafro Gl. "^ Page 71. ' Pago Tl. ' Page 11. = Page 64. 

" Tobacco had already become a circulating medium, or currency, in Virginia. The price of a 
wife varied from 120 to 150 pounds of this product, equivalent, in money value, to about $90 and 
^112 each. The second " cargo" were sold at a still higher price. By the king's special order, one 
Imndred dissolute vagabonds, called "jail-birds" by the colonists, were sent over the same year, and 
sold as bond-servants for a specified time. In August, tlie same year, a Dutch trading vessel en- 
tered the James River with negro slaves. Twenty of them were sold into perpetual slavery to the 
planters. This was the commencement of negro slavery in the English colonies [note 4. page 177]. 
The slave population of the United States in 1860, according to the census, was about 4,000,000. 

' Page 64. 

" Most of tlie immigrants hitherto were possessed of the spirit of mere adventurers. They came 
lO America to repair sliattered fortunes, or to gain wealth, with the ultimate object of returning to 
England to enjoy it. The creation of families made the planters more attached to the soil of Vir- 
ginia. 

" Near the site of the city of Richmond. The falls, or rapids, extend about six miles. 

" The people of the May-flower formed a wrilten Coihstiluiion for themselves [page 78]. That 
of Virginia was modeled after the Constitution of Kngland. " Page 70. 



106 THE COLONIES. [1619, 

general good.' Such law.s were not valid until approved by the Company, 
neither were any orders of the Company binding upon the colonists until 
ratified by the General Assembly. Trial by jury was established, and courts 
of law conformable to those of England were organized. Ever afterward claim- 
ing these privileges as rifjlits^ the Virginians look back to the summer of 1621 
as the era of their civil freedom. 

The excellent Sir Francis Wyatt, who had been appointed governor under 
the Constitution^ and brought the instrument with him, was delighted with the 
aspect of affairs in Virginia. But a dark cloud soon arose in the summer sky. 
The neighboring Indian tribes' gathered in solemn council. Powhatan, the 
friend of the English after the marriage of his daughter.^ was dead, and an 
enemy of the white people ruled the dusky nation.^ They had watched the 
increasing strength of the English, with alarm. The white people were now 
four thousand in number, and rapidly increasing. The Indians read their des- 
tiny — annihilation — upon tlie face of every new comer ; and, prompted by the 
first great law of his nature, self-preservation, the red man resolved to strike a 
blow for life. A conspiracy was accordingly fonned, in the spring of 1622. to 
exterminate the white people. At mid-day, on the 1st of April, the hatchet 
fell upon all of the more remote settlements ; and within an hour, three hun- 
dred and fifty men, women, and children, were slain.' Jamestown' and neigh- 
boring plantations were saved by the timely warning of a converted Indian.' 
The people wei-e on their guard and escaped. Those fiir away in the forests 
defended themselves bravely, and when they had beaten back the foe, they fled 
to Jamestown. Within a few days, eighty plantations were reduced to eight. 

The people, thus concentrated at Jamestown by a terrible necessity, pre- 
pared for vengeance. A vindictive war ensued, and a terrible blow of retalia- 
tion was given. The Indians upon the James and York Rivers were slaughtered 
by scores, or wei-e driven far back into the wilderness. Yet a blight was upon 
the colony. Sickness and fiimine followed close upon the massacre. Within 
three months, the colony of four tiiousand souls was reduced to twenty-five 
hundred ; and at the beginning of 1624, of the nine thousand persons who had 
been sent to Virginia from England, only eighteen hundred remained. 

These disheartening events, and the selfish action of the king, discouraged 
the London Company.' The holders of the stock had now become very numer- 
ous, and their meetings, composed of men of all respectable classes, assumed a 



' Tliis was the beginning of tlie Virginia House of Burgesses, of which we shall often speak in 
future cliapters . ^ The Powhatans. See page 20. ' Page 70. 

' Powliatan died in 1618, and was succeeded in .office by liis younger brother, Opeeliancan- 
ough [see page 66]. Tliis diief hated the English. He was the one who made Captain Smith a 
prisoner. 

^ Opechancanough was wily and exceedingly treaclierous. Only a few days before the mas- 
sacre, he declared that "sooner the skies would fall than his friendship with tlie English would be 
dissolved." Even on the day of the massacre, the Indians entered the houses of the planters witli 
usual tokens of friendship. ° Page 64. 

' This was Clianco, who was informed of the bloody design the evening previous. He de.sired 
to save a wliite friend in Jamestown, and gave liini the information. It was too late to s-end word 
to the more remote settlements. Among those who fell on tliis occasion, were six members of the 
council, and several of the wealthiest inhabitants. ' Page 64. 



1G88.] VIRGINIA. 107 

political character, in which two distinct parties were represented, namely, the 
advocates of liberty, and the supporters of the royal prerogatives. The king 
was offended by the freedom of debates at these meetings, and regarded them 
as inimical to royalty, and dangerous to the stability of his throne.' He deter- 
mined to regain what he had lost by granting the liberal third charter" to the 
company. He endeavored first to control the elections. Failing in this, ho 
sought a pretense for dissolving the Company. A commission was appointed 
in May, 1623, to inquire into their affairs. It was composed of the king's 
pliant instruments, who, having reported in favor of a dissolution of the Com- 
pany, an equally pliant judiciary accomplished his designs in October following, 
and a quo icarrantd' was issued. The Company made Ijut little oj>position, for 
the settlement of Virginia had been an unprofitable speculation from tl)c be- 
ginning ; and in July, 1624, the patents were cancelled.* Virginia became a 
royal pi-ovince again,* but no material change was made in the domestic affairs 
of the colonists. 

King James, with his usual egotism, boasted of the beneficent result.-; to the 
colonists which would flow from this usurpation, by which they were placed 
under his special care. He appointed Yeardley," with twelve councillors, to 
administer the government, but wisely refrained from interfering with the 
House of Burgesses.' The king lived but a few months longer, and at his 
death, which occurred on the 6th of April, 1625, he was succeeded by his son, 
Charles the First. That monarch was as selfish as he was weak. He sought 
to promote the welfare of the Virginia planters, because he also sought to reap 
the profits of a monopoly, by becoming himself their sole fiictor in the manage- 
ment of their exports. He also allowed them political privileges, not because ho 
wished to benefit his subjects, but because he had learned to respect the power 
of those far-off colonists ; and he souglit their sanction for his commercial 
agency." 

Governor Yeardley died in November, 1627, and was succeeded, two years 
later [1629], by Sir John Harvey, a haughty and unpopular royalist. He was 
a member of the commission appointed by James ; and the colonists so d&spised 
him, that they refused the coveted monopoly to the king. After many and 
violent disputes about land titles, the Virginians deposed him [1635] and 
appointed commissioners to proceed to England, with an impeachment. Harvey 
accompanied the commission. The king refused to hear complaints against the 



' These meetings were quite frequent : and so important were the members, in political aflairs, 
that they could influence the elections of members of Parliament. In 1623, the accomplished 
Nicholas Ferrar, an active opponent of the court party, was elected to Parliament, by the influence 
of the London Company. Tliis fact, doubtless, caused the king to dissolve the Company that year. 

'' Page 70. 

' A writ of 5?jo warranto is issued to compel a person or corporation to appear before the king, 
and show by wliat authority certain priiileges are held. 

' The Company had expended almost $700,000 in establishing the colony, and this great sum 
was almost a dead loss to the stockholders. ' Page 63. 

' Page 70. ' Note 1, page 106. 

' In June, 1628, the king, iu a letter to the governor and council, asked them to convene an 
assembly to consider his proposal to contract for the whole crop of tobacco. He thus tacitly 
acknowledged the legality of tlie republican assembly of Virginia, hitherto not sanctioned; but only 
jiermiitaJ. 



108 THE COLONIES. [1619. 

accused, and be wa.s sent back clothed witb full powers to administer the gov- 
ernment, independent of the people. He ruled almost four years longer, and was 
succeeded, in November, 1639, by Sir Francis Wyatt, who administered gov- 
ernment well for about two years, when he was succeeded [1641] by Sir William 
Berkeley,' an able and elegant courtier. For ten years Berkeley ruled with 
vigor, and the colony prospered wonderfully.^ But. as in later years, commo- 
tions in Europe now disturbed the American settlements. The democratic 
revolution in England,' which brought Charles the First to the block, and 
placed Oliver Cromwell in power, now [1642] began, and religious sects in 
England and America assumed political importance. Puritans' had hitherto 
been tolerated in Virginia,- but now the Throne and the Church were united in 
interest, and the Virginians being loyal to both, it was decreed that no minister 
should preach except in conformity to the constitution of the Church of En- 
gland.'' Many non-conformists" were banished from the colony. This was a 
dark cloud upon the otherwise clear skies of Virginia, but a darker cloud was 
gathering. The Indians were again incited to hostilities by the restless and 
vengeful Opechancanough,' and a terrible storm burst upon the English, in 
April, 1644. For two years a bloody border warfare was carried on. The 
king of the Powhatans' w^as finally made captive, and died while in prison at 
Jamestown, and his people were thoroughly subdued. The power of the con- 
federation was completely broken, and after ceding large tracts of land to the 
English, the chiefs acknowledged allegiance to the authorities of Virginia, and 
so the political \ih of the Powhatans passed away forever." 

During the civil war in England [1641 — 1649J, the Virginians remained 
loyal ; and when republican government was proclaimed, they boldly recognized 
the son of the late king, although in exile, as their sovereign.'" The republican 
parliament was highly incensed, and took immediate measures to coerce Vir- 
ginia into submission to its authority. For that purpose Sir George Ayscue 
was sent with a powerful fleet, bearing commissioners of parliament, as repre- 
sentatives of the sovereignty of the commonwealth, and anchored in Hampton 
Roads in March, 1652. 

' AVilliam Berkeley was born near London: was educated at Oxford; became, by travel and 
education, a polished gentleman; was governor of Virginia almost 40 years, and died in July, 1677. 

- In 1648, the number of colonists was 20,000. "The cottages were filled with eliildren, as the 
ports were with ships and immigranta" 

' For a long time the exactions of the king fostered a bitter feeling toward him, in the hearts 
of the people. In 1641 they took up arms ag,aiust their sovereign. One of the chief leaders of the 
popular party was Oliver Cromwell. The war continued until 1649, when the royalists were sub- 
dued, and the king was beheaded. Parliament assumed aU the functions of government, and ruled 
until 1053, when Cromwell, the insurgent leader, dissolved that body, and was proclaimed .supreme 
ruler, with the title of Prnkctor of tlie Commonwealth of England. Cromwell was a son of a 
wealthy brewer of Huntingdon, England, where he was born in 1599. He died in September, 
1658. ' Page 75. ' Page 75. 

" Note 2, page 76. ' Note 5, page 100. " Page 20. 

' They relinquished all claim to the beautitnl country between the York and James Rivers, 
from the Falls of the latter, at Richmond, to tlie sea, forever. It was a legacy of a dying nation 
to tiieu' conquerors. After that, their utter destruction -was swift and thorough. 

'" Afterward the profligate Charles the Second. His mother was si-ster to tlio French king, and 
to that comt she fled, with ber children. It was a sad day for the mora! character of England 
when Charles was eutlironed. He was less bigoted, but more licentious than any of the Stuarts 
who governed Great Britain for more than eighty years. 



)G8S.] VIRGINIA. 109 

The Virginians had resolved to submit rather than figlit. yet they made a 
show of resistance. They declared their willingness to compromise with the 
invaders, to which the commissioners, surprised and intimidated by the bold 
attitude of the colonists, readily consented. Instead of opening their cannons 
upon the Virginians, they courteously proposed to them submission to the 
authority of parliament upon terms quite satisfactory to the colonists. Liberal 
political concessions to the people were secured, and tlicy were allowed nearly 
all those civil rights which the Declaration of Independence," a century and a 
quarter later, charged George the Third with violating. 

A'^irginia was, virtually, an independent State, until Charles the Second 
was restored to the throne of his father [May 29, 1660J, for Cromwell made no 
ajipointments except that of governor. In the same year [1652] when the par- 
liamentary commissioners came, the people had clprtcd Richard Bennet to fill 
Berkeley's place. Ho was succeeded by Edward Digges, and in 1056, Crom- 
well appointed Samuel IMathews goveraor. On the death of the Protector 
[1058], the Virginians were not disposed to acknowledge the authority of his 
son Richard," and they elected Mathews their chief magistrate, as a token of 
their independence. Universal suffrage prevailed ; all freemen, without excep- 
tion, were allowed to vote ; and white servants, when tlieir terms of bondage 
ended, had the same privilege, and might Ijecome burgesses. 

But a serious change came to the Virginians, after the restoration of Charles 
the Second. When intelligence of that event readied A'irginia, Berkeley, 
whom the people had elected governor in ICOO, repudiated the popular sover- 
eignty, and proclaimed the exiled monarch " King of England, Scotland, Ire- 
land, and Virginia."' This happejied before he was proclaimed in England.- 
The "\lrginia republicans were offended, but being in the minority, could do 
nothing. A new Assembly was elected and convened, and high hopes of favor 
from the monarch were entertained by the court party. But these were speed- 
ily l)lusted, and in place of great privileges, came commercial restrictions to 
cripple the industry of the colony. The navigation act of 1651 was re-enacted 
in 1000, and its provisions were rigorously enforced.^ The people murmured. 



' See Supplement. 

- Cromwell appointed liis son Richard to succed liim in office. Lacking the vigor and amliition 
of Ills father, he gladly resigned the troublesome legacy into the hands of the people, and, a Utile 
more than a year afterward, Charle.s the Second was enthroned. 

" When informed that Parliament was about to send a fleet to bring them to submission, the 
Virginians sent a message to Charles, then in Flanders, inviting him to come over and be khig of 
Virginia, He had resolved to come, when matters took a turn in England favorable to his restora- 
tion. In gratitude to the colonists, he caused the arms of Virginia to be quartered with tliose of 
England, Scotland, and Ireland, as an independent member of the empire. From this circumstance 
Virginia received the name of Tlie Old Dorainion. Coins, with these quarterings, were made as 
late^as 1773. 

* The first Navigation Act. by the Republican Parliament, prohibited foreign vessels trading to 
the Enghsh colonies. This was partly to punish the sugar-producing islands of the West Indies, 
because the people were chiefly loyalists. The act of 1660 provided tliat no goods should be 
carried to or from any English colonies, but in vessels built within the English dominions, whose 
masters and at least three fourths of the crews were Englishmen; and that sugar, tobacco, and 
other colonial commodities should be imported into no part of Europe, except England and lier 
dominions. The trade Ijetween the colonies, now struggling for prosperous life, was also taxed for 
the benefit of England. 



110 THE COLONIES. [1619. 

but in vain. The profligate monarch, who seems never to have liad a clear 
perception of right and wrong, but was governed by caprice and passion, gave 
awaj, to his special favorites, large tracts of the finest portions of the Virginia 
soil, some of it already well cultivated.' 

Week after week, and month after month, the Royalist party continued to show 
more and more of the foul hand of despotism. The pliant Assembly abridged 
the liberties of the people. Although elected for only two years, the members 
assumed to themselves the right of holding office indefinitely, and the repre- 
sentative system was thus virtually abolished. The doctrines and rituals of 
the Church of England having been made the religion of the State, intolerance 
began to grow. Baptists and Quakers^ were compelled to pay heavy fines. 
The salaries of the royal officers being paid from duties upon exported tobacco, 
these officials were made independent of the people.' Oppressive and unequal 
taxes were levied, and the idle aristocracy formed a distinct and ruling class. 
The "common people" — the men of toil and substantial worth — formed a 
republican party, and rebellious murmurs were heard on every side. They 
desired a sufficient reason for strengthening their power, and it soon appeared. 
The menaces of the Susquehannah Indians,' a fierce tribe of Lower Pennsylva- 
nia, gave the people a plausible pretense for arming during the summer of 
1675. The Indians had l^een driven from their hunting-grounds at the head 
of the Chesapeake Bay by the Senecas,' and coming down the Potomac, they 
made war upon the Maryland settlements." They finally committed murders 
upon Virginia soil, and retaliation' caused the breaking out of a fierce border 
war. The inhabitants, exasperated and alarmed, called loudly upon Governor 
Berkeley to take immediate and energetic measures for the defense of the col- 
ony. His slow and indecisive movements were very unsatisfactory, and loud 
murmurs were heard on every side. At length Nathaniel Bacon," an energetic 
and highly esteemed . republican, acting in behalf of his party, demanded per- 
mission for the people to arm and protect themselves.' Berkeley's sagacity 
perceived the danger of allowing discontented men to have arms, and he refused. 
The Indians came nearer and nearer, until laborers on Bacon's plantation, near 
Richmond, were murdered; That leader then yielded to the popular will, and 
placed himself at the head of four or five hundred men, to drive back the 
enemy. Berkeley, jealous of Bacon's popularity, proclaimed him a traitor 



' In 1G73, the king gave to Lord Culpepper and the Earl of Arlington, two of bis profligate 
favorites, "all the dorahiion of land and water called Virginia," for the term of thirty years. 

^ Note 7, page 94. 

' One of the charges made .igainst the King of England in tlio Declaration of Independence, 
more than a hundred years later, was that he had " made judges dependent on his will alone for 
the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their salaries.'' ' Page 17. 

' Page 23. ° Page S2. 

' Jolm Washington, an ancestor of the commander-in-chief of the American armies a century 
later, commanded some troops against an Indian fort on the Potomac. Some chiefs, who were 
sent to his camp to treat for peace, were treacherously slain, and tliis excited the fierce resentment 
of tlie Susquehannahs. 

' He was born in England, was educated a lawyer, and in Virginia was a member of the coun- 
cil. He was about thirty years of age at that time. 

' King Philip's war was then raging in Massachusetts, and the white people, everywhere, woie 
alarmed. See page 124. 



1688.] VIRGINIA. HI 

[May, 1676J, and sent troops to arrest him. Some of his more timid followers 
returned, but sterner patriots adhered to his fortunes. The people generall}^ 
sympathized with him, and in the lower counties they ai'ose in open rebellion. 
Berkeley was obliged to recall his troops to suppre.ss the insurrection, and in 
the mean while Bacon drove the Indians' back toward the Rappahannock. He 
was soon after elected a burgess,^ but on approaching Jamestown, to take his 
seat in the Assembly, he was arrested. For fear of the people, who made hos- 
tile demonstrations, the governor soon pardoned him and all his followers, and 
hypocritically professed a personal regard for the bold republican leader. 

Popular opinion had now manifestly become a power in Virginia ; and the 
pressure of that opinion compelled Berkeley to yield at all points. The long 
aristocratic Assembly was dissolved ; many abuses were corrected, and all the 
privileges formerly enjoyed by the people were restored.^ Fearing treachery 
in the capital. Bacon withdrew to the Middle Plantation,* where he was joined 
by three or four hundred armed men from the upper counties, and was pro- 
claimed commander-in-chief of the Virginia troops. The governor regarded the 
movement as rebellious, and refused to sign Bacon's commission. The patriot 
marched to Jamestown, and demanded it without delay. The frightened governor 
speedily complied [July 4, 1676], and, concealing his anger, he also, on compul- 
sion, signed a letter to the king, highly commending the acts and motives of the 
"traitor." This was exactly one hundred years, to a day, before the English 
colonies in America declared themselves free and independent, the logic of 
which the King of Great Britain was compelled, reluctantly, to acknowledge, a 
few years later. The Virginia Assembly was as pliant before the successful 
leader as the governor, and gave him the commission of a general of a thousand 
men. On receiving it, Bacon marched against the Pamunkey Indians.' AVhen 
he had gone, Berkeley, faithless to his professions, crossed the York River, and 
at Gloucester summoned a convention of royalists. All the. proceedings of the 
Republican Assembly were reversed, and. contrary to the advice of his friends, 
the governor again proclaimed Bacon a traitor, on the 29th of July. The 
indignation of the patriot leader was fiercely kindled, and, marching back to 
Jamestown, he lighted up a civil war. The property of royalists was confis- 
cated, their wives were seized as hostages, and their plantations" were desolated. 
Berkeley fled to the eastern shore of the Chesapeake. Bacon proclaimed his 
abdication, and, dismissing the republican troops, called an Assembly in his 
own name, and was about to cast off all allegiance to the English Crown, when 



' Page 40. 

" The chief leaders of the republican party at the capital, were William Druraraond, who had 
been governor of North Carolina [page 97], and Colonel Richard Lawrence. 

' This event was the planting of one of the most vigorous and fruitful germs of American 
nationality. It was the first bending of power to the boldly-e.xpressed will of the people. 

' Williamsburg, four miles from Jamestown, and midwav between the York and James River.s, 
was then called the Middle Plantation. After the accession of William and Mary [seepage 113], 
a town was laid out in tlie form of tlie ciphers WM., and was named Williamsburg. Governor 
Nicholson made it the capital of the province in 1698. 

' This was a small tribe on the Paraimkey River, one of the chief tributaries of the York 
River. 



\ 




112 THE COLONIES. [1619. 

intellio'ence was received of the arrival of impei-ial troops to quell the rebellion.' 
Great was the joy of the governor, when informed of the arrival of the hoped- 
for succor, for his danger was imminent. With some royalists and English 
sailors under Major Robert Beverley, he now [Sept. 7] returned to Jamestown. 
Bacon collected hastily his troops, and drove the governor and his friends down 
the James River. Informed that a large body of royalists and imperial troops 
were approaching, the republicans, unable to maintain their position at James- 
town, applied the torch [Sept. 30] just as the night shadows came over the 
village.^ When the sun arose on the following morning, 
the first town built by Englishmen in America,^ was a 
heap of smoking ruins. Nothing remained standing 
but a few chimneys, and that old church tower, Avhich 
now attracts the eye and heart of the voyager upon the 
bosom of the James River. This work accomplished. 
Bacon pressed forward with his little army toward the 
York, determined to drive the royalists from Virginia. 
But he was smitten by a deadlier foe than armed men. 
The malaria of the marshes at Jamestown had poisoned 
his veins, and he died [Oct. 11, 1676] of malignant fever, on the north bank 
of the York. There was no man to receive the mantle of his ability and influ- 
ence, and his departure was a death-blow to the cause he had espoused. His 
friends an<l followers made but feeble resistance, and before the first of Novem- 
ber, Berkeley returned to the Middle Plantation'' in triumph. 

The dangers and vexations to which the governor had been exposed during 
these commotions, rendered the haughty temper of the baron irascible, and he 
signalized his restoration to power by acts of wanton cruelty. Twenty-two of 
the insurgent leaders had been hanged, ^ when the more mercifiil Assembly im- 
plored him to shed no more blood. But he continued fines, imprisonments, and 
confiscations, and ruled with an iron hand and a stony heart until recalled by 
the king in April, 1677, who had become disgusted with his cruel conduct.'^ 
There was no printing press in Virginia to record current history," and for a 

' Tliis was an error. The fleet sent witli troops to quell the insurrection, did not arrive until 
April the following year, when all was over. Colonel Jeflreys, tlie successor of Berkeley, came 
with the fleet. 

' Besides the church and court-liouse, Jamestown contained sixteen or eighteen houses, built 
of bricli, and quite commodious, and a large number of humble log cabins. 

' The cliurch, of wliicli the brick tower alone remains, was built aliout 1G20. It was probably 
the third church erected in Jamestown. The ruin is now [1856] a few rods from the encroacliing 
bank of the river, and is about thirty feet in lieight. The engraving is a correct representation of 
its present appearance. In the grave-yard adjoining are fragments of sevei al monuments. 

* Note 4, page 111. ' 

^ The first man executed was Colonel Hansford. He has been justly termed the first martyr in 
the cause of liberty in America. Dnunmond and Lawrence were also executed. They were con- 
sidered ringleaders and the prime instigators of tlie rebellion. 

' Charles said, "The old fool has taken more Uvcs in that naked country than I have taken for 
the murder of my father." . 

' Berkeley was an enemy to popular enlightenment. He said to commissioners sent from En- 
gland in 1671, "Thank God there are no free schools nor printing press; and I hope we shall not 
have these hundred years; for learning has brought disobedience, and heresy, and sects into the 
world, and printing has divulged these, and libels against the best government." Despots are 
always afi'aid of the printing press, for it is the most destructive foe of tyranny. 



1688] VIRGINIA. llj> 

liundrecl years the narratives of the royalists gave hue to the wliole affair. 
Bacon was always regarded as a traitor, and the effort to establish a free gov- 
ernment is known in history as B.\con's Rebelliox. Such, also, would Lave 
been the verdict of history, had Washington and his compatriots been unsuc- 
cessful. Too often success is accounted a virtue, hut fai/iae, a crime. 

Long years elapsed before the effects of these civil commotions were effaced. 
The people were borne down by the petty tyranny of royal rulers, yet the prin- 
ciples of Republicanism grew apace. The popular Assembly l^ecame winnowed 
of its aristocratic elements ; and, notwithstanding royal troops were quar- 
tered in Virginia,' to overawe the people, the burgesses were always firm in the 
maintenance of popular rights/' In reply to Governor Jeffreys, when he ap- 
pealed to the authority of the Great Seal of England, in defense of his arbitrary 
act in seizing the books and papers of the Assembly, the burgesses said, " that 
such a breach of privilege could not be commanded under the Great Seal, be- 
cause they could not find that any king of England had ever done so in former 
times." The king commanded the governor to "signify his majesty's indigna- 
tion at language so seditious;'' but the burgesses were as indifferent to royal 
frowns as they were to the governor's menaces. 

A libertine from the purlieus of the licentious court now came to rule the 
liberty-loving Virginians. It was Lord Culpepper, who, under the grant of 
1673,^ had been appointed governor for life in 1677. He arrived in 1680. His 
profligacy and rapacity disgusted the people. Discontents ripened into insur- 
rections, and the blood of patriots again flowed.'' At length the king himself 
became incensed against Culpepper, revoked his grant"' in 1684, and deprived 
him of ofiice. Efiingham, his successor, was equally rapacious, and the people 
were on the eve of a general rebellion, when king Charles died, and his brother 
James^ was proclaimed [Feb. 1685] his successor, with the title of James the 
Second. The people hoped for benefit by the change of rulers, but their bur- 
dens were increased. Again the wave of rebellion was rising high, when the 
revolution of 1688 placed William of Orange and his wife Mary upon the 
throne.' Then a real change for the better took place. The detested and 
detestable Stuarts were forever driven from the seat of power in Great Britain. 
That event, wrought out by the people, infused a conservative principle into 
the workings of the English constitution. The popular will, expressed by Par- 

' These troops were under the command of a wise veteran, Sir Henry Chicheley, wlio managed 
with prudence. They proved a source of much discontent, because their subsistence was drawn 
from the planters For the same cause, disturbances occurred in New Yorli ninety years afterward. 
See page 218. " Page 71. ' Note 1, page 110. 

* By the king's order, Culpepper caused several of the insurgents, who were men of influence, 
to be hanged, and a "reign of terror," miscalled tranquillity, followed. 

' Arlington [note 1, page 110] had already disposed of his interest in the grant to Culpepper. 

° James, Duke of York, to whom Charles gave the New Netherlands in 1664. See page 144. 

' James the Second, by his bigotry (he was a Roman Catholic), tyranny, and oppression, ren- 
dered himself hateful to his subjects. William, Prince of Orange, Stadtholder of Holland, who had 
married Mary, a Protestant daughter of James, and his eldest child, was invited by the incensed 
people to come to the English tlirone. He came with Dutch troops, and landed at Torbay on the 
5th of November, 1688. James was deserted by his soldiers, and he and his family sought safety 
in flight. William and Mary were proclaimed joint monarchs of England on the 13th of February, 
1689. This act consummated that revolution which Voltaire styled " the era gf English liberty." 



114 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

liament, became potential ; and the personal character, or caprices of the mon- 
arch, had comparatively little influence upon legislation. The potency of the 
National Assembly was extended to similar colonial organizations. The powers 
of governors were defined, and the rights of the people were understood. Bad 
men often exercised authority in the colonies, but it was in subordination to the 
English Constitution ; and, notwithstanding commercial restrictions bore heav- 
ily upon the enterprise of the colonies, the diffusion of just political ideas, and 
the growth of free institutions in America, were rapid and healthful. 

From the revolution of 1688, down to the commencement of the French and 
Indian war, the history of Virginia is the history of the steady, quiet prog- 
ress of an industrious people, and presents no prominent events of interest to 
the general reader.' 



CHAPTER II. 

MASSACHUSETTS. [1G20.] 

"Welcome, Englishmen! welcome. Englishmen!' were the first words 
which the Pilgrim Fathers' heard from the lips of a son of the American 
forest. It was the voice of Samoset, a Wampanoag chief, who had learned a 
few English words of fishermen at Penobscot. His brethren had hoveretl 
around the little community of sufferers at New Plymouth' for a hundred days, 
when he boldly approached [March 26, 1621J, and gave the friendly saluta- 
tion. He told them to possess the land, for the occupants had nearly all been 
swept away by a pestilence. The Pilgrims thanked God for thus making their 
seat more secure, for they feared the hostility of the Aborigines. AVhen Sam- 
oset again appeared, he was accompanied by Squanto,' a chief who had recently 
returned from captivity in Spain : and they told the white people about Mas- 
sasoit, the grand sachem of the Wampanoags, then residing at Mount Hope. 
An interview was plarmed. The old sachem came with barbaric pomp,'* and he 
and Governor Carver" smoked the calumet' together. A preliminary treaty of 
friendship and alliance was formed [April 1, 1621], which remained unbroken 



' The population at that time was about 50,000, of whom one half were slaves. The tobacco 
trade had become very important, the exports to England and Ireland being about 30,000 hogs- 
heads that year. Almost a hundred vessels annually came from tliose countries to Virginia for 
tobacco. A powerful militia of almost 9,000 men was organized, and they no longer feared their 
dusky neighbors. The militia became expert in the use of tire-arms in the woods, and baclc to this 
period the Virginia rifleman may look for the foundation of his fame as a marksman." The province 
contained twenty-two counties, and fortj'-eight parishes, with a church and a clergyman in each, 
and a great deal of glebe land. But there was no printing press nor book-store in the colony. A 
press was first established in Virginia in 1729. 

^ Page 77. ' Page 78. « Page 74. 

' Massasoit approached, with a guard of sixty warriors, and took post upon a neighboring hill. 
There he sat in state, and received Edward Winslow as embassador from the English. Leaving 
Winslow mtli his warriors as .security for his own safety, the sachem went into New Plymoutli and 
treated with Governor Carver. Note 5, page 14. ' Page 78. ' Page 14. 



1755.] MASSACHUSETTS. 115 

for fifty years.' Massasoit rejoiced at his good fortune, for Canonicus, the head 
of the powerful Narragansetts," was his enemy, and he needed strength. 

Three days after the interview with the Wampanoag sachem [April 3], 
Governor Carver suddenly died. William Bradford,' the eai-liest historian of 
the colony, was appointed his successor. He was a wise and prudent man, and 
for thirty years he managed the public affairs of the colony with great sagacity. 
He was a man just fitted for such a station, and he fostered the colony with 
parental care. The settlers endured great trials during the first four years of 
their sojourn. They were barely saved from starvation in the autumn of 1621, 
by a scanty crop of Indian corn.* In Novemljer of that year, thirty-five im- 
migrants (some of them their weak brethren of the SpeedweUy joined them, and 
increased their destitution. The winter was severe, and produced great suffer- 
ing ; and the colonists were kept in continual fear by the menaces of Canonicus, 
the great chief of the Narragansetts, who regarded the English as intruders. 
Bradford acted wisely with the chief, and soon made him sue for peace." The 
power, but not the hatred, of the wily Indian was subdued, yet he was com- 
pelled to be a passive friend of the English. 

Sixty-three more immigrants arrived at Plymouth in July, 1G22. They 
had been sent by Weston, a wealthy, dissatisfied member of the Plymouth Com- 
pany,' to plant a new colony. Many of them were idle and dissolute ;' and 
after living upon the slender means of the Plymouth people for several weeks, 
they went to Wissagusset (now Weymouth), to commence a settlement. Their 
improvidence produced a famine ; and they exasperated the Indians by begging 
and stealing supplies for their w'ants. A plot was devised by the savages for 
their destruction, but through the agency of Massasoit,' it was revealed [March, 
1623] to the Plymouth people ; and Captain Miles Standish, with eight men, 
hastened to Wissagusset in time to avert the blow. A chief and several war- 
riors were killed in a battle ;'° and so terrified were the surrounding tribes by 



' Page 124. ° Page 22. 

' William Bradford was born at Ansterfield, in the north of England, in 15SS. Ho followed 
Robinson to Holland ; came to America in the Maijfloioer [see page 77] ; and was annually elected 
governor of the colony from 1621 until his death in 1657. 

* While Captain Miles Standish and others were seeking a place to land [see page 78], they 
found some maize, or Indian corn, in one of the deserted huts of the savages. Afterward, Samoset 
and others taught tlieni how to cultivate the gram (then unknown in Europe), and this supply serv- 
ing for seed, providentially saved them from starvation. The grain now first received tlie name of 
Indian corn. Early in September [1021], an exploring party, under Standish, coasted northward to 
Shawmut, the site of Boston, where they found a few Indians. The place was delightful, and for a 
while, the Pilgrims thought of removing thither. ' Page 77. 

° Canonicus dwelt upon Connanicut Island, opposite Newport. In token of his contempt and 
defiance of the Enghsh, he sent [Feb., 1622] a bundle of arrows, wrapped in a rattlesnake's skin, 
to Governor Bradford. The governor accepted the hostile challenge, and then returned the skin, 
filled with powder and shot. These substances were new to the savages. Tlicy regarded them 
with superstitious awe, as possessing some evil influence. They were sent from village to village, 
and excited general alarm. The pride of Canonicus was humbled, and he sued for peace. The 
example of Canonicus was followed by several chiefs, who were equally alarmed. ' Page 63. 

" There was quite a number of indentured servants, and men of no character ; a population 
wholly unfit to found an independent State. 

' In gratitude for attentions and medicine during a severe illness, Massasoit revealed the plot to 
Edward Winslow a few days before the time appointed to strike the blow. 

'" Standisli carried the chiefs head m triumph to Pljmiouth. It was borne upon a pole, and was 
placed upon the pahssades [note 1, page 127] of the Uttle fort which had just been erected. The 



116 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

tlie event, that several cliiefs soon appeared at Plymouth to crave the friendshiu 
of the English. The settlement at Wissagusset was broken up, however, and 
most of the immigrants returned to England. 

Social perils soon menaced the stability of the colony. The partnership of 
merchants and colonists' was an unprofitable speculation for all. The commu- 
nity system'' operated unfavorably upon the industry and thrift of the colony, 
and the merchants had few or no returns for their investments. Ill feelino-s 
were created by mutual criminations, and the capitalists commenced a series of 
annoyances to force the workers into a dissolution of the league." The paitner- 
ship continued, however, during the prescribed term of seven years, and then 
[1627] the colonists purchased the interest of the London merchants for nine 
thousand dollar.?. Becoming sole proprietors of the soil, they divided the whole 
property equally, and to each man was assigned twenty acres of land in fee. 
New incentives to industry followed, and the blessings of plenty, even upon 
that unfruitful soil, rewarded them all.'' At about the same time, the govern- 
ment of the colony became slightly changed. The only officers, at first, were 
a governor and an assistant. In 1624, five assistants were chosen ; and in 
1630, a deputy-governor and eighteen assistants were chosen hy tlie freemen. 
This broad democracy prsvailed, both in Church and State, for almost fifteen 
years, when a representative government was instituted [1639], and a ])astor 
was chosen as R)iiritual guide.'' 

James the First died in the spring of 1625 ; and his son and successor, 
Charles the First, inherited his father's hatred of the Nonconformists. » Many 
of their ministers were silenced during the first years of his reign, and the un- 
easiness of the great body of Nonconformists daily increased. Already, White, 
a Puritan minister of Dorchester, in the west of England, had persuaded sev- 
eral influential men of that city to attempt the cstal:)lishment of a new asylum 
for the oppressed, in America. They chose the rocky promontory of Cape 
Anno for the purpose [1624], intending to connect the settlement with the fish- 
ing business ; but the enterprise proved to be more expensive than profitable, 

good Robinson [page 17], wlien he heard of it, wrote, "Oh, liow Ijappy ;i things it would have been, 
that you had converted some before you killed any." 

' Page 77. ^ Note 1, page 70. 

' The merchants refused Mr. Robinson a passage to America; attempted to force a minister 
upon the colonists who was friendly to the Established Cliureli ; and even sent vessels to interfere 
with the infant commerce of the settlers. 

' The colonists unsuccessfully tried the cultivation of tobacco. They raised enough grain and 
vegetables for their own consumption, and relied upon traffic in furs with the Indians, for obtaining 
the means of paying for cloths, implements, etc., procured from England. In 1627, they made the 
first step toward the establishment of tho cod fisherj', since become so important, by constructing a 
salt work, and curing some fish. In 1C24, Edward 'Winslow imported three cows and a bull, and 
soon those invaluable animals became numerous in the colony. 

' The colonists considered Robinson (who was yet in Leyden), as their pastor ; and religious 
exercises, in the way of prayer and exhortation, were conducted by Elder jSrewster and others. 
On Sunday aflernoons a question would be propounded, to which all had a right to speak. Even 
after they adopted the plan of having a pastor, the people were so democratic in religious matters, 
that a minister did not remain long at Plymouth, The doctrine of " private judgment" was put in 
full practice: and the religious meetings were often the arena of intemperate debate and confusion. 
In 1629, thirty-five persons, the remainder of Robinson's congregation at Leyden, joined tlie Pil- 
grims at Plymouth, among whom was Robinson's family ; but the good man never .saw New Fn- 
gland himselt ° Note 2, page 7G. 



1755.] 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



Ill 



and it was aljandoned. A few years afterward, a company purchased a tract 
of land [March 29, 1628] defined as being " throe miles north of any and every 
part of the Merrimac River," and "three miles south of 
any and every part of the Charles River," and westward to 
the Pacific Ocean.' In the summer of 1628, John Endi- 
cot, and a hundred emigrants came over, and at Naumkeag 
(now Salem) they laid the foundations of the Colony of 
Massachusetts Bay. The proprietors received a charter from 
the king the following year [March 14, 1629], and they 
were incorporated by the name of " The Governor and Com- 
pany of the Massachusetts Bay in New England^ 

The colony at Salem increased rapidly, and soon began to spread. In July, 
1629. " three godly ministers" (Skeiton, Higginson, and Bright) came with 




FIRST COLONY SEAL. 




•^^^^^C VV/r/ Z4^/- 



two hundred settlers, and a part of them laid the foundations of Charlestown, at 
Mishawam. A new stimulus was now given to emigration by salutary arrange- 



' This was purchased from the Council of Pl3'mouth. The clnef men of the company were 
.Tolm Humphrey (brother-in-law to the earl of Lincoln), John Endicot, Sir Henry Roswell, Sir John 
Young, Thomas Soutlieote, Simon Whitcomb, John Winthrop, Tlioraas Dudley, Sir Richard Salton- 
stall, and others. Eminent men in New England afterward became interested in the enterprise. 

^ The administration of affairs was intrusted to a governor, deputy, and eigiiteen assistants, who 
were to be elected annually by the stockholders of the corporation. A general assembly of tlie 
freemen of the colony was to be held at least four times a year, to legislate for the colony. The 
king claimed no jurisdiction, for he regarded the whole matter as a trading operation, not as t'.ie 
founding of an empire. The instrument conferred on the colonists all the rights of English subjects, 
and afterward became the text for many powerful discourses against the usurpation of royalty. 



118 THE COLONIES. ' [1620. 

ments.' On the 1st of September, the members of the company, at a meeting in 
Cambridge, Sngland, signed an agreement to transfer the charter and govern- 
ment to the colonists. It was a wise and benevolent conclusion, for men of for- 
tune and intelligence immediately prepared to emigrate when such a democracy 
should be established. John AVinthrop' and others, with about three hundred 
families, arrived at Salem in July [1630J following. Winthrop had been 
chosen governor before his departure, with Thomas Dudley for deputy, and a 
council of eighteen. The new immigrants located at, and named Dorchester, 
Ro.xbury, Watertown, and Cambridge ; and during the summer, the governor 
and some of the leading men, hearing of a spring of excellent water on the pen- 
insula of Shawmut, went there, erected a few cottages, and founded Boston, 
the future metropolis of New England." The peninsula ivas composed of three 
hills, and for a long time it was called Tri-Mountain.^ 

As usual, the ravens of sickness and death followed these first settlers. 
Many of them, accustomed to ease and luxury in England, suffered much, and 
before December, two hundred were in their graves.* Yet the survivors Avere 
not disheartened, and during the winter of intense suffering which followed, 
they applied themselves diligently to the business of founding a State. In 
ilay, 1631, it was agreed at a general assembly of the people, that all the 
officers of government should thereafter be chosen by the freemen^ of the colony ; 
and in 1634, the pure democracy was changed to a representative government, 
the second in America." The colony flourished. Chiefs from the Indian tribes 
dined at Governor Winthrop's table, and made covenants of peace and friend- 
ship with the English. Winthrop journeyed on foot to exchange courtesies with 
Bradford at Plymouth,' a friendly salutation came from the Dutch in New 
Netherland," and a sliip from Virginia, laden with corn [May, 1632J, sailed 
into Boston harbor. A bright future was dawning. 

The character of the Puritans' who founded the colony of Massachusetts 
Bay, presents a strange problem to the scrutiny of the moral philosopher. Vic- 
tims of intolerance, they were themselves equally intolerant when clothed with 
power.'" Their ideas of civil and religious freedom were narrow, and their prac- 



' He wa.<! bom in England in 1558, and was one of the most active men in New England from 
1G30 vmtil his death in 1649. Uis journal, giving an interesting account of the colony, has been 
published. 

" The whole company under TVinthrop intended to join the settlers at Charlestown, but a pre- 
vailing sickness there, attributed to unwholesome water, caused them to locate elsewhere. The 
fine spring of water which gushed from one of the three liills of Shawmut, was regarded with great 
favor. ^ From this is dcrivwl the word Tremmit. 

* Among these was Higginson, Isaac Johnston (a principal leader in the enterprise, and the 
wealthiest of the founders of Boston), and his wife the "Lady Arabella," a daughter of the earl of 
Lincoln. She died at Salem, and her husband did not long survive her. 

' None were considered freemen unless they were members of some church within the 
colony. From the beginning, the closest intimacy existed between the Church and State in Massa- 
chusetts, and that intimacy gave rise to a great many disorders. This provision was repealed in 
1665. " Page 71. ' Page 115. " Page 72. " Page 75. 

'° Sir Richard Saltonstall, who did not remain long in America, severely rebuked the people of 
Massacbusetts, in a letter to the two Boston ministers, Wilson and Cotton. " It doth a little grieve 
my spirit," he said, "to hear what sad things are reported daily of your tyranny and persecutions 
m New England, as that you fine, whip, and imprison men for their consciences." Thirty years 
later [1665], the kingls commissioner at Picataqua, in a manuscript letter before me, addressed to 



1755.] MASSACHUSETTS. 119 

tical interpretation of the Golden Rule, was contrary to the intentions of Him 
who uttered it. Yet they were honest and true men ; and out of their love of 
freedom, and jealousy of their inherent rights, grew their intolerance. They 
regarded Churchmen and Roman Catholics as their deadly enemies, to be kept 
at a distance.' A wise caution dictated this course. A consideration of the 
prevailing spirit of the age, when bigotry, assumed the seat of justice, and super- 
stition was the counselor and guide of leading men, should cause us to 

" Be to tlieir faults a little blind, 
And to their virtues, very kind." 

Roger Williams, himself a Puritan minister, and victim of persecution in 
England, was among those who first felt the power of Puritan intolerance. He 
Avas chosen minister at Salem, in 1634, and his more enlightened views, freely 
expressed, soon aroused the civil authorities against him. He denied the right 
of civil magistrates to control the consciences of the people, or to withhold their 
protection from any religious sect whatever. He denied the right of the king 
to require an oath of allegiance from the colonists ; and even contended that 
obedience to magistrates ought not to be enforced. He denounced the charter 
from the king as invalid, because he had given to the white people the lands of 
other owners, the Indians.'' These doctrines, and others more theological,' he 
maintained with vehemence, and soon the colony became a scene of great com- 
motion on that account. He was remonstrated with by the elders, warned by 
the magistrates, and finally, refusing- to cease what was deemed seditious 
preaching, he was banished [November, 1635] from the colony. In the dead 
of winter he departed [January, 1636] for the wilderness, and became the 
founder of Rhode Island.* 

Political events in England caused men who loved quiet to turn their 
thoughts more and more toward the New World; and the year 1635 was 
remarkable for an immense immigration to New England. During that year 
full three thousand new settlers came, among wliom were men of wealth and 
influence. The most distinguished were Hugh Peters' (an eloquent preacher), 



the magistrates of Massachusetts, say, " It is possible that the charter which you so much idolize 
may be forfeited until you have cleared yourselves of those many injastices, oppressions, violences, 
and blood for which you are complained against." 

' Lyford, who was sent out to the Pilgrims, by the London partners, as their minister, was re- 
fused and expelled, because he was friendly to the Church of England. John and Samuel Browne, 
residents at Salem, and members of Endicot's council, were arrested by that ruler, and sent to En- 
gland as " factious and evil-conditioned persons," because they insisted upon the use of the Liturgy, 
or printed forms of the English Church, in their worship. 

" See page 22. This was not strictly true, for, until King Philip's war [page 124], in 1675, not 
a foot of ground was occupied by the New England colonists, on any other score but that of fair 
purchase. 

^ He maintained that an oath should not be tendered to an unconverted person, and that no 
Christian could lawfully pray with such an one, though it were a wife or child I In the intem- 
perance of his zeal, Williams often exhibited intolerance himself, and at this day would be called a 
bigot. Yet his tolerant teachings in general had a most salutary effect upon Puritan exclusiveness. 

' Page 89. 

' Peters afterward returned to England, was very active in public affairs during the civil war, 
and on the accession of Charles the Second, was found guilty of favoring the death of the king's 
father, and was executed in October, 1660. 



120 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

and Henry Vane, an enthusiastic young man of twenty-five. In 1636, Vane 
was elected governor, an event which indirectly proved disastrous to the peace 
of the colony. The banishment of Roger Williams had awakened bitter relig- 
ous dissensions, and the minds of the people were prepared to listen to any new 
teacher. As at Plymouth, so in the M;ussachusetts Bay colony, religious ques- 
tions were debated at the stated meetings.' Women were not allowed to engage 
in these debates, and some deemed this an abridgment of their rights. Among 
these was Anne Hutchinson, an able and eloquent woman, who established 
meetings at her own house, for her sex, and there she promulgated peculiar 
views, which some of the magistrates and ministers pronounced seditious and 
heretical.'' These views were embraced by Governor Vane, several magistrates, 
and a majority of the leading men of Boston.' Winthrop and others opposed 
them, and in the midst of great excitement, a synod was called, the doctrines 
of Mrs. Hutchinson were condemned, and she and her family were first impris- 
oned in Boston, and then banished [August, 1637] from the colony.' Vane 
lost his popularity, and failing to be elected the following year, he returned to 
England." Some of Mrs. Hutchinson's followers left the colony, and established 
settlements in Rhode Island." 

The great abatement of danger to be apprehended from the Indians, caused 
by the result of the Pequod war,' was fixvorable to the security of the colony, 
and it flourished amazingly. Persecution also gave it sustenance. The non- 
conformists in the mother country suffered more and more, and hundreds fled to 
New England. The church and the government became alarmed at the rapid 
growth of a colony, so opposed, in its feelings and laws, to the character of 
both. Efforts were put forth to stay the tide of emigration. As early as 1633, 
a proclamation for that purpose had been published, but not enforced ; and a 
fleet, of eight vessels, bearing some of the purest patriots of the realm, was 
detained in the Thames [Feb. 1634], by order of the privy council." Believing 
that the colonists "aimed not at new discipline, but at sovereignty," a demand 
Ws made for a surrender of the patent to the king." The people were silent. 



' Note 5, page 116. 

' She taught that, as the Holy Spirit dwells in every believer, its revelations are superior to the 
teacliings of men. It was the doctrine of " private judgment" in its fullest extent. Slie tauglit that 
every person had tlie riglit to judge of the soundness of' a minister's teaching, and tliis was consid- 
ered "rebeUion against the clergy." Slie taught tlie doctrine of Election, and averred tliat the elect 
saints were sure of their salvation, however vicious their lives might be. 

' Her brother, Rev. John Wlieelwright, was an eloquent expounder of her views. Tlie theo- 
logical question assumed a political phase, and for a long time influenced the public affairs of the 
colony. 

* Mrs. Hutchinson and licr family toolc refuge witliin the Dutch domain, near the present village 
of New Roclielle, in New Yorlc. There slie and all her family, except a daughter, were murdered 
by the Indians. Note 2, page 141. 

' Vane was a son of the Secretary of State of Charles the First. He was a republican during 
the civil'war [note 3, page 108], and for this, Charles the Second had him beheaded in June, 1662. 

° Page 91. ' Page 87. . 

° [Note 1, page 400.] It was asserted, and is believed, that Oliver Cromwell and John Hamp- 
den were among the passengers. There is no positive evidence tliat such was the fact. 

" The general patent for New England was surrendered by the Council of Plymouth, in June. 
1635, witliout consulting the colonists. The inflexible courage of the latter prevented the evil that 
might have ensued by this faithless act of a company which had made extensive grants; and they 
0rmly held the charter given to them by the king. 



1755.] MASSACHUSETTS. 121 

but firm. When a rumor reached them [September 18, 1634] that an Arbitrary 
commission,' and a general governor was appointed for all the English colonies 
in America, the Massachusetts people, poor as they were, raised three thousand 
dollars to build fortifications for resistance. Even a quo warranto [April, 
1638]^ did not afiect either their resolution or their condition. Strong in their 
integrity, they continued to strengthen their new State by fostering education,' 
the " cheap defense of nations," and by other wise appliances of vigorous efibrts. 
The civil war' which speedily involved the church and the throne in disaster, 
withdrew the attention of the persecutors from the persecuted. The hope of 
better times at home checked immigration, and thereafter the colony received 
but small accessions to its population, from the mother country. 

The ties of interest and warmest sympathy united the struggling colonists 
of New England. Natives of the same country, the offspring of persecution — 
alike exposed to the weapons of hostile Indians and the depredations of the 
Dutch and French,' and alike menaced with punishment by the parent govern- 
ment — they were as one people. They were now [1643] more than twenty 
thousand ii number, and fifty villages had been planted by them. The civil 
war in Ergland" threatened a total subversion of the government, and the Puri- 
tans began to reflect on the establishment of an independent nation eastward of 
the Dutch dominions.' With this view, a union of the New England colonies was 
proposed in 1637, at the close of the Pequod war. It was favorably received 
by all, but the union was not consummated until 1643, when the colonies of Ply- 
mouth,' Massachusetts," Connecticut and New Haven" confederated for mutual 
welfare. Rhode Island asked for admittance into the Union [1643], but was 
refused," unless it would acknowledge the authority of Plymouth. Local juris- 
diction was jealously reserved by each colony, and the fatal doctrine of State 
Supremacy was thus early developed. It was a confederacy of States like our 
early Union." The general aftairs of the confeder.icy were managed by a 
board of commissioners, consisting of two church-members from each colony, 
who were to meet annually, or oltener if required. Their duty was to con- 
sider circumstances, and recommend measures for the general good. They 
had no executive power. Their propositions were considered and acted upon by 
the several colonies, each assuming an independent sovereignty. This coufed- 



' The Archbishop of Canterbury and associates received full power to estaWish governments and 
laws over the American settlements; to regulate religious matters; inflict punishments, and even 
to revoke charters. ' Note :■!, page 107. 

^ In 1636, the General Court at Boston appropriated two thousand dollars for the establishment 
of a college. In 1G38, Rev. John Harvard loequeathed more than three thousand dollars to the 
mstitution which was then located at Cambridge, and it received the name of " Harvard College," 
now one of the first seminaries of learning in the United States. In 1647, a law wa.s passed, 
requiring every township, which contained fifty householders, to have a school-house, and employ 
a teacher ; and each town containing one thousand freeholders to have a grammar-school. 

' Note 3, page 108. 

' The Dutch of New Netherland [page 72], still claimed jurisdiction upon the Connecticut 
River, and the French settlers in Acadie, eastward of New England, were becoming troublesome to 
the Puritans. 

° Note 3, p. 108. ' Page 72. " Page 78. ° Page 117. 

'° Page 89. " Page 91. '^ Page 267. 




122 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

eracy remained unmolested more than forty years' [1643 — 1686], during -ffhich 
time the government of England was changed three times. 

The colony of Massachusetts Bay was always the leading one of New En- 
gland, and assumed to be a "perfect republic." After the Union, a legislative 
change took place. The representatives had hitherto held their sessions in the 
same I'oom with the governor and council ; now they convened in a separate 
apartment ; and the distinct House of Representatives^ or democratic branch 
of the legislature, still existing in our Federal and State Governments, was 
established in 1644. Unlike Virginia,^ the colonists of New England sympa- 
thized with the English republicans, in their efforts to abolish royalty. 
Ardently attached to the Parliament, they found in Cromwell,' when he 
assumed supreme authority, a sincere friend and protector of their liberties. 
No longer anno^'cd by the frowns and menaces of royalty, the energies of the 
people were rapidly developed, and profitable commerce was created between 
Massachusetts and the West Indies. This 
^,o'"!^"*S?l'!5"s^ trade brought bullion, or uncoined gold and 
ftS^ff^T'""'^"^ \ silver, into the colony; and in 1652, the 
|^®^rl'^j authorities exercised a prerogati e of in- 
'^\^ J^k dependent sovereignty, by establishing a 
%,'^»M^°^^^ mint, and coining silver money,' the first 
"'""•"■""" within the territory of the United States. 

FIKST MONEY COINED IN TiUJ UNITED r\ ■ ,i i • i 

gjATEs. During the same year, settlements m the 

present State of Maine, imitating the act of 
those of New Hampshire,' eleven years earlier [1641], came under the juris- 
diction of Massachusetts. 

And now an important element of trouble and perplexity was introduced. 
There arrived in Boston, in July, 1656, two zealous religious women, named 
Mary Fisher and Ann Austin, who were called Quakers. This was a sect 
recently evolved from the heaving masses of English society," claiming to be 
more rigid Puritans than all who had preceded them. Letters unfavorable to 
the sect had been received in the colony, and the two women were cast into 
prison, and confined for several weeks.' With eight others who arrived during 

' "When James the Second came to the throne, the charters of all the colonies were taken away 
or suspended. When local governments were re-established after the Revolution of 1G88, there no 
longer existed a necessity for the Union, and the confederacy was dissolved. 

" Page 108. • = Note 3, page 108. 

* In October, 1651, the general court or legi.slature of Massaejiusetts ordered silver coins of the 
values of threepence, sixpence, and a shilling sterling, to be made. The mint-master was allowed 
fifteen pence out of every twenty shillings, for his trouble. He made a large fortune by the busi- 
ness. From the circumstance that the effigy oi a. pine-tree was stamped on one side, these coins, 
now very rare, are called pine-tree money. The date [1652] was not altered for thirty years Mas- 
sachusetts was also the first to issue paper money in the shape of treasury notes. See page 132. 

' Page 80. 

° Tlie founder of the sect was George Pox, who promulgated his peculiar tenets about 1650. 
He was a man of education and exalted purity of character, and soon, learned and influential men 
became his co-workers. They still maintain the highest character for morality and practical Chris- 
tianity. See note 7, page 94. 

' Their trunks were searched, and tlie religious books found in them were burned by the hang- 
man, on Boston Common. Suspected of being witches [note 7, page 132], their persons were 
examined in order to discover certain marks which would indicate their connection with the Kvil One. 



1-55.] MASSACHUSETTS. 123 

the year, thcj were sent back to England.' Others came, and a special act 
against the Quakers was put iu force [1657], but to no purpose. Opposition 
increased their zeal, and, as usual with enthusiasts, precisely because they were 
not wanted, they came. Tliey suffered stripes, imprisonments, and general- 
contempt ; and finally, in 1658, on the recommendation of the Federal Com- 
missioners,' Massachusetts, by a majority of one vote, banished them, on pain 
of death. The excuse pleaded in extenuation of this barbarous law Avas, that 
the Quakers preached doctrines dangerous to good government.' But the death 
penalty did not deter the exiles from returning ; and many others came because 
they courted the martyr's reward. Some were hanged, others were publicly 
whipped, and the prisons were soon filled with the persecuted sect. The sever- 
ity of the law finally caused a strong expression of public sentiment against it. 
The Quakers were regarded as true martyrs, and the people demanded of the 
magistrates a cessation of the bloody and barbarous punishments. The death 
penalty was abolished, in 1661 ; the fanaticism of the magistrates and the 
Quakers subsided, and a more Christian spirit of toleration pi-evailed. No 
longer sufferers for opinion's sake, the Quakers turned their attention to the 
Indian tribes, and nobly seconded the efforts of Mahew and Eliot in the propa- 
gation of the gospel among the pagans of the forest. ■" 

On the restoration of monarchy in 1660, the judges who condemned Charles 
the First to the block, were outlawed. Two of them (William Goffe and Edward 
Whalley) fled to America, and were the first to announce at Boston the acces- 
sion of Charles the Second. Orders were sent to the colonial authorities for 
their arrest, and officers were dispatched from England for the same purpose. 
The colonists effectually concealed them, and for this act, and the general sym- 
pathy manifested l)y New England for the republican party, the king resolved 
to show them no fivor. They had been exempt from commercial restrictions 
during Cromwell's administration ; now these were revived, and the stringent 
provisions of a new Navigation Act' were rigorously enforced. The people 
vainly petitioned for relief; and finally, commissioners were sent [August, 
1644] " to hear and determine all complaints that might exist in New England, 
and take such measui-es as they might deem expedient fur settling the peace 
and security of the country on a solid foundation." ° This was an unwise 

' Mary Fisher went all the way from London to Adrianople, to carry a divine message to the 
Sxiltan. She was regarded as Insane ; and as the Moslems respect such people as special favorites 
of God, Mary Fisher was unharmed in tlie Sultan's dominions. ' Page 121. 

' The Quakers denied all hiiman authority, and regarded the power of magistrates as delegated 
tyranny. They preached purity of life, charity in its broadest sense, and denied the right of any 
man to control the opinions of anotlier. Conscience, or " the hght within," was considered a suf- 
ficient guide, and they deemed it their special mission to denounce " hireling ministers" and " per- 
secuting magistrates," in person. It was this offensive boldness which engendered the violent 
hatred toward the sect in England and America. 

* John Eliot has been truly called the Apostle to the Indians. He began his labors soon after 
his arrival in America, and founded the first church among the savages, at Natic, in 16C0, at which 
time there were ten towns of converted Indians in Massachusetts. Thirty-five years later, it was 
estimated that there were not less tlian three thousand adult Christian Indians in tlie Islands of 
Martha's Vineyard and Nantucket, alone. ' Note 4, page 109. 

" These were Colonel Richard Nieolls, Sir Robert Carr, George Cartwright and Ricliard Maver- 
ick. They came with a royal fleet, commanded by Colonel Nieolls, wliich had been sent lo assert 
English authority over the possessions of tlie Dutch, in New Netherland. See page 144. 



124 MASSACHUSETTS. [1620. 

movement on the part of the mother country. The colonists regarded the 
measure with indignation, not only as a violation of their charters, but as an 
incipient step toward establishing a system of domination, destructive to their 
liberties. Massachusetts boldly protested against the exercise of the authority 
of the commissioners within her limits, but at the same time asserted her loyalty 
to the sovereign. The commissioners experienced the opposition of the other 
New England colonies, except Rhode Island. Their acts were generally disre- 
garded, and after producing a great deal of irritation, they were recalled in 
1666. The people of Massachusetts, triumphant in their opposition to royal 
oppression, ever afterwai'd took a front rank in the march toward complete 
freedom. The licentious king and his ministers were too much in love with 
voluptuous ease, to trouble themselves with far-off colonies ; and while Old 
England was suffering from bad government, and the puissance of the throne 
was lessening in the estimation of the nations, the colonies flourished in purity, 
peace, and strength, until Metficomet, the son of the good Massasoit.' 
kindled a most disastrous Indian war, known in history as 

KING PHILIP'S WAR. 

Massasoit kept his treaty with the Plymouth 
colony^ fiiithfully while he lived. Metacomct, or 
Philip,^ resumed the covenants of friendship, and 
kept them inviolate for a dozen years. But as 
spreading settlements were reducing his domains acre 
by acre, breaking up his hunting grounds, diminish- 
ing his fisheries, and menacing his nation with servi- 
tude or annihilation, his patriotism was aroused, and 
he willingly listened to the hot young warriors of his 
tribe, who counseled a war of extermination against 
KING iMiaip. the English. At Mount Hope^ the seat of the chief 

sachems of the Wampanoags, in the solitudes of the 
primeval forests, he planned, with consummate skill, an alliance of all the New 
England tribes,^ against the European intruders. 

At this time, there were four hundred " praying Indians," as the converts 
to Christianity wei'e called, firmly attached to the white people. One of them, 
named John Sassamon, who had been educated at Cambridge, and was a sort of 
secretary to Philip, after becoming acquainted with the plans of the sachem, 

' Page 114. ' Tage 114. 

" Massasoit had two sons, whom Governor Price named Alexander and Philip, in compliment 
to their bravery as warriors. Alexander died soon after the decease of his father ; and Philip 
became cliief sachem of the Wampanoags. 

* Mount Hope is a conical hill, 300 feet in height, and situated on the west side of Mount IIopo 
Bay, about two miles ffom Bristol, Rhode Island. It was called Pokanoket by the Indians. 

' The tribes which became involved in this war numbcied, prob.xbIy, about twenty-five thousand 
souls. Those along the coast of Massachusetts Bay, who had suffered terribly by a pestilence just 
before the Pilgrims came [page 77], had materially increased in numbers ; and other tribes, besides 
the New England Indians proper [page 22], became parties to the conflict. 




1755.] MASSACHUSETTS. 125 

revealed them to the authorities at Plymoutli. For this he was slain by his 
countrymen, and three Wampanoags were convicted of his murder, on slender 
testimony, and hanged. The ire of the tribe was fiercely kindled, and they 
thirsted for vengeance. The cautious Philip was overruled by his fiery young 
men, and remembering the wrongs and humiliations he had personally received 
from the English,' he trampled upon solemn treaties, sent his women and chil- 
dren to the Narragansetts for protection, and kindled the flame of war. Mes- 
sengers were sent to other tribes, to arouse them to co-operation, and with all 
the power of Indian eloquence, Metacomet exhorted his followers to curse the 
white men, and swear eternal hostility to the pale faces. He said, in effect : 

" Away I away 1 I will not hear 

Of aught but death or vengeance now ; 
By the eternal skies I swear 

My knee shall never learn to bow ! 
I will not hear a word of peace, 

Nor clasp in friendly grasp a hand 
Linked to that pale-browed stranger race, 

That works the ruin of our land. 

And till your last white foe shall kneel, 

And in his coward pangs expire, 
Sleep — but to dream of brand and steel ; 

Wake — but to deal in blood and fire !" 

Although fierce and determined when once aroused, no doubt Philip com- 
menced hostilities contrary to the teachings of his better judgment, for he was 
sagacious enough to foresee failure. " Frenzy prompted their rising. It was 
but the storm in which the ancient inhabitants of the land were to vanish away. 
They rose without hope, and therefore they fought without mercy. To them, 
as a nation, there was no to-morrow." 

The bold Philip struck the first blow at Swanzey, thirty-five miles south- 
west from Plymouth. The people were just returning from their houses of 
worship, for it was a day of fasting and humiliation [July 4, 1675], in antici- 
pation of hostilities. Many were slain and captured, and others fled to the 
surrounding settlements, and aroused the people. The men of Plymouth, 
joined by those of Boston and vicinity, pressed toward Mount Hope. Philip 
was besieged in a swamp for many days, but escaped with most of his warriors, 
and became a fugitive with the Nipmucs,^ an interior tribe of Massachusetts. 
These espoused his cause, and with full fifteen hundred warriors, he hastened 
toward the white settlements in the far-off valley of the Connecticut. In the 
mean while the little army of white people penetrated the country of the Narra- 
gansetts,^ and extorted a treaty of friendship from Canonchet,'' chief sachem of 



' In 1671, Philip and his tribe being suspected of secretly plotting the destruction of the En- 
glish, were deprived of their fire-arms. He never forgot the injury, and long meditated revenge. 

■ Page 22. =■ Page 22. 

* Son of Miantonomoh, whose residence was upon a hill a little north of the city ol' Newport. 
R. I. That hill still bears the name of Miantonomoh, abbreviated to "Tonomy Hill." Page 91. 



126 THE COLONIES. [1020. 

that powerful tribe. Hearing of this, Philip was dismayed for a moment. But 
there was no hope for him, except in energetic action, and he atid his followers 
aroused other tribes, to a war of extermination, by the secret and efficient 
methods of treachery, ambush, and surprise. Men in the fields, families in 
their beds at midnight, and congregations in houses of worship, were attacked 
and massacred. The Indians hung like the scythe of death upon the borders 
of the English settlements, and for several months a gloomy apprehension of the 
extermination of the whole European population in New England, prevailed.' 

Dreadful were the scenes in the path of the Wampanoag chief From 
Springfield northward to the present Vermont line, the valley of the Connecti- 
cut was a theater of confusion, desolation, and death, wherever white settle- 
ments existed. Almost the whole of a party of twenty Englishmen" sent to 
treat with the Nipmucs, were treacherously slain by the savages in ambush 
[Aug. 12, 1675], near Quaboag, now Brookfield. That place was set on fire, 
when a sliower of rain put out the flames, and the Indians were driven away by 
a relief party of white people.^ The village was partially saved, but imme- 
diately abandoned. Soon afterward a hot battle was fought near Deerfield^ 
[Sept 5], and a week later [Sept. 12] that settlement also was laid in ashes. 
On the same day (it was the Sabbath), Hadley, further down the river, was 
attacked while the people were worshiping In the midst of the alarm and con- 
fusion, a tall and venerable-looking man, with white, flowing hair and beard, 
suddenly appeared, and brandishing a glittering sword, he placed himself at the 
head of the affrighted people, and led them to a cliarge which dispersed and 
defeated the foe. He as suddenly disappeared, and the inhabitants believed 
that an angel from heaven had been sent to their rescue. It was Goffe, the 
fugitive English judge, ^ who was then concealed in that settlement. 

The scourge, stayed for a moment at Hadley, swept mercilessly over other 
settlements. On the 23d of September, tlie paths of Northfield were wet with 
the blood of many valiant young men under Captain Beers ; and on the 28th, 
"a company of young men, the very flower of Essex," under Captain Lathrop, 
were butchered by almost a thousand Indians on the banks of a little stream 
near Deerfield, which still bears the name of Bloody Brook. Others, who 
came to their rescue, were engaged many hours in combat with the Indians 
until crowned with victory. Yet the Indians still prevailed. Philip, en- 
couraged by success, now resolved to attack Hatfield, the chief settlement of the 



' The white population in New Englantl, at this time, has beon estimated at fiftv-fivo tliousaml 
Haverhill, on the Merrimao, was the frontier town in the direction of Maine ; and Nortliflokl, on the 
borders of Vermont, was the highest settlement in the Connecticut valley. Westfield, one hundred 
miles west of Boston, was the most remote settlement in that direction. 

' Captains Wheeler and Hutchinson were sent from Boston to endeavor to reclaim the Nipmucs. 
Apprised of their coming, the Indians lay in ambush, and fired upon them from tlie deep thickets 
of a swamp. 

' Under Major Willard. The Indians set fire to every house except a strong one into which 
the people liad secured themselves, and were besieged there two days. The Indians set fire to this 
last refuge, when rain e-xtinguished the flames. 

' Between ISO white people and 700 Indians, [See, also, page 135.] ' ra;Ae 12.'!. 



1755.] MASSACHUSETTS, 127 

white people above Springfield. The Springfield Indians joined him,' and with 
almost a thousand warriors, he (eW upon the settlement, on the 29th of Octo- 
ber, 1675. The English were prepared for his reception, and he was repulsed 
with such loss, that, gathering his broken forces on the eastern bank of the 
Connecticut,' he marched toward Rhode Island. The Narragansetts, in viola- 
tion of -the recent treaty,^ received him, became his allies, and went out upon 
the war path late in autumn. A terrible, retributive blow soon fell upon the 
savages, when fifteen hundreil men of Massachusetts, Plymouth, and Connecti- 
cut, marched to punish Canouchet and his tribe, for their perfidy. The snows 
of early winter had fiillen, and at least three thousand Indians had collected in 
their chief fort in an immense swamp, ^ where they were supplied with provi- 
sions for the winter. It was a stormy day in December [Dec. 29], when the 
English stood before the feeble palissades of the savages. These offered but 
little opposition to the besiegers ; and Avithin a few hours, five hundred wig- 
wams, with the winter provisions, were in flames. Hundreds of men, women, 
and children, perished in the fire. A thousand warriors were slain or wounded, 
and several hundreds were made prisoners. The English lost eighty killed, 
and one hundred and fifty wounded. Canonchet was made prisoner, and slain ; 
but Philip escaped, and with the remnant of the Narragansctts, he took refuge 
again with the Nipmucs. 

Tlie fugitive Wampanoag was busy during the winter. He vainly solicited 
the Mohawks' to join him, but he was seconded by the tribes eastward of Mas- 
sachusetts, "^ who also had wrongs to redress. The work of desolation began 
early in the spring of 1676, and within a few weeks the war extended over a 
space of almost three hundred miles. Weymouth, Groton, Medfield, Lancas- 
ter, and Marlborough, in Massachusetts, were laid in ashes ; Warwick and 
Providence, in Rhode Island, were burned ; and everywhere, the isolated dwell- 
ings of settlers were laid waste. But internal feuds weakened the power of the 
savages ; and both the Nipmucs' and the Narragansctts- charged their misfor- 
tunes to the ambition of Philip. The cords of alliance were severed. Some 
surrendered to avoid starvation ; other tribes wandered off and joined those in 
Canada;' while Captain Benjamin Church," the most famous of the partisan 




' Tliey had been friendly until now. They plotted tho entire 
destruction of the Springfield settlement; bnt the people defended 
themselves bravely witliin their palisaded hou.ses. Many of th 
strong houses of frontier settlements were thus fortified. Tiunk 
of trees, eight or ten inches in diameter, were cut in uniform knt?tli 
and stuck in tlie ground close together. The upper ends \\ei 
sharpened, and the whole were fastened together with gretn n itlii.^ 
or other contrivances. 

'^ Page 82. ' Page 125 PiLis vi i n ulu i im s 

This swamp is a small distance south-west of the viUa/e of Kingston, m AVashumton Touiit}, 
Rhode Island. The fort was on an island which contains about five acres of tillable land, in the 
north-west part of the swamp. The Stonington and Providence railway passes along the northeni 
verge of the swamp. '^ Pace 23. 

° Page 22. The tribes of Maine were then about four thou.sand strong. 

' Page 22. e Page 22. » Page 22. 

'° Benjamin Cliiirch was born at Plymoiith, Massachusetts, in 1639. He continued hostilities 
against the east 'rn Indians until 1704. He fell from his horse, and died soon afterward, at Little 
Compton, Jan. 17, 1718, aged 77 vears. 



128 



THE COLONIES. 



[1620. 



officers of the English colonies, went out to hunt and to destroy the fugitives. 
During the year, between two and three thousand Indians were slain or had 
submitted. Philip was chased from one hiding-place to another, but for a long 
time he would not yield. He once cleft the head of a warrior who proposed 
submission. But at length, the " last of the Wampanoags" bowed to the press- 
ure of circumstances. He returned to the land of his fathers' [Augusts, 1676], 
and soon his wife and son were made prisoners. This calamity crushed him, 
and he said, " Now my heart breaks ; I am ready to die." A few days after- 




ward, a faithless Indian shot him, and Captain Church cut off the dead sachem'a 
head." His body was quartered ; and his little son was sold to be a bond-slave 
in Bermuda.' So perished the last of the princes of the Wampanoags, and 
thus ended, in the total destruction of the power of the New England Indians, 
the famous King Philip's War.' 

The terrilile menaces of the Indian war, and the hourly alarm which it 
occasioned, did not make the English settlers unmindful of their political posi- 



' Note 4, page 124. 

^ Tlie rude sword, made by a blacksmith of the colony, with wliicli Captain Cliurch cut ofT 
Philip's liead, is in the possession of tlie Massachusetts Historical Societj'. 

^ The dispos:il of the boy was a subject of serious deliberation. Some of the elders proposed 
putting him to deatli ; others, professing more merry, suggested selling liim as a slave. The' most 
profitable measure appeared the most mercifvl, and the cliild was sold into bondage. The head of 
Piiilip was carried in triumph to Plymouth, and placed upon a pole 

* The result of this war was vastly beneficial to the colonists, for the fear of savages, whieli 
prevented a rapid spread of settlements, was removed. From this period may be dated tlie real, 
unimpeded growth of New England. 



-J5.] MASSACHUSETTS. 129 

ion, nor hopeless respecting the future. AVhile the Massachusetts colonj wa"- 
ret weak in resources, from the effects of the war,' and the people were yet 
sngaged in hostilities with the eastern tribes,' it made territorial accessions by 
mrchase, and at the same time boldly asserted its chartered rights. For many- 
rears there had been a controversy between the heirs of Sir F. Gorges^ and 
Fohn Mason, and the Massachusetts colony, concerning a portion of the present 
erritory of Maine and New Hampshire, which, by acts of the inhabitants, had 
)een placed [1641 and 1G52] under the jurisdiction of the authorities at Bos- 
on.'' The judicial decision [1677] was in favor of the heirs, and Massachu- 
etts immediately purchased [May 1, 1677] their interest for si.x thousand dol- 
ars.' New Hampshire was detached three years afterward [1680], and made 
, royal province — the first in New England ; but Maine, which was incorpo- 
ated with Massachusetts in 1692, continued a part of that commonwealth until 
.820. 

Now rapidly budded that governmental tyranny which finally drove all the 
American colonies into open rebellion. The profligate king continued to draw 
he lines of absolute rule closer and closer in England, and he both feared and 
lated the growing republics in America, especially those in the East. They 
rere ostensibly loyal portions of his realm, but were really independent sover- 
ignties, continually reacting upon the mother country, to the damage of the 
' divine right" of kings. Charles had long cherished a desire to take their 
jovernments into his own hands, and he employed the occasion of the rejection 
if Edward Randolph (a custom-hojise ofiicer, who had been sent to Boston 
1679] to collect the revenues, and otherwise to exercise authority"), to declare 
lie Massachusetts charter void. He issued a quo warranto in 1683,' and pro- 
cured a decision in his favor in the High Court of Chancery, on the 28th of 
Fune, 168-4, but he died on the 26th of February following, before his object 
vas effected. 

Charles's successor, James the Second,'' continued the oppressive measures 
»f his brother toward the New England colonies. The people petitioned and 
•emonstrated, and were treated with contempt. Their hardships in conquering 
I wilderness, and their devotion to the English constitution, had no weight 
^ith the royal bigot.' He also declared the charter of Massachusetts forfeited, 
md appointed Joseph Dudley president of the caantry from Rhode Island to 
Nova Scotia. Sir Edmund Andros arrived at Boston soon afterward [Dec. 

' During the war, New England lost six hundred men ; a dozen towns were dcstroy:'d ; six 
lundred dwellings were burned ; every twentietli family was houseles.s ; and every Xw entieth man, 
ivho had served as a soldier, had perished. The cost of the war equaled five hundred thousand 
lollars — a very large sum at that time. 

^ Page 22. = Page 79. * Page 80, and note 2, page 80. 

' The portion of Maine then purchased, was the tract between tlie Piscataqua and the Kenne- 
3ec. That between the Kennebec and the Penobscot belonged to the Duke of York, and the terri- 
tory between the Penobscot and the St. Croix, was held by the Frencli, pursuant to a treaty. 

° Randolph appears to have been a greedy adventurer, and wa.s, consequently, a faithful servant 
)f his royal master in oppressing the colonists. He exaggerated the number and resources of the 
people of New England, and thus excited the king's fears and cupidity. Previous to Randolph's 
ippoiutment, the colonies had dispatched agents to England, to settle impending difhculties ami- 
:ably. They failed, and Randolph came in the same vessel in which tliey returned. 

' Note 3, page 107. » Page 113. ' Note 7, page 113. 





130 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

30, 1686], clothed with authority to govern all New England. He came with 
a smiling face, and deceitful lips. He appears to have been a tyrant by nature, 
and came to execute a despot's will. He soon made bare the rod of oppression, 
and began to rule with a tyrant's rigor.' The people were about to practice 
the doctrine that ^^ resistance to tyrants is obedience to God,'^" when intelli- 
gence reached Boston [April 14, 1689], that James was driven from the 
throne [1688] and was succeeded by William and Mary, of Orange.* The 
inhabitants of Boston seized and imprisoned Andros and fifty of his political 
associates [April 28, 1689], sent them to England under a just Charge of mal- 
administration of public afiairs, and re-established their constitutional govern- 
ment. Again republicanism was triumphant in Massachusetts. 

The effects of the revolution in England were also sorrowful to the Amer- 
ican colonies. That revolution became a cause of war between England and 
France. James (who was a Roman Catholic) fled to the court of Louis the 
Fourteenth, king of France, and that monarch espoused the cause of the fugi- 
tive. Hostilities between the two nations commenced the same year, and the 
quarrel extended to their respective colonies in America. The conflict then 
commenced, and which was continued more than seven years, is known in his- 
tory as 

KING -fflLLIAM'S AVAR. 

The colonists suffered terribly in that contest. The French Jesuits, * who 
had acquired great influence over the eastern tribes,' easily excited them to 
renew their fierce warfare with the English. They also made the savages their 
allies ; and all along the frontier settlements, the pathway of murder and des- 
olation was seen. Dover, a frontier town, was first attacked by a" party of 
French and Indians, on the 7th of July, 1689, when the venerable Major 
Waldron" and twenty others of the little garrison were killed. Twenty-nine 
of the inhabitants were made captive, and sold as servants to the French in 
Canada. In August following, an Indian war party, instigated by Thury, a 
Jesuit, fell [August 12] upon an English stockade' at Pemaquid (built by 
Andros), and captured the garrison. A few months later, Frontenac sent a 

' Among other arbitrary acts, Andros laid restraints upon the freedom of the press, and mar- 
riage contracts; and, to use a modern term, he "levied black mail;" that is, extorted money, by 
menaces, whenever opportunity offered. He advanced the fees of all officers of the government to 
an exorbitant degree ; and liually threatened to make the Church of England the established relig- 
ion in all America. 

'' This was Cromwell's motto ; and Thomas Jefferson had it engraved upon his private seal. 

' Note 7, page 113. 

* This was a Roman Catholic religious order, founded by Ignatius Loyola, a Spaniard, in 1539. 
They have ever been remarkable for their great devotion to their cause, their sell-denial, and mas- 
terly sagacity in the acquirement and maintenance of power. Their missionaries preached Chris- 
tianity in every part of the habitable globe. They came with the first French adventurers to Amer- 
ica, and under their influence, whole tribes of Indians eastward of Massachusetts and in Canada were 
made nominal Christians. This was one of the ties which made the .savages such faithful allies to 
the French in the contests between them and the English, previous to 1763. ' Page 22. 

' Waldron was eighty years of age. He had played false with the New Hampshire Indians 
during King Philip's war, and they now sought revenge. They tortured him to death. 

' Note 2. page 183. 



1755.] MASSACHUSETTS. 131 

party of three hundred French and Indians from Montreal, to penetrate the 
country toward Albany. On a gloomy night in winter, when the snow was 
twenty inches in depth, they fell upon Schenectada [Feb. 18, 1690], a frontier 
town on the Mohawk, massacred many of the people, and burnt the village. 
Early in the spring, Salmon Falls [March 28], Casco [May 27], and other 
eastern villages, were attacked by another part)r of the same mongrel foe, the 
natural ferocity of the Indians being quickened by the teachings of the Jesuits 
concerning the proper fate of heretics.' 

All the colonies were aroused, by these atrocities, to a sense of tlieir dantrer 
in having such foes intent upon their destruction ; and the New England people 
resolved on speedy retaliation. In May, Massachusetts fitted out an expedi- 
tion, under Sir William Phipps, a native of Pemaquid, consisting of eight or 
nine vessels, with about eight hundred men. Phipps seized Port Royal,'- in 
Acadie, and obtained sufficient plunder from the inhabitants to pay the expenses 
of the expedition. In June, Port Royal was again plundered by English pri- 
vateers from the West Indies. Encouraged by these successes, the colonics of 
New England and New York coalesced in efforts to conquer Canada.' It was 
arranged to send a land expedition from New York, by way of Lake Cham- 
plain, against Montreal,' and a naval expedition against Quebec.^ The com- 
mand of the former was intrusted to the son of Governor Winthrop of Connect- 
icut," and the expenses were borne jointly by that colony and New York.' Sir 
William Phipps commanded the latter, which Massachusetts alone fitted out. 
It consisted of thirty-four vessels, with two thousand men. Both were unsuc- 
cessful. Some of Winthrop's troops, with Indians of the Five N.\tio\s,° under 
Colonel Schuyler, pushed toward the St. Lawrence, and were repulsed [Aug., 
1690] by Frontenac, the governor of Canada. The remainder did not go be- 
yond Wood Creek (now AVhitehall), at the head of Lake Champlain, and all 
returned to Albany.' Phipps reached Quebec about the middle of October, 
and landed the troops ; but the city was too strongly fortified" to promise a 
successful siege, and he returned to Boston before the winter set in." Massa- 

' In these massacres, instigated by the Jesuits, we may find a reason for the seeming intolrr- 
ance of the Protestant majority in Maryland [page 152], the disabilities of Roman Catholics in 
Virginia, New York, and New England, and their exclasion from the privileges of freemen in t( I- 
erant Rhode Island The most potent operations of the Jesuits were in secret, and the colonists 
were compelled to regard every Roman Catholic as the natural enemy of Protestants, and as labor- 
ing to destroy every measure tending to human freedom. 

" Page 58. ' Page 204. * Page 48. 

' Page 48. ' Page 86. 

' Milborne, son-in-law of Jacob Leisler, the democratic governor of New York [page 148], un- 
dertook to provide subsistence for the army, wliich marched from Albany early in July. 

' Page 23. 

' Leisler was so much incensed at this failure, that he caused the arrest of 'Winthrop, at Albany. 
There had ever been a jealous rivalry between the people of New York and Connecticut ; and the 
feud which continually prevailed among the mixed troops, was the chief cause of the miscarriage of 
the enterprise. 

" Phipps, having no chart to guide hira, was nine weeks cautiously making his way around 
Acadie and up the St Lawrence. In the mean while, a awift Indian runner, from Pemaquid, sped 
across the country, and informed the French, at Quebec, of the approach of Phipps, in time for 
them to well prepare for defense. 

" This repulse was considered so important by the French, that king Louis had a commemor- 
ative medal struck, with the legend — " France Victohious in the New 'World." 



132 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

chusetts was obliged to issue bills of credit, or paper money, to defray the 
expenses of this e.xpedition. ' 

Sir William Phippswas sent to England soon after his return, to solicit aid 
in further warfare upon the French and Indians, and also to assist in efforts to 
procure a restoration of the charter of Massachusetts, taken away by King 
James." Material assistance in prosecuting the war was refused ; and King 
William instead of restoring the old charter, granted a new one, and united 
under it the colonies of Plymouth, jMassachusetts, Maine, and Nova Scotia,^ by 
the old name of Massachusetts Bay Colony, and made it a royal province. 
Phipps was appointed governor by the king, and returned to Boston with the 
charter, in May, 1692. But the new constitution was offensive to the people, 
for they were allowed scarcely any other political privileges than they already 
possessed, except the right to choose representatives. The king reserved the 
right to appoint the governor, his deputy, and the secretary of the colony, and 
of repealing the laws within three years after their passage. This abridgment 
of their liberties produced general dissatisfaction, and alienated the affections of 
the people from the mother country. It was one of a series of fatal steps taken 
by the English government, which tended toward the final dismemberment of 
the empire in 1776.' Yet one good resulted from the change. The theocratic 
or religious element in the government, which fosteretl bigotry and intolerance, 
lost its power, for toleration was guarantied to all Christian sects, except Roman 
Catholics ; and the right of suffrage was extended to others than members of 
Congregational churches.^ 

A very strange episode in the history of Massachusetts now occurred. A 
belief in witchcraft" destroyed the peace of society in many communities, and 
shrouded the whole colony in a cloud of gloom. This belief had a strong hold 
upon the minds of the people of old England, and of their brethren in America. 
Excitement upon the subject suddenly broke out at Danvers (then a part of 
Salem), in March, 1692, and spread like an epidemic. A niece and daughter 
of the parish minister exhibited strange conduct ; and under the influence of 
their own superstitious belief, they accused an old Indian servant-woman in the 
family of bewitching them. Fasting and prayer, to break the "spell,'' were 
of no avail, for the malady increased. The alarm of the family spread to the 



' Note 4, pnjre 122. The total amount of the issue was §133,338. " Page 129. 

' New Scotland, the nnme givon to the country which the French called Acadie. See note 2, 
page 80. ' Page 251. ' Note 5, page 118. 

° A belief in witchcraft, or tlio exercise of supernatural power, by men and women, has been 
prevalent for ages. Punishment of persons accused of it, was first sanctioned by tlie Church of Rome 
a Uttle more than tliree hundred years ago. Certain tests were instituted, and tliousands of innocent 
persons were burned aUve, drowned, or hanged, in Europe. Within three months, in I.'JIS, five hun- 
dred persons were burned in Geneva, in Switzerland. In the diocese of Como, one thousand were 
burned in one year. In 1520, an incredible number, from among all classes, suffered death in 
France. And witliin fifty or sixty years, during the sixteentli century, more than one luindred 
thousand persons perished in the flames in Germany alone. Henry the Eightli of England made 
tlie practice of witchcraft a capital offense; and a hundred years later, ''witch-detectors" traversed 
the country, and brought many to the stake. Enlightened men embraced tlio belief; and even Sir 
Mattliew Hale, the most distinguished of England's judges, repeatedly tried and condemned penson-. 
accused of %vitcheraft. The English laws against witchcraft were adopted in New England ; and : ; 
early as 1648, four persons had suffered death for the alleged offense, in the vicinity of Boston. 



1755.] 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



133 



oommunity ; and soon a belief prevailed throughout the colony, that evil spirits, 
havinc ministering servants among men, overshadowed the land. Old and ill- 
favored women were first accused of practising the art of witchcraft ; but at 
leno^th neither age, sex, nor condition afforded protection from the accuser's 
tonwue. Even the wife of Governor Phipps did not escape suspicion. Magis- 
trates were condemned, many pious persons were imprisoned, and Mr. Bur- 
roughs, a worthy minister, was executed. Men of strong minds and scholnrly 
attainments were thoroughly deluded. Among these was the eminent Cotton 
Mather, whose fiither before him had yielded to the superstition, and published 




(Zoh-cm iTLa^-k^. 



an account of all the supposed cases of witchcraft in New England. Cotton 
Mather, on account of his position as a leading divine, and bis talents, prob- 
ably did more than any other man to promote the spread of that fearful delusion, 
which prevailed for more than six months. During that time, twenty persons 
suffered death, fifty-five were tortured or frightened into a confession of witch- 
craft, and when a special court, or legislature, was convened in October, 169-, 
one hundred and fifty accused persons were in prison. A reaction, almost as 
sudden as the beginning of the excitement, now took place in the public mind. 
The prison doors were opened to the accused, and soon many of the 'accusers 
shrunk abashed from the public gaze.' Standing in the light of the present 
century, we look back to " Salem witchcraft," as it is called, with amazement. 

' The belief in witchcraft did not cease with the strange excitement; and Cotton Mather and 
other popular men, wrote ui its defense. Calef. a citizen of Boston, exposed Mather's credulity, 
which greatly irritated the minister. He first called his opponent ''a weaver turned minister;" 
but as his tormentor's blows fell thick and fast, in a series of letters, Mather called him " a coal from 



134 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

"King William's war"' continued until 1697, when a treaty of peace, 
made at Ryswick, in the west of Holland, on the 20th of September of that 
year, terminated hostilities.^ Up to that time, and later, the New England 
people suffered greatly from their mongrel foe. Remote settlements in the 
direction of Canada and Nova Scotia continued to be harassed. Almost a hun- 
dred persons were killed or made captive [July 28, 1694] at Oyster River 
(now Durham), ten miles from Portsmouth, in New Hampshire. Two years 
later [July 25, 1696], Baron St. Castine, and a large force of French and 
Indians, captured the garrison at Pemaquid, and exchanged the prisoners for 
French soldiers in the hands of the English.^ In March, 1697, Haverhill, 
thirty miles from Boston, was attacked, and forty persons were killed or carried 
into captivity ;' and during the following summer, more remote settlers were 
great sufferers. A respite now came. The treaty at Ryswick produced a lull 
in the storm of cruel warfare, which had so long hung upon the English fi-on- 
tiers, continually menacing the colonists with wide-spread destruction." It was 
very brief, however, for pretexts for another war were not long wanting. 
James the Second died in September^ 1701, and Louis the Fourteenth, who 
had sheltered the exile," acknowledged his son, Prince James (commonly 
!;noTi'n as the Pretender), to be the lawful heir to the English throne. This 
offended the English, because the crown had been settled upon Anne, second 
daughter of James, who was a Protestant. Louis had also offended the English 
by placing his grandson, Philip of Anjou, upon the throne of Spain, and thus 



hell," and prosecuted him for slander. The credulous clergyman was glad to withdraw the suit. 
Cotton Mather was bom in Boston, in February, 1G33, and was educated at Harv.ard College. He 
was very expert in the acquirement of knowledge, and at the age of nineteen years, he received 
the degree of Master of Arts. He became a gospel minister at twenty-two, and holding a ready 
pen, he wrote much. Few of his writings have survived him. With all his learning, he was but a 
child in that which constitutes true manhood, and he is now regarded more as a pedant 
than as a scholar. He died in February, 1728. For the benefit of young men, we will 
here introduce an anecdote connected with him. It was thus related by Dr. Franklin, to Samuel, a 
son of Cotton Mather: "The last time I saw your fatlier was in the beginning of 1724, when I 
visited him after my first trip to Pennsylvania. He received me in his library; and on my taking 
leave, showed me a shorter way out of the house through a narrow passage, wliich was crossed by 
a beam overhead. We were still talking as I withdrew, he accompanying me behind, and I turn- 
ing partly toward him, when he said hastily, 'Stoop! stoopi' I did not understand until I felt my 
head hit against the beam. He was a man that never missed an occasion of giving Instruction, 
and upon this he said to me, ' You are young, and have the world before you ; stoop as you go 
through, and you will escape many hard tliumps.' This advice, thus beat into my head, has fre- 
quently been of us6 to me; and I often think of it when I see prido mortified, and misfortunes 
brought upon people by carrying their heads too high." ' Page 130. 

' This war cost England one hundred and fifty millions of dollars, in cash, besides a loan of one 
hundred millions more. This loan was the commencement of the enormous national debt of En- 
gland, now [1867] amounting to about four thousand millions of dollars. 

' They also took the EngUsli fort of St. Jolui's, Newfoundland, and several other posts on that 
island. 

' Among their captives was a Mrs. Dustan, her child, and nurse. Her infant was soon killed, 
and she and her nurse were taken to Canada. A little more than a mouth afterward, Mrs. D., her 
companion, and another prisoner, killed ten of twelve sleeping Indians, who had them in custody, 
and made their way back to Haverliill. 

' Just before the conclusion of tliis treaty, a Board of Trade and Plantations was estabhshed by 
the English government, whose duty it was to have a general oversight of the American colonies. 
This was a permanent commission, consisting of a president and seven members, called Lords of 
Trade: This commission was always an instrument of oppression in the hands of royalty, and, as 
■flTll be seen, was a powerful promoter of that discontent which led to the rebellion of the colonies 
in 1775. ' Page 130. 



1755.] MASSACHUSETTS. 135 

extended the influence of France among the dynasties of Europe. These, and 
some minor causes, impelled England again to declare war against France.' 
Hostilities commenced in 1702, and continued until a treaty of peace was con- 
cluded at Utrecht, in Holland, on the 11th of April, 1713. As usual, the 
French and English in America were involved in this war ; and the latter suf- 
fered much from the cruelties of the Indians who were under the mfluence of 
the former. This is known in America as 

QUEEN ANNE'S WAR. 

It was a fortunate circumstance for the people of New York that the Five 
Nations hatl made a treaty of neutrality with the French in Canada [Aug. 4, 
1701 J, and thus became an impassable barrier against the savage hordes from 
the St. Lawrence. The tribes from the Mcrrimac to the Penobscot had made 
a treaty of peace with New England, in July, 1703, but the French induced 
them to violate it ; and before the close of summer, the hatchet fell upon the 
people of the whole frontier from Casco to Wells. Blood flowed in almost 
every valley; and early the next spring [March, 1704], a 
large party of French and Indians, under Major Hertel do 
Rouville, attacked Deerfield, on the Connecticut River, 
applied the torch, ^ killed forty of the inhabitants, and car- 
ried one hundred and twelve away to the wilderness. 
Among these Avas Rev. John Williams, the minister, whose 
little daughter, after a long residence with the Indians, williams's house. 
became attached to them, and married a Mohawk chief 
Similar scenes occurred at intervals during the whole progress of the war. 
Remote settlements were abandoned, and the people on the frontier collected in 
fortified houses,' and cultivated their fields in armed parties of half a dozen or 
more. This state of things became insupportable to the English colonists, and 
in the spring of 1707, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and New Hampshire, 
determined to chastise the French on their ea.stern borders. Connecticut 
refused to join in the enterprise, and the three colonies alone prepared an arma- 
ment. Early in June, a thousand men under Colonel Marsh, sailed from Nan- 
tucket for Port Royal,' in Acadie, convoyed l)y an English man-of-war. The 
French were prepared for them, and nothing was effected except the destruction 
of considerable property outside the fort. Three years later, an armament left 




' It is known in European liistory as the War of the Spam'sh Succession, 
' The only house that escaped the flames was that of the Rev. John WiUiams, represented in 
the engravinof. It stood near the centre of the village, until within a few years. 

° Mrs. Williams and other captives, who were unable to travel as rapidly as the Indians, were 
murdered. On his arrival in Canada, Mr. WiUiams was treated with respect by the French, and 
after two j-ears of captivity, was ransomed, and returned to Massachusetts. The chief object of the 
expedition to Deerfield, appears to have been to carry off the bell that hung in Williams's church. 
Tliat bell was purchased the year previous for the church of Saut St. Louis, at Caughnawaga, near 
Montreal Tlie vessel in which it was brought from Havre was captured 1 iv a New England pri- 
vateer, and the bell was purchased for the Deerfield meeting-house. Father Nicolas, of the church 
at Caughnawaga, accompanied the expedition, and the bell was carried in triumph to its original 
destination, where it still remains. ' Note 1, page 127. ' Page 58. 



136 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

Boston [September, 1710], and. in connection with a fleet from England, under 
Colonel Nicholson, demanded and obtained a surrender of the fort and garrison 
[Oct. 13J, at Port Royal. The name of the place was then changed to Anna- 
polis, in honor of the Queen, Anne, and Acadie was annexed to the English 
realm under the title of Nova Scotia, or New Scotland. 

In July, the following year [1711], Sir Ilovendon Walker arrived at Bos- 
ton, with an English fleet and army, designed for the conquest of Canada. 
New England promptly raised additionaJ forces, and on the 10th of August, 
flfteen men-of-war and forty transports, bearing almost seven thousand troops, 
departed for the St. Lawrence to attack Quebec. Walker, like Braddock,' 
haughtily refused to listen to experienced subordinates, and lost eight of his 
ships, and almost a thousand men, on the rocks at the mouth of the river, on 
the night of the 2d of September. Disheartened by this calamity, Walker 
returned to England with the remainder of his fleet, and the colonial troops 
went back to Boston. On hearing of this fliilure of the naval expedition, a 
body of troops marcliing from Albany to attack ]\Iontreal, retraced their steps.^ 
Hostilities were now suspended, and in the spring of 1713, a treaty of peace 
was concluded [April 11] at Utrecht. The eastern Indians sent a flao- to Bos- 
ton, and sued for peace ; and at Portsmouth the Governor of Massachusetts and 
New Hampshire entered into a pacific compact [July 24] with the chiefs of the 
tribes. 

A long peace now ensued, and for thirty years succeeding the close of 
Queen Anne's War, the colonists enjoyed comparative repose. Then, a"-ain, 
the selfish strifes of European monarchs awakened the demon of discord, and its 
bloody footsteps were soon apparent along the northern frontiers of the English 
colonies in America. The interim had been a period of much political agitation 
in Massachusetts, during which a great stimulus had been given to the growth 
of republican principles. Disputes, sometimes violent, and sometimes in a con- 
ciliatory spirit, had been carried on between the royal governors and the repre- 
sentatives of the people ; the former contending for prerogatives and salaries 
which the people deemed inadmissible.'' These internal disputes were ari-ested 
when they heard that France had declared hostility to England [jMarch 15, 
1744], and the colonists cheerfully prepared to commence the contest known in 
America as 

KING Cx E R G E ' S W A R .' 

This war was not j)roductive of many stirring events in America. The 
principal and very important one was the capture of the strong fortress of 



' King William had no children ; and Anne, the daughter of .Tames the Second (who was mar- 
ried to Prince George of Denmark), succeeded him as sovereign of England in 1702. " Page 186. 

' These were four thousand in number, under the command of General Nicholson. They wcrj 
furnished by New York and Connecticut. 

* Tlie chief topic of controversy was the payment of salaries. Governors Shute, Burnet and 
Belcher, all contended for a permanent salary, but the people claimed the right to vote such salaXv, 
each year, as the .services of the governor appeared justly to demand. A compromise was finally 
eft'ected by an agreement to vote a certain sum each year. The subject of salaries was a cause of 
contention with the royal governors, until the Revolution. 

' The husband of Queen Anne died several years previous to her death, which occurred in 
August, 17 04. George, Elector of Hanover, in Germany, was immediately proclaimed King uf 



1755.] 



MASSACHUSETTS. 



137 



Louisburg, on the island of Cape Breton. It had been constructed by the 
French after the treaty of Utrecht, at an expense of five and a half millions of 
dollars, and because of its strength, was called The Gibraliar of America. 
William Shirley,' a soldier and energetic statesman, was Governor of Massa- 
chusetts when hostilities were proclaimed. He immediately perceived the 
importance of Louisburg in the coming contest, and plans for its capture were 
speedily perfected by the Legislature of Massachusetts.'- Rhode Island, New 
Hampshire, and Connecticut furnished their proper quota of troops. New 
York sent artillery, and Pennsylvania provisions. Thus common danger was 
extending the idea of a necessity for a union of the Anglo- American colonies, 
long before it assumed a practical form in 1754.' 

After vainly waiting for some time in the expectation 
of aid from Commodore Warren (then in the West In- 
dies), the colonial forces, thirty-two hundred strong, 
under the general command of William 
Pepperell,' sailed [April 4, 1745] for 
Louisburg.'' At Canseau they were un- 
expectedly joined by the fleet of Warren 
[May 9], and on the 11th of Miy the 
combined forces, four thousand 
strong, landed at Gabarus Bay, 
a short distance from their des- 
tination. The sudden appear- 
ance of this formidable arm- 
ament, was the first intimation 
to the French, that an attack 
was meditated, and great consternation prevailed in the fortress and town. A 




C.VPTURE OF LOUISBURti IN 1745. 



England, by the title of George the First. His son George succeeded him in 1727, and also 
retained the title and privileges of Elector of Hanover. A contest arose between Maria Theresa. 
Empress of Hungary, and the Elector of Bavaria, for the throne of Austria, The King of England 
espoused the cause of the empress, in 174H, and the King of France took part with her opponent. 
This led France to declare war against England — a contest known in America as King Georye's 
War, but in Europe, the War of the Austrian Succession. 

' William Shirley was born in England ; made governor of Massachusetts in 1741; was after- 
ward made governor of one of the Bahama Islands, and died at Roxbury, near Boston, in 1771. 
He appears conspicuous in history during a portion of the contest known in AmeriL'.i as The French 
and Indian War. 

" Shirley proposed an expedition, but the Legislaturo hesitated. The measure was finally 
agreed upon by a majority of only one vote. '' Page 183. 

' Pepperell was a native of Maine, and a wealthy merchant. He was afterward made a bar- 
onet. He died iu 1759. 

' Louisburg is on the cast side of the island of Cape Breton, with a fine, deep harbor. The land- 
ing-place of the British, position of the camp, etc., will be seen by reference to the map. "i:\\e Royal 
BaUery was taken by four hundred men. When they approached, the French thought the whole 
English army was upon them. They immediately spiked their guns (that is, drove iron spikes into 
the touch-holes of the cannons, so as to make them useless), and fled In the upper part of the map 
is a profile of the fortifications at Louisburg. It is given here so as to illustrate certain terms which 
may be used hereafter : a, the glacis, is the extreme outside slope of the works ; 6, the banquet, or 
step upon which the soldiers stand to fire over the parapet ; c, a covered loay into the fort, under the 
banquet ; d, counterscarp, a bank or wall, outside tlie ditch, e ; f, the parapet, a protection for the men 
and guns from balls from without ; g, the inner banqwd ; h, ramparts — the most solid embankment 
of the fortress ; i the last slope in the interior of tlio fort, called talus. 



138 THE COLONIES. [1620. 

direct approach was difiScult on account of a morass, and a combined attack by 
sea and land was carefully arranged. The land forces encamped in a curve in 
rear of the town, and detachments secured the French outposts, one after an- 
other. Cannons were dragged on sledges over the morass, ' trenches were dug, 
batteries were erected, and a regular siege was commenced, on the 31st of May. 
In the mean while. Commodore Warren captured a French ship of seventy-four 
guns, and secured, as prisoners, over five hundred men, with a large quantity 
of military stores. While the siege was in progress, other English vessels of 
war arrived, and the fleet and army agreed to make a combined attack on the 
29th of June. Despairing of successful resistance, the French surrendered the 
fortress, the city of Louisburg, and the island of Cape Breton, on the 28th of 
June, 1745.^ 

The pride of France was greatly mortified by this daring and successful 
expedition, and the following year [1746] the Duke D'Anville was sent with a 
powerful naval armament' to recover the lost fortress, and to desolate the En- 
glish settlements along the seaboard. Storms wrecked many of his vessels, and 
disease soon wasted hundreds of his men ; and D'Anville, thoroughly dispirited, 
abandoned the enterprise without striking a blow.' Two years afterward a 
treaty of peace was concluded at Aix-la-Chapelle, in western Germany, when 
it was agreed that all prisoners should be released, and all acquisitions of prop- 
erty or territory, made by either party, were to be restored. Both of the 
principal parties were heavy losers hj the contest ;= while the strength of tl:o 
colonists, yet to be called forth in a more important struggle, was revealed ai.d 
noted. 

Old national animosities, religious differences, and recent causes for irrita- 
tion, had inspired the English and French with intense mutual hatred, when 
the treaty of Aix-la-Chapelle was signed on the 18th of October, 1748. The 
allegiance of Massachusetts and its sister colonies to the British crown, and the 
acknowledged duty of obedience, restrained the resentment of the American 
people, while England and France were at peace. Soon, disputes about local 
boundaries began," and it was not long before preparations for war between the 
two races, were visible in America. Then came that final bloody struggle be- 
tween the English and French, for dominion in the New World, known as the 
French and Indian War.'' This we shall consider hereafter. 



' The artillery was commanded by Richard Gridlcy, who iva.<? tlio engineer of tlio continental 
army at Boston in 1175 and 1776. See page 234. 

" The prizes and stores obtained by the English amounted, in value, to Uttle less than five mil- 
lions of dollars. 

' It consisted of forty ships of war, fifty-six transports, thirty-five hundred men, and forty thou- 
sand muskets for the use of the French and Indians in Canada. 

' D'Anville, with two or three vessels, anchored at Chebucto (now Halifax, Nova Scotia), where 
he died, it is believed, by poison. His lieutenant also committed suicide, in consequence of morti- 
fied pride. These disasters to the French fleet were regarded by the people of New England as spe- 
cial manifestations of Providence in tlieir favor. P jbhc thanksgivings were offered ; and no one 
doubted the right of the English to the whole of Acadie. 

' Parliament afterward reimbursed to tlie colonies the cost of their preparations against Canada, 
amounting to more than a million of dollars. See page 199. 

• Page 180. ' Page 179. 



n55.J NEW YORK. 139 

CHAPTER III. 

NEW YORK. [1623.] 

The State of New York commenced its political career when Peter Minuit,' 
recently appointed Governor of New Netherland,'' arrived at New Amsterdam 
(as the germ of the present city of New York was called), in May, 1626. He 
immediately purchased of the Indians, for about twenty-four dollars, the whole 
of the island of Manhattan,' on which the city of New York now stands, and 
becran vigorously to perfect the founding of a State similar to those of Holland. 
He erected a strong fortification near the site of the present Battery, and called 
it Fort Amsterdam.* By conciliatory measures, he gained the confidence of 
the Indians ; and he also opened a friendly correspondence with the Puritans at 
Plymouth.'' The English reciprocated the friendly expressions of the Dutch ; 
at the same time, they requested the latter not to send their trappers quite as 
far eastward as Narraganset Bay, to catch otters and beavers.'^ 

For the purpose of encouraging emigration to New Netherland, the Dutch 
West India Company' ofiered, in 1629, large tracts of land, and certain priv- 
ileges, to those persons who should lead or send a given number of emigrants 
to occupy and till the soil.' Directors of the company'' availed themselves of 
the privilege, and sent Wouter (Walter) Van Twiller to examine the country 
and select the lands. Immigrants came ; and then were laid the foundations 
of the most noted of the manorial estates of New Y'ork.'° The proprietors were 
called patroons (patrons), and held a high political and social station in the 
New World. 

The agent of the Patroons seems to have performed his duty well, and he 
was appointed governor of the colony, in 1633. The beginning of Van Twil- 
ler's administration was marked by difficulties with the English on the Con- 

' Page 93. ^ Page 72. " Note 1, page 48. * See picture on page 144. ' Page 78. 

" Trade in furs was the chief occupation of tlie Dutch of New Netlierland at tliis time. They 
became expert trappers, and were seen as far east as Nantucket, and even Cape Cod. The trade 
soon became profitable to the Company. Tlie first year's remittance of iiirs to Amsterdam was 
valued at $11,000. This trade greatly increased ; and before the troubles with the Indians in 1640, 
the value of furs sent to Holland, annually, was more than $60,000. ' Page 72. 

' The land was to be fairlj' purchased of the Indians, and then the title was to be confirmed by 
the Dutch government. The privileges granted to the purchasers made them, in a degree, feudal 
lords [note 15, page 62], yet they were e.'cerapted from paying tribute to supreme authority. 

" Killian Van Rens.selaer, who purchased a tract at Fort Orange (Albany) ; Samuel Godyn and 
Samuel Bloemart, who selected lands in West Jersey, on the Delaware ; and Michael Pauw, whose 
domain included Jersey City and vicinity. See page 94. 

'^ Van Rensselaer. Large tracts of land in Albany and Rensselaer counties, portions of the 
first Patroon's estates, are yet [1867] in possession of the family. After 1840, many scenes of vio- 
lence and bloodshed were witnessed on those lands, growing out of disputes with tenants, when 
tliey were called upon to pay even the almost nominal rent which was demanded. Social and 
political ciuestions arose and produced two strong parties. Tlie opposition of the tenantry was 
termed Anti-Beniism. Conciliatory measures were finally proposed by a purchaser of a large 
portion of the ancient manor, in Albany comity, by which the tenants were allowed to buy the 
land, and obtain a title in fee-simple. In time, thowhole estate will thus pass into the hands of 
numerous new owners. These angry disputes have already become items of past history. 



140 THE COLONIES. [1623. 

necticut River.' He was more distinguished for his marriage connection with 
Van Rensselaer, one of the Patrouns, than for any administrative qualities. 
Yet circumstances favored the advancement of the colony, and he ruled quite 
satisfactorily, especially to the company, whose interests he faithfully served. 
He was succeeded in office, in ]\Iay, 1638, by Sir William Keift, at the mo- 
ment when the Swedish colony^ were seating themselves upon the banks of the 
Delaware. Keift was a bold, rapacious, and unscrupulous man, and soon 
brought serious trouble upon the people. He began a tyrannous rule by con- 
centrating executive power in his own hands ; and his administration was a 
stormy and unfortunate one. The sum of its record is a tale of continual strife 
with the Swedes on the Delaware,' the English on the Connecticut,' the Indians 
all around him, and the colonists at his door. His difficulties with the Indians 
proved tlie most disastrous of all, and finally wrought his own downfall. Pre- 
vious to his arrival, the intercourse of the Dutch with the natives had been 
quite friendly.' The fur trade was extending, and trappers and traders were 
all abroad among the native tribes. These carried a demon of discord with 
them. They furnished the Indians with rvm, and quarrels and murders en- 
sued. The avaricious Keift also demanded tribute of wampum*^ and beaver- 
skins from the River tribes ; and in a short time their friendship for the Dutch 
became weakened. 

A crisis came. Some Raritan' Indians in New Jersey were accused of rob- 
bery. Keift sent an armed force to punish them [July, 1640], and blood 
flowed. Several Indians were killed, and their crops were destroyed. Savage 
vengeance did not slumber long. The Raritans murdered four planters on 
Staten Island [June, 1641], and destroyed considerable property.* An expe- 
dition sent to punish the offenders was unsuccessful. Soon afterward, a young 
Westchester Indian, whose uncle had been murdered by a Hollander, near 
where the Halls of Justice now stand,' revenged the murder, according to the 
customs of his people,'" by killing an inoffensive Dutchman living at Turtle 
Bay." His tribe refused to surrender him on the demand of Keift, and the 
governor determined to make war upon all the offending savages. 

The people of New Netherland had already begun to murmur at Keift's 
course, and they charged the troubles with the Indians directly upon him. Un- 
willing to assume the entire responsibility of a war, himself, the governor called 
a meeting [Aug. 23, 1641] of the heads of families in New Amsterdam for 
consultation. They promptly chose "twelve select men" [August 29J, with De 

' Page 85. ' P.ngo 93. ' Page 93. « Page 85. 

' The Dutch had made a settlement, and built a fort at Albany [page 72], and made a treaty of 
friendship with the Mohawks [page 23]. This the River Indians, iu the vicinity of Kew Amster- 
dam, did not like, for the Mohawks were their oppressors. ° Note 2, page 13. 

' A tribe of the Lenni-Lenapes. Page 1 6. 

° This plantation belonged to De Vries [note 2, page 92], who was a friend of the Indians. 

° On Center street, New York city. There was once a fresh-water pond there, surrounded' bv 
the forest. 

'" The Indians had a custom concerning an avenger of bhod, simiiar to that of the Jews. It was 
the duty and the privilege for the next of kin to the murdered man, to avenge his blood by killing 
the murderer. The Indians took the life of any of the tribe of the offender. 

" At the foot of Forty-fifth street, on the East River. 



1755.] . NEW YORK. 141 

Vries' at their head, to act for them ; and this was the first representative 
assembly ever formed among Europeans on Manhattan Island. They did not 
agree with the governor's hostile views ; and Keift finding them not only op- 
posed to his war designs, but that they were also taking cognizance of alleged 
grievances of the people, dissolved them, in February, 1642. Finally, the 
commission of other murders by Indians, and the presence of a body of Mo- 
hawks, who had come down to exact tribute from the River tribes, concurred 
with the changed opinions of some leading citizens of New Amsterdam, to 
make Keift resolve to embrace this opportunity to chastise the savages. A 
large number of them had fled before the Mohawks, and sought shelter with 
the Hackensacks, near Hoboken, and there craved the protection of the Dutch. 
Now was offered an opportunity for a wise and humane governor to make a 
covenant of peace and friendship ; but Keift could not be satisfied without a 
flow of blood. At midnight, in February, 1643, a body of Hollanders and Mo- 
hawks crossed the Hudson, fell upon the unsuspecting fugitives, and before the 
dawn, they massacred almost a hundred men, women, and children. Many 
were driven from the cliffs at Hoboken into the freezing flood ; and at sunrise 
the bloody marauders returned to New Amsterdam with thirty prisoners, and 
the heads of several Indians. 

The fiery hatred and vengeance of all the surrounding tribes were aroused 
by this massacre, and a fierce war was soon kindled. Villages and farms were 
desolated, and white people were butchered wherever they were found by the 
incensed Indians.^ The Long Island tribes,' hitherto friendly, joined their kin- 
dred, and the very existence of the Dutch colony was menaced. Fortunately 
for the settlers, that eminent peace-maker, Roger Williams,'' arrived [1643], to 
embark for England,^ and he pacified the savages, and secured a brief repose, for 
the colony. But the war was soon renewed, and for two years the colony suf- 
fered dreadfully. Having no competent leader, they employed Captain John 
Underbill, " who successfully beat back and defeated the Indians, and hostilities 
ceased. The Mohawls came and claimed sovereignty over the River Indians, 
made a treaty of peace with the Dutch, and the hatchet was buried. 

The conduct of Governor Keift was so offensive to the colonists and the 
Company, that he was recalled, and he sailed for Europe in 1647, in a richly 
laden vessel. It was wrecked on the coast of Wales, and there he perished. 
He had already been succeeded in ofiice [May, 27, 1647], by Peter Stuyvesant, 
lately governor of Cura:oa, a soldier of eminence, and possessed of every requis- 
ite for an eflScient administration of government. His treatment of the Indians 
was very kind and just, and they soon exhibited such friendship for the Dutch, 
that Stuj^vesant was fiilsely charged with a design to employ them in murder- 
ing the English in New England.' Long accustomed, as a military leader, to 



' Note 2, page 92. 

' It was during this frenzy of revenge that Mri5.. Hutchinson, who had been banished from Mas- 
sachusetts, and ha^l tal^en up her residence near tlie present New Roclielle, Westchester Countv, 
■New Yorlc, was murdered, with all her family. The stream upon which she lived is yet known as 
Hutchinson's Biver. ' Page 21. ' Page 87. ' Page 91. ' Page 87. 

' See page 121. Tliis idea prevailed, because during almost the entire winter of 1652-11, Ninigrei, 



142 



THE COLONIES. 



[162:;. 



arbitrary rule, he was stern and inflexible, but he had the reputation of an 
honest man. He immediately commenced much needed reforms ; and during 
his whole administration, which was ended by the subjugation of the Dutch by 
the English," in 1664, he was the faithful and energetic defender of the integ- 




rity of the province against its foes. By prudent management lie avoided col- 
lisions with the English, and peaceably ended boundary disputes' with them in 
the autumn of 1650. This cause for irritation on his eastern frontier being 
removed, Stuyvesant turned his attention to the gro'wing power of the Swedes, 
on the Delaware. 

Governor Stuyvesant built Fort Casimir, on the site of the present New 



and two other Narragansett sachems liad been in New Amsterdam, and on very friendlj- terms with 
Stuyvesant. These sachems, wlio were true friends of the Enghsli, positively disclaimed all bad 
intentions on the part of Stuyvesant, and yet historians of the present day repeat the slander. 

' Page 144. 

" See page 85. He went to Hartford, and there m.ade a treaty which fixed the eastern bound- 
ary of New Netherliind nearly on the line of the present division between New Tork and Connecti- 
cut, and across Long Island, at Oyster Bay, thirty miles eastward of New York. The Dutch claims 
to lands on the Connecticut River were extinguished by tliis treaty. From the beginning of diffi- 
culties, the Dutch were clearly in the right. Xliis was acknowledged by impartial and just New 
Englanders. In a manuscript letter before rae. from Edward Winslow to Governor Winthrop, dated 
at "Marshfield, 2d of 6th month, 1G44," in which he replies to a charge of being favorable to the 
Dutch, in some respects, he says that he had asserted in substance, that be '■ would not defend the 
Hartford men's cause, for they had liitherto (or thus long) wronged the Dutch." 



1755.] NEW YORK. 143 

Castle, in Delaware, in 1651. This was soon seized by the Swedes, and the 
garrison made prisoners. The States-General' resolved to prevent further 
trouble with these enterprising neighbors of the Dutch, and for this purpose, 
gave Stuy vesant full liberty to subjugate the Swedes. At the head of six hun- 
dred men, he sailed for the Delaware, in August. 1655, and by the middle of 
October, he had captured all the Swedish fortresses, and sent the governor 
(Risingh) and several other influential men, to Europe. Some of the settlers 
withdrew to Maryland and Virginia, but the great body of them quietly sub- 
mitted, took an oath of allegiance to the States-Genei'al of Holland, and con- 
tinued in peaceable possession of their property. Thus, after an existence of 
about seventeen years [1638 — 1655 J, New Sweden^ disappeared by absorp- 
tion into New Netherlaxd. 

New trouble now appeared, but it was soon removed. While Stuyvesant 
and his soldiery were absent on the Delaware, some Indians, who were not yet 
reconciled to the Dutch, menaced New Amsterdam.' The return of the gov- 
ernor produced quiet, for they feared and respected him, and, for eight year-.. 
the colony was very little disturbed by external causes. Then the Esopus 
Indians suddenly fell upon the Dutch settlements [June, 1663] at AViltwyck 
(now Kingston, in Ulster County),^ and killed and captured sixty-five of the in- 
habitants. Stuyvesant promptly sent a sufficient force to chastise them ; and so 
thoroughly was the errand performed, that the Indians sued for peace in May, 
1664, and made a treaty of friendship. 

External difficulties gave Stuyvesant little more trouble than a spirit opposed 
to his aristocratic views, which he saw manifested daily around him. While ho 
had been judiciously removing all cause for ill-feeling with his neighbors, there 
was a power at work within his own domain which gave him gi-eat uneasiness. 
The democratic seed planted by the Twelve, in Keift's time,' had begun to grow 
vigorously under the fostering care of a few enlightened Hollanders, and some 
Puritans who had settled in New Netherland. The latter, by their applause 
of English institutions, had diffused a desire among the people to partnke of the 
blessings of English liberty, as they understood it, and as it appeared in New 
England. Stuyvesant was an aristocrat by birth, education, and pursuit, and 
vehemently opposed every semblance of democracy. At the beginning he found 
himself at variance with the people. At length an assembly of two deputies 
from each village in New Netherland, chosen by the inhabitants, convened at 
New Amsterdam [December, 1653], without the approbation of the governor. 
It was a spontaneous, and, in the eyes of the governor, a revolutionary move- 
ment. Their proceedings displeased him; and finding argument of no avail, he 
exercised his official prerogative, and commanded obedience to his will. The 
people grew bolder at every reljuff, and finally they not only resisted taxation, 
but openly expressed a willingness to bear English rule for the sake of enjoying 
English liberty. 

The opportunity for a change of rulers was not long delayed. A crisis in 

' Note 7, page 59. ' Page 93. ' Page 139. * Page 283. ' Ta^^o UO. 



144 



THE COLONIES. 



[1623. 



the aifairs of I\ew Netherland now approached. Charles the Second, of En- 
gland, without any fair pretense to title, gave the whole territory of New 
Netherland [March 22, 1664J to his brother James, Duke of York,' The duke 
sent an English squadron, under the command of Colonel Richard Nicolls," to 
secure the gift ; and on the 3d of September, 1664, the red cross of St. George^ 
floated in triumph over the fort, and the name of New Amsterdam was changed 
to New York.' It was an easy conquest, for, while the fortifications and other 
means of defense were very weak, the people were not unwilling to try English 
rule. Stuyvesant began to make concessions to the people, when it was too 
late, and when his real strength, the popular will, had departed from him. He 
hesitated long before ho would sign the articles of capitulation : and thus, until 
the end, he was faithful to his employers, the Dutch West India Company.'' 
With the capital, the remainder of the province passed into the hands of the 
English ; and early in October, 1664, New Netherland was acknowledged a 
part of the British realm, and Nicolls, the conqueror became governor." Let 
us now consider 

NEW TORK UNDER THE ENGLISH. 




CITY OF XEW YORK IX 1604. 



Very soon after the 
conquest the people of 
New York' perceived 
that a change of masters 
did not enhance their 
prosperity and happiness. 
They were disappointed in their hopes of a representative government; and 
their taxes, to support a government in which they had no voice, were increased. 
Lovelace, the vile successor of Nicolls, in 1667, increased their burdens : and 
when they sent a respectful protest to him, he ordered the paper to be burned 
l)y the common hangman, lie was a petty tyrant, and declared that the peo- 
ple should have " li!)erty for no thought but how to pay their taxes." But the 
people did think of something cbe, and were on the eve of open rebellion when 



' P:igo 94. - Note G, page 123. 

' Tlic royal standard of England is sometimes so named because it bears a red cro.'ss, wliich is 
called the "cross of St. George," the patron samt of Great Britain. After the imion ivitli Scotland 
[note 1, page 63], the cross of St. Andrew (in the form of an X), was added, and is non- seen on 
tlio Britisli flaa;. In tlie centre are the royal arms. This Union, as tlie figure is called, was borne 
upon tlie American flags, sometimes, until after tlie Leclaration of Independence, in 177G. It was 
upon the flag of tliirteeu stnpcs, alternate red and white, vhieh Washington caused to be uuliirled 
at Cambridge, on the first day of th.at year. See page 245. 

' The name of Port Orange settlement [note 9, page 139], w.as changed to Albany, one of the 
duke's titles. ' Page 72 

° "We have elsewhere noticed the fact^ that before Nicolls was dispatched, the duke, being cer- 
tain of \ictory, sold that part of New Netherland now included in New Jersey, to other parties. 
[See page 94.] Long Island, which had lieen previously granted to the Earl of Stirling, was pur- 
chased by the Dutch, in total disregard" of the claims of Connecticut. The colonies on the Delaware 
remained under the jurisdiction of New York, and were governed by deputies. 

' Tlie above picture is a correct view of the city of Now York two hundred years ago It is now 
[1SG7] the largest city on the American contment. On tlic left of the picture is seen Fort Amster- 
dam, with the church and governor's house within it, and a windmill. The point of Maiihattan 
Island, from the present Battery Place to the foot of Wall-street, is here seen. 




Stuyvesant Surresdebing tbe Fort to the English. 



1755.] • NEW YORK;. 147 

the clouds of national war overshadowed local difficulties. War again com- 
menced between England and Holland in 1672, and in July the following year, 
a Dutch squadron sailed up the Bay of New York, and, in the absence of the 
governor, took possession of the fort and town [August 9th, 1673] without 
giving a shot. The easy conquest was the work of treason ; yet, as the royal 
libertine (Charles the Second) on the throne of England doubtless shai'ed in the 
bribe, the traitor went unpunished. ' New Jersey and the Territories of Dela- 
ware" yielded, and for si.xteen months [from July, 1673, to November, 1674] 
New York was again New Netherlands. When the two nations made a treaty 
of peace, the province was restored to the English, and remained in their pos- 
session until our Independence was declared in 1776.° These changes raised 
some doubts concerning the validity of the dukes title, and the king gave him 
another grant in July, 1674. Sir Edmond Andros' was appointed governor 
under the new charter, and continued arbitrary rule with increased rigor.'^ 

At the close of 1683, Governor Andros returned to England, when the 
duke (who was a Roman Catholic) appointed Thomas Dongan, of the same 
faith, to succeed him. In the mean while, the duke had listened to the judicious 
advice of AVilliam Penn, and instructed Dongan to call an assembly of repre- 
sentatives. They met [October 17, 1683], and with the hearty concurrence of 
the governor, a Charter of Liberties was established," and the permanent 
foundation of a representative government was laid. The people rejoiced in the 
change, and were heartily engaged in the efforts to perfect a wise and liberal 
government, when the duke was elevated to the throne, as Jamc3 the Second, 
on the death of Charles, in February, 1685. As king, he refused to confirm 
the privileges which, as duke, he had granted ; and having determined to intro- 
duce the Roman Catholic religion into the province as the established church, 
he commenced by efforts to enslave the people. A direct tax was ordered ; the 
printing pi'ess — the right arm of knowledge and freedom — was forbidden a 
place in the colony ; and the provincial offices were filled liy Roman Catholics. 
These proceedings gave pain to the liberal-minded Dongan ; and when the king, 
in his religious zeal, instructed the governor to introduce French priests among 
the Fi^'E Nations,' he resisted the measure as highly inexpedient.' His firm- 



' The traitor was Captain John Maiiiiinp;, the commandant of the fort. ITe was, doubtless, 
bribed by the Dutch commander; and the fact that the king screened hmi from punislnnent, gave 
the color of truth to the charge that the monarch shared in the bribe. ' Page 9G. 

' Page 251. * Page 120. 

^ The duke claimed the country from the Connecticut River to Cape Ilenlopen. Andros 
attempted to exercise autliority eastward of tlie line agreed upon by the Dutch and the Connecticut 
people [note 2, page 142], and went to Saybrook in the summer of 1G7G, with an armed party, to 
enforce the claim. He met with such resistance, that he was compelled to return to New York 
witliout accomplishing his design. See page 116. 

° The Assembly consisted of the governor and ten councillors, and seventeen deputies elected 
by the freeholders. Tliey adopted a Declaration of Rights, and asserted the principle, so nobly 
fought for a hundred years later, that taxation and representation are inseparable ; in other words — 
that taxes can not be levied without the consent of the people, expressed by their representatives. 
At tliis time the colony was divided into twelve counties. ' Page 23. 

' This measure would have given the French, in Canada, an influence over tlie Indians that 
might have proved fatal to English power on the Continent. The Five Nations remained tlie fast 
friends of the English, and stood as a powerful barrier again?t the French, when the latter twice 
invaded the Iroquois territor3-, in endeavors to reacli the English, at Albany. 



148 THE COLONIES. [1623. 

ness gave the people confidence, and they were again on the eve of open rebel- 
lion, when the intelligence of the flight of James, and the accession of William 
and Mary' reached them. They immediately appointed a committee of safety, 
and with almost unanimous voice, sanctioned the conduct of Jacob Leisler (an 
influential merchant and commander of the militia), who had taken possession 
of the fort in the name of the new sovereigns, and by order of the inhabitants. 
Afraid of the people, Nicholson, the successor of Dongan, fled on board a vessel 
and departed, and the people consented to Leisler's assuming the functions of 
governor until a new one should be appointed. The aristocracy and the magis- 
trates were offended, and denouncing Leisler as a usurper, they accused him 
of treason, when Governor Sloughter arrived, in 1691. 

Leisler, in tlie mean while, conducted ai^iiirs with prudence and energy. 
Having the sanction of the people, he needed no further authority ; and when a 
letter from the British ministers arrived [December, 1G89J, directed to Gov- 
ernor Nicholson, "or, in his absence, to such as, for the time being," conducted 
affairs, he considered it as fairly addressed to himself Milborne, his son-in-law, 
acted as his deputy, and was included in the accusations of the magistrates, 
who had now retired to Albany. They held Fort Orange" until the invasion 
of the French, in February, 1690,' when they felt the necessity of claiming 
the pi-otection of the government at New York. They then yielded, and 
remained comparatively quiet until the arrival of Richard Ingoldsby, Sloughters 
lieutenant, early in 1691. That officer announced the appointment of Henry 
Sloughter as governor ; and without producing any credentials of authority, he 
haughtily demanded of Leisler [February 9, 1691J the surrender of the fort. 
Of course Leisler refused compliance; but as soon as Sloughter arrived [March 
29], he sent a messenger to announce his desire to surrender all authority into 
his hands. Leisler's enemies had resolved on his destruction ; and when he 
came forward to deliver the fort, in person, he and his son-in-law were seized 
and cast into prison. They were tried on a charge of treason, found guilty, 
and condemned to suffer death. Sloughter withheld his signature to their 
death warrant ; but, when made drunk at a dinner party prepared for the pur- 
pose, he put his name to the fatal instrument. Before he became sober. Leisler 
and jMilborne were suspended upon a gallows on the verge of Beekmans swamp 
May 26, 1691], where Tammany Hall — fronting on the City Hall Park. New 
York — now stands. These were the proto-martyrs of popular liberty in 
America.' 

Henry Sloughter was a weak and dissolute man, yet he came with an earn- 
est desire to promote the welfare of the colonists. He convened a popular 
assembly, and formed a constitution, which provided for trial by jury, and an 
exemption from taxes, except by the consent of the representatives of the peo- 
ple. Light was thus dawning hopefully upon the province, when delirium 

' Xote T, paffe 113. " Note 9, page 139. 

' At this time, Sohenectad.i wa.s dosolatecl. See pa<re 131. 

' Tlieir estates were confiseated ; but aflcr a lapse of several years, and when the violence of 
party spirit had subsided, the property was restored to their families. 



1755.] NETV YORK. 149 

tremens, at the close of a drunken revel, ended the administration and the life 
of the governor [August 2, 1691 J, in less than three months after the murder 
of Leisler and Milborne. He was succeeded by Benjamin Fletcher, a man of 
violent passions, and quite as weak and dissolute, who became the tool of the 
aristocracy, and was hated by the people. Party spirit, engendered l)y the 
death of Leisler, burned intensely during the whole administration of Fletcher : 
and at the same time the French and Indians, under the guidance of Frontenac, 
the able Governor of Canada,' were traversing the northern frontiers of the 
province. Fletcher prudently listened to the advice of Major Schuyler,' of 
Albany, respecting the Indians; and under his leadership, the English, and 
their unwavering allies, the Five Nations, successfully beat back the foe to 
the St. Lawrence, and so desolated the French settlements in 1G92, in the 
vicinity of Lake Champlain,' that Frontenac was glad to remain quiet at 
Montreal. 

A better ruler for New York now appeared. The Earl of Bellomont, an 
honest and enei'getic Irish peer, succeeded Fletcher in 1698 ; and the following 
year. New Hampshire' and Massachusetts" were placed under his jurisdiction. 
He commenced reform with great earnestness, and made vigorous efforts to sup- 
press piracy," which had become a fearful scourge to the infant commerce of 
the colonists. With Robert Livingston' and others, he fitted out an expedition 
under the famous Captain Kidd, to destroy the buccaneers. Kidd, himself, was 
afterward hung for piracy [1701], and the governor and his sons were cliarged 
with a participation in his guilt. At any rate, there can be little doubt that 
wealthy men in the colony expected a share in the plunder, and that Kidd, as a 
scape-goat for the sins of the others, was the victim of a political conspiracy.' 

Unfortunately for the colony, death removed Bellomont, on the 16th of 
March, 1701, when his liberal policy was about to bear fruit. He was suc- 
ceeded by Edward Hyde (afterward Lord Cornbury)," a libertine and a knave, 
who cursed the province Avith misrule for seven years. He was a bigot, too, 
and persecuted all denominations of Christians, except those of tho Church of 
England. He embezzled the public moneys, involved himself in heavy debts, 
and on all occasions was the practical enemy of popular freedom. The people 



' From 1678 to 1682, and asainfrom 1689 to 1C98, when he died, at the an;e of 77. 

° Peter Schuyler. He was mayor of Albany, and acquired unbounded influence over the Five 
Natioxs of Indians. See page 23. 

* Seliuyler's force was aljout three hundred Mohawks, and as many English. They slew about 
three liundred of the French and Indians, at the north end of tlie lake. ' Page 79. ' Page 117. 

" Because Spain claimed the exclusive right to the West India seas, her commerce in tliat region 
wa.s regarded as fair plunder. Privateer commissions were readily granted by the English, French, 
and Duteli governments ; and daring spirits from all countries were found under their flags. Tho 
buccaneers, as tliey were called, became very numero\is and powerful, and at length depredated 
upon English commerce as well as Spanish. Privateers, or those legally authorized to seize the prop- 
erty of an enemy, became pirates, or sea robbers. Privateering is only legalized piracy. 

' An immigrant from Scotland, and ancestor of the Livingston family in this country. He was 
connected, by marriage, with the Van Rensselaer and Schuyler families; and in 1685, he received 
from governor Dongan a grant of a feudal principality (see jjrafroon, page 139) on the Hudson, yet 
known as Livingston's Manor. 

' King William himself was a shareholder in the enterprise for wliich Kidd was fitted out. Kidd 
appeared publicly in Boston, where he was arrested, then sent to England, tried, and executed. 

" Page 161. 



150 THE COLONIES. [1623. 

finally demanded and obtained his recall, and the moment his official career 
ceased, in 1708, his creditors cast him into prison, where he remained until his 
accession to the peerage, on the death of his father.' From this period until 
the arrival of William Cosby, as governor [1732], the royal representatives," 
unable to resist the will of the people, as expressed by the Assembly, allowed 
democratic principles to grow and bear fruit.^ 

The popular will and voice now Ijcgan to 1)6 potential in the administration 
of public affairs. Rip Van Dam, "a man of the people," was acting governor 
when Cosby came. They soon quarreled, and two violent parties arose — the 
democratic, which sided with A^an Dam, and the aristoci'atic, which supported 
the governor. Each party luld the control of a newspaper,' and the war of 
words raged violently for a long time. The governor, unable to compete with 
l:is opponent, finally ordered the arrest of Zenger [November, 1734], the pub- 
lisher of the democratic paper, on a charge of libel. After an imprisonment of 
thirty-five weeks, Zenger was tried by a jury, and acquitted, in July, 1735. 
lie was defended by Andrew Hamilton, of Philadelphia, who was presented by 
the magistrates of the city of New York with a gold box, as a token of their 
esteem for his noble advocacy of popular rights. Then was distinctly drawn 
the line of demarcation between republicans and royalists (Whigs and Tories),' 
which continued prominent until the war of the revolution was ended in 1783. 

From the arrival of Cosby until the commencement of the French and 
Indian war," the history of New York is composed chiefly of the records of 
party strife, and presents very little matter of interest to the general reader. 
Only one episode demands special attention, namely, the excitement and results 
incident to a supposed conspiracy of the negroes, in 1741, to burn and plunder 
the city, murder the inhaljitants, and set up a government under a man of their 
own color. Several incendiary fires had occurred in rapid succession, and a 
house had been robbed by some slaves. The idea of a regular and horrid con- 
spiracy at once prevailed, and, as in the case of the Salem Witchcraft,' an 
intense panic pervaded all classes, and many innocent persons suffered.' This 
is known in history as The Ncfjro Plot. 



' Accordinf^ to an unjust law of England, a peer of the realm (who is consequently a member 
of the House of Lords [note 2, page 218]) can not be arrested for debt. This law, enacted in the 
reign of Henry the Eighth, still prevails. 

'' Lord Lovelace, Ingoldsby, Hunter, Schuyler, Burnet, and Montgomerie. 

= We have already noticed (page 135) the" breaking out of Qveen Anne's War, in 1702, and the 
successfiil expeditions fitted out and sent in the direction of Montreal in 1709 and 1711. The debt 
which these expeditions laid upon New York, was felt for many years. 

' The Nm York Weekly Journal (democratic), by John Peter Zenger; The New York Gazette 
(.iristocratic), by AViUiam Bradford. The latter owned the first press ever set up in the province. 
He commenced printing in New York in 1G9G. See note 3, page 179. 

<■ Note 4, page 226. " Page 179. ' Page 132. 

' Before the panic was allayed, four white people were hanged; and eleven negroes were 
burned, eighteen were hanged, aiid fifty were sent to the West Indies and sold. 



1755.] MARYLAND 151 

CHAPTER IV. 

ir A R Y L A IT D . [ 1 G n .] 

When the first popular assem1)lj convened at St. Marj, for legislative pur- 
poses, on the 8th of March, 1G35,' Maryland had then its colonial birth. Its 
sturdy growth began when, in 1639, the more convenient form of representa- 
tive government was established. It was crude, but it possessed the elements 
of republicanism. The freemen chose as many representatives as they pleased, 
and others were appointed by the proprietor. These, with the governor and 
secretary, composed the legislature. At this first session a Declaration of 
Rights was adopted, the powers of the governor were defined, and all the privi- 
leges enjoyed by English subjects were guarantied to the colonists.' 

Very soon the Indians in the vicinity, becoming jealous of the increasing 
strength of the white people, began to evince hostility. Frequent collisions 
occurred ; and in 1642, a general Indian war commenced in the region between 
the Potomac and the Chesapeake. It was terminated in 1G45, but the quiet 
of the province was soon disturbed again. Claybornc had returned from 
England' [1645], and speedily fanned the embers of discontent into a flame of 
open rebellion. He became too powerful for the local authorities, and Governor 
Calvert' was obliged to flee to Virginia. During a year and a half, the insur- 
gents held the reins of government, and the horrors of civil war brooded over 
the colony. The rebellion was suppressed in the summer of 1646, and in 
August, Calvert resumed his office. 

In the year 1649, a very important law, known as The Toleration Act, was 
passed by the Assembly. Religious freedom was guarantied by the charter,' 
yet, as much animosity existed between the Protestants" and Roman Catholics, 
the Assembly' thought proper to give the principle the solemn sanction of law. 
By that act every professed believer in Jesus Christ and the Trinity, was 
allowed free exercise of his religious opinions, and no man was permitted to 
reproach another on account of his peculiar doctrines, except under the penalty 
of a fine, to be paid to the person so insulted. Thither persecuted Churchmen 
of New England, and oppressed Puritans of Virginia, fled and found an asylum. 
This act, short of full toleration as it was (for it placed Unitarians beyond the 
pale of its defense), is the pride and glory of the early legislature of Maryland; 
yet it was not the first instance in America, as is often alleged, when religious 
toleration received the sanction of law." Rhode Island has that honor. 

' Page 82. » Page 82. ' Note 1, page 82. 

' Page 81. ' Page 81. ' Note U, page 62. 

' Bozraan, in his History of Maryland (II. 350 — 356), maintains that the majority of the mem 
bers of the Assembly of 1 649, were Protestants. 

° In May, 1647, tlie General Assembly of Rhode Island, convened at Portsmouth, adopted a 
code of laws which closed with the declaration that " all men might wallc as their consciences per- 
suaded them, without molestation — every one in the name of his God." This was broader tolera- 
tion than the Maryland act contemplated, for it did not restrict men to a belief in Jcsu 3 Christ. 



152 THE COLONIES. [1639. 

Being favored hj events in the mother country, republicanism grew steadily 
in the new State. Royalty was abolished in England [1649J, and for more 
than ten years the democratic idea was prevalent throughout the realm. Lord 
Baltimore, the proprietor of Maryland, professed republicanism on the death of 
the king, but he had been too recently a royalist to secure tlie confidence of 
Parliament. Stone, his lieutenant, was removed from office [April 16, 1051] 
by commissioners (of whom Clayborne was one), who were sent to administer the 
government of the colony. He was soon afterward [July 8] restored. On the 
dissolution of the Long Parliament [1653J' Cromwell restored full power to the 
proprietor, but the commissioners, who withdrew to Virginia, returned soon 
afterward, and compelled Stone to surrender the government into their hands. 

The colonial government had been re-organized in the mean while. The 
legislative body was divided into an Upper and Lower House in 1650 ; the 
former consisting of the governor and his council, appointed by the proprietor, 
and the latter of representatives chosen by the people. At the same session a 
law was passed prohibiting all taxes, unless levied with the consent of the free- 
men. Political questions were freely discussed by the people ; and soon the 
two chief religious sects were marshaled in opposition, as prime elements of 
political parties. So great had been the influx of Protestants, that they now 
[1654] outnumbered the Roman Catholics as voters and in the Assembly. They 
acknowledged the authority of Cromwell, and boldly questioned the rights and 
privileges of an hereditary proprietor.^ The Roman Catholics adhered to Lord 
Baltimore, and bitter religious hatred was fostered. The Protestants finally 
disfranchised their opponents, excluded them from the Assembly, and in Novem- 
ber, 1654, passed an act declaring Roman Catholics not entitled to the protec- 
tion of the laws of Maryland. 

This unchristian and unwise act of the Protestant party, was a great wrong 
as well as a great mistake. Civil war ensued. Stone returned to St. Mary, ^ 
organized an armed force composed chiefly of Roman Catholics, seized the colo- 
nial records, and assumed the ofiice of governor. Skirmishes followed, and 
finally a severe battle was fought [April 4, 1655] not far from the site of 
Annapolis, in which Stone's party was defeated, with a loss of about fifty men, 
killed and wounded. Stone was made prisoner, but his life was spared. Four 
other leading supporters of the proprietor were tried for treason and executed. 
Anarchy prevailed in the province for many months, when the discordant ele- 
ments were brought into comparative order by the appointment of Josiah Fen- 
dall [July 20, 1656] as governor. He was suspected of favoring the Roman 
Catholics, and was soon arrested by order of the Protestant Assembly. For 
two years bitter strife continued between the people and the agents of the 

' Wlien Charles the First was belicndcd [note ,S, pasre lOS], the Parliament assumed supreme 
authority, and remained in permanent session. Cromwell, with an army at his back, entered that 
assembly in the aiitunm of 1653, ordered them to disperse, and ass\nned supreme powt-r himself, 
under the title of Lord Protector. That British legislature is known m liistory as the Long Parlia- 
ment. 

' .According to tlie original charter, the heirs and successors of Lord Baltimore were to be pro- 
prietors forever. ° Page 82. 



1755-1 MARYLAND. 153 

proprietor, when, after concessions by the latter, Femlall was acknowledged 
governor, on the 3d of April, 1658. His prudence secured the confidence of 
the people, but the death of Cromwell, in September, 1658, presaging a change 
in the English government, gave them uneasiness. After long deliberation, 
the Assembly determined to avoid all further trouble with the proprietor, by 
assertincr the supreme authority of the people. They accordingly dissolved the 
Upper House [March 24, 1660],' and assumed the whole legislative power of 
the State. They then gave Fendall a commission as governor for the people. 

The restoration of monarchy in England took place in June. 1660," and the 
orio-inal order of things was re-established in Maryland. Lord Baltimore, hav- 
m<r assured the new king that his republican professions' were only temporary 
expedients, was restored to all his proprietary rights, by Charles. Fendall was 
tried, and found guilty of treason, because he accepted a commission from the 
rebellious Assembly. Baltimore, however, wisely proclaimed a general pardon 
for all political offenders in JIarj-land ; and for almost thirty years afterward, 
the province enjoyed repose. A law, which established absolute political erpial- 
itv among professed Christians, was enacted ; and after the death of the second 
Lord Baltimore [Dec. 10, 1675], his son and successor confirmed it. L'nder 
that new proprietor, Charles Calvert, ^laryland was governed mildly and pru- 
dently, and the people were prospering in their political quietude, when the 
Revolution in England' shook the colonies. The deputy governor of IMaryland 
hesitated to proclaim "William and Mary,' and this was made a pretense, by a 
restless spirit, named Coode,^ for e.xciting ihe people. He gave currency to the 
absurd report that the local magistrates and the Eoman Catholics had leagued 
with the Indians' for the destruction of all the Protostimts in the colony. A 
similar actual coalition of Jesuits' and savages on the New England frontiers' 
gave a coloring of truth to the story, and the old religious feud instantly burned 
ao^ain intensely. The Protestants formed an armed association [Sept., 1689], 
and led on by Coode, they took forcible possession of St. Mary, and by capitu- 
lation, received the provincial records and assumed the government. They 
called a Convention, and invested it with legislative powers. Its first acts were 
to depose the third Lord Baltimore, and to re-assert the sovereign majesty of 
the people. 

Public affairs were managed by the Convention until 1691, when the king 
unjustly deprived Baltimore of all his political privileges as proprietor [June 
11], and made Maryland a royal province.'" Lionel Copley was appointed the 
first royal governor, in 1692. New laws were instituted — religious toleration 



' Page 152. ' Kote 2, page 109. ^ Page 152. * Note 7, page 11.1. ' Pago 113. 

° Coorle had been a confederate in a former insurrection, but escaped conviction. 

' A treaty with the Indians had just been renewed, and tlie customary presents distributed 
among them. These things Coode falsely adduced as evidences of a coalition with the savage^. 

" Note 5, page 130. ° Page 130. 

'" King William had an exalted idea of royal prerogatives, and was as much disposed as the 
Stuarts (the kings of England from James the First to James the Second) to suppress democracy in 
the colonies. He repeatedly vetoed (refused his asso-.t) to Bills of Rights enacted by the colonial 
Assemblies; refused his assent to local laws of tlio deepest interest to the colonists; and instracted 
his governors to prohibit printing in the colonies. Note 7, page 112. 



154 THE COLONIES. [1C39. 

•was abolished — tlio Church of England was made the established religion, to be 
supported by a tax on the people ; and in the State founded by Roman Cath- 
olics, the members of that denomination -were cruelly disfranchised, with the 
consent of their sovereign. A few years later [1716], the proprietary rights 
of Lord Baltimore (now deceased) were restored to his infant heir, and the 
original form of government was re-established. Such continued to be the poli- 
tical comple.xion of the colony, until the storm of the Revolution in 1770, swept 
away every remnant of royalty and feudalism, and the State of Maryland was 
established. 



CHAPTER V. 

C N" X F, C T I c r T . [ 1 G .T . ] 

The Connecticut Colony' formed a political Constitution on the 24th of 
January, 1639, and in June following, the New Haven Colony performed 
the same important act.' The religious element was supreme in the new organ- 
ization ; and, in imitation of the Constitution of the Plymouth settlers, none 
but church members were allowed the privileges of freemen' at New Haven. 
They first appointed a committee of twelve men, who selected seven of their 
members to be " pillars" in the new State. These had power to admit as many 
others, as confederate legislators, as they pleased. Theophilus Eaton was 
chosen governor,* and the Bible was made the grand statute-book of the colony. 
Many of the New Haven settlors being merchants, they sought to found a com- 
mercial colony, but heavy losses by the wreck of vessels' discouraged them, and 
they turned their special attention to agriculture. Prudence marked the course 
of the magistrates of the several colonics in the Connecticut valley," and they 
were blessed with prosperity. But difiBculties with the Dutch respecting terri- 
torial boundaries,' and menaces of the neighboring Indians, gave them uneasi- 
ness, and made them readily join the New England confederation in 1643.' 
The following year the little independent colony at Saybrook' purchased the 
land of one of the proprietors of Connecticut," and became permanently annexed 
to that at Hartford." 

The future appeared serene and promising. The treaty made with Gov- 
ernor Stuyvesant, at Hartford, in 1650," gave token of future tranquillity. But 
the repose was soon broken by international war. England and Holland drew 
the sword against each other in 1652; and because it was reported that Nini- 
gret, the wily sachem of the Narragansetts,'" had spent several weeks at New 

' Page 89. ' Pago 89. Tlio people assembled in a barn to form a new Constitution. 

" Note 5, page 118. 

' He was annually chosen to fill the office, until his death, which occurred in 1G5T. 

" In 1G47, a new ship belonging to the colony foundered at sea. It was laden with a valuable 
cargo, and the passengers belonged to some of the leading families in the colony. 

" Page 86. ' Page 85, and note 2, page 142. ° Page 121. ° Page 86. 

" Page 85. " Pago 88. '^ Note 2, page 142. •' Note 7, page 141. 



1755.] COKNECTICTTT. 155 

Amsterdam in the winter of 1652-3' the belief prevailed in New England, as 
■sve have already observed, that Stuyvesant was leaguing with the Indians for 
the destruction of the English.- Great excitement ensued, and a majority of 
the commissioners decided,^ in 1653, upon war Avith the Dutch. Immediate 
hostilities were prevented by the refusal of Massachusetts to furnish its quota 
of supplies. The Connecticut colonies (who were more exposed to blows from 
the Dutch than any other) applied to Cromwell for aid, and he sent four ships 
of war for the purpose. Before their arrival,' a treaty of peace was concluded 
between the two nations, and blood and treasure were saved. The Assembly 
at Hartford took possession of all property then claimed by the Dutch ; and 
after that the latter abandoned all claims to possessions in the Connecticut 
valley. 

On the restoration of Charles the Second, in 1G60, the Connecticut colony 
expressed its loyalty, and oljtaincd a charter. At first, Charles was disposed 
to refuse the application of Winthrop," the agent of the colony, for he had 
heard of the sturdy republicanism of the petitioners. But when Winthrop 
presented his majesty with a ring which Charles the First had given to hh 
father, the heart of the king was touched, and he granted a charter [May 30, 
1662] which not only confirmed the popular Constitution of the colony, but 
contained more liberal provisions than any yet issued from the royal hand.' It 
defined the eastern boundary of the province to be Narraganset Bay, and the 
western, the Pacific Ocean. It thus included a portion of Rhode Island, and 
the whole Neio Haven Colony.'' The latter gave a reluctant consent to the 
union in 1665, but Rhode Island positively refused the alliance. A charter 
given to the latter the year after one was given to Connecticut [1663],° covered 
a portion of the Connecticut grant in Narraganset Bay. Coneernin"' this 
boundary the two colonies disputed for more than sixty years. 

The colony of Connecticut suffered but little during King Philip's "War.' 
which broke out in 1675, wi.h the exception of some settlements high up on 
the fresh water river." Yet it furnished its full quota of men and supplies, and 
its soldiers bore a conspicuous part in giving the vigorous blows which broke 
the power of the New England Indians." At the same time, the colonists 
were obliged to defend their liberties against the attempted usurpations of Ed- 
mund Andros, then governor of New York." He claimed jurisdiction to the 



' This report was set afloat by Uiicas, the mischievous Moliegan sachem [page ST], who hated 
the Narragansetts. It had no foundation in truth. See, also, page 21. 

" Page 141 ' Page 121. 

' Roger Williams, then in England, managed to delay the sailing of tlie fleet, and thus, again, 
that eminent peace-maker prevented bloodshed. P.age 87. 

° John Winthrop, son of Governor Winthrop, of Massachusetts. He was chosen governor of 
Connecticut in 1657, and held the office several years. Such was his station when he appeared in 
England to ask a charter of the king. Hopkins (who was one of the founders of the New Haven 
colony) was chosen the first governor of the Connecticut colony, and for several years he and 
Hajmes were alternately chosen chief magistrates. 

° This original charter is now [1867] in the office of the .Secretary of the State of Connecticut. It 
contains a portrait of Charles the Second, handsomely drawn in India ink, and forming part of an 
initial letter. This was tlie instrument afterward liidden in the great oak mentioned on the next page. 

' Page 88. Thus the several settlements were united under the general name of Connecticut.- 

' Page 156. " Page 124. " Page 85. " Page 22. '- Pan-e 147. 



156 



THE COLONIES. 



[1639. 



mouth of the Connecticut River, and in July, 1675, he proceeded to Saybrook 
•with a small naval force, to assert his authority. He was permitted to land ; 
but when he ordered the garrison in the fort to surrender, and began to read his 
commission to the people. Captain Bull, the commander, ordered him to be 
silent. Perceiving the strength and determination of his adversary, Andros 
■wisely withdrew, and greatly irritated, returned to New York. 

During the next dozen years, very little occurred to disturb the quiet and 
prosperity of Connecticut. Then a most exciting scene took place at Hartford, 
in which the liberties of the colony were periled. Edmund Andros again ap- 
peared as t! usurper of authority. He had been appointed governor of New 
England in 1G86,' and on his arrival he demanded a surrender of the charters 
of all the provinces. They all complied, except Connecticut. She steadily 
refused to give up the guaranty of her political rights ; and finally Andros pro- 
ceeded to Hartford with sixty armed men, to enforce obedience. The Assem- 
bly were in session when he arrived [Nov. 10, 1G87], and received him court- 
eously. He demanded the sr.rrcnder of the charter, and declared the colonial 
government dissolved. Already a plan had been arranged for securing the safety 
of that precious instrument, and at the same time to preserve an appearance of 
loyalty. The debates were purposely protracted until the candles were lighted. 
at evening, when the charter was brouo-ht in and laid 
upon the tabic. Just as Andros stepped forward to 
take it, the candles were suddenly extinguished. The 
charter was seized by Captain Wadsworth, of the mil- 
itia, and under cover of tlie night it was effectually 
concealed in the hollow trunk of a huge oak, standing 
not far from the Assembly chamber.' When the can- 
dles were relighted, the members were in perfect 
order, but the charter could not be found. Andros 
was highly incensed at being thus foiled, but he 
wisely restrained his passion, assumed the government, and with his own hand 
wrote the word Finis after the last record of the Charter Assembly. The gov- 
ernment was administered in his own name until ho was driven from Boston in 
1689,' when the charter was taken from the oak [May 19, 1689], a popular 
Assembly was convened, Eobert Treat was chosen governor, and Connecticut 
again assumed her position as an^ independent colony. 

Petty tyrants continued to molest. A little more than four years later, the 
Connecticut people were again compelled to assert their chartered liberties. 
Colonel Fletcher, then governor of New York,' held a commission which gave 
him command of the militia of Connecticut.^ As that power was reserved to 




THE ClIARTiiR OA:: 



' rage 129. 

- Th.it tree remained vigorous until ten minutes before one o'clock in the morning, Augu.?t 21, 
1856, when it wa3 prostrated during a heavy storm, and nothing but a stump remains. It stood 
on the south side of Charter-street, a fow rods from JIain-street, in the city of Hartford. The cavity 
in which the charter was concealed, had become partially closed. 

" Page 130. • * Page 14T. 

' The declared object of this commission was to enable Fletcher to c.ill forth the Connecticut 
militia when proper, to repel an expected invasion of Northern New York, by the French and 
Indians. 



1755.] RHODE ISLAND. 157 

the colony by the charter, the Legislature refused to acknowledge Fletcher's 
authority. In November, 1G93, he repaired to Hartford, and, notwithstanding 
the Legislature was in session, and again promptly denied his jurisdiction, he 
ordered the militia to 'assemble. The Hartford companies, under Captain 
Wadsworth," were drawn up in line; but the moment Fletcher attempted to 
read his commission, the drums were beaten. His angry order of " Silence!" 
was obeyed for a moment ;. but when he repeated it, Wadsworth boldly stepped 
in front of him, and said, " Sir, if they are again interrupted, I '11 make the sun 
shine through you in a moment." Fletcher perceived the futility of a parley, 
or further assumption of authority ; and, pocketing his commission, he and his 
attendants returned to New York, greatly chagrined and irritated. The mat- 
ter was compromised when referred to the king, who gave the governor of Con- 
necticut militia jurisdiction in time of peace, but in the event of war. Colonel 
Fletcher should have the command of a certain portion of the troops of that 
colony. 

And now, in the year 1700, Connecticut had a population of about thirty 
thousand, which rapidly increased during the remainder of her colonial career. 
During Queen Aiine's War,'^ and the stirring events in America from that 
time until the commencement of the French and Indian War,° when her people 
numbered one hundred thousand, Connecticut went hand in hand with her sis- 
ter colonies for mutual welfare ; and her history is too closely intei'wovcn with 
theirs to require further separate notice. 



CHAPTER VI . 

RHODE ISLAND. [1644.] 

When the Providence and RItode Island plantations were united under 
the same government in 1644, the colony of Rhode Island commenced its inde- 
pendent career.* That charter was confirmed by the Long Parliament' in 
October, 1652, and this put an end to the persevering efforts of Massachusetts 
to absorb " Williams's Narragansct Plantation." That colony had always 
coveted the beautiful Aquiday," and feared the reaction of Williams's tolerant 
principles upon the people from whose jjosom he had been cruelly expelled.' A 
dispute concerning the eastern boundary of Rhode Island was productive of 
much ill feeling during the progress of a century, when, in 1741, commission- 
ers decided the present line to be the proper division, and wrangling ceased. 

' Page 156. » Page 135. ' Page 179. 

' Page 91. A general assembly of deputies from the several towns, met at Portsmouth on the 
29th of May, 1647, and organized tlie new government by the election of a president and other offi- 
cers. At tliat time a code of laws was adopted, which declared tlie government to be a democracy, 
and that "all men might walk as their conscience persuaded them." Page 151. _, 

' Note 1, page 150. ° Note 5, page 91. ' Page 91. 



158 THE COLONIES. [1644 

Noi" was Rhode Island free from those internal commotions, growing out of relig- 
ious disputes and personal ambition, which disturbed the repose of other colonies. 
These were quieted toward the close of 1653, when Roger Williams was chosen 
president. Cromwell confirmed the royal charter on the 22d of May, 1655, 
and during his administration the colony prospered. On the accession of 
Charles the Second,' Rhode Island applied for and obtained a new charter 
[July 8, 1663], highly democratic in its general features, and similar, in every 
i-espect, to the one granted to Connecticut." The first governor elected under 
this instrument, was Benedict Arnold;^ and by a colonial law, enacted during 
his first administration, the privileges of freemen were granted only to free- 
holders and their eldest sons. 

Bowing to the mandates of royal authority, Rhode Island yielded to Andros, 
in January, 1687 ; but the moment intelligence reached the people of the acces- 
sion of William and Mary' [May 11, 1689], and the imprisonment of the petty 
tyrant at Boston,' they assembled at Newport, resumed their old charter, and 
re-adopted their seal — an anc/wr, with Hope for a motto. Under this charter, 
Rhode Island continued to be governed for one hundred and fifty-seven years, 
when the people, in representative convention, in 1842, adopted a constitution." 
Newport soon became a thriving commercial town ; and when, in 1732, John 
Franklin established there the first newspaper in the colony, it contained five 
thousand inhabitants, and the whole province about eighteen thousand.' Near 
Newport the celebrated Dean Berkeley purchased lands in 1729; and with 
him came John Smibert, an artist, who introduced portrait painting into Amer- 
ica.* Notwithstanding Rhode Island was excluded from the New England 
confederacy," it always bore its share in defensive efibrts ; and its history is 
identified with that of New England in general, from the commencement of 
Kino; AVilliam's War." 



' Page 109. 

" Page 154. This charter guarantied free toleration in religious matters, and the legislature of 
the colony re-asserted the principle, so as to give it the popular force of law. The assertion, made 
by some, that Roman CathoUcs were excluded from voting, and that Quakers were outlawed, is 
erroneous. « 

^ He was governor several times, serving in that ofBce, altogether, about eleven years. He was 
chief magistrate of the colony when he died, in 1678. * Page 130. 

' Page 130. ° Page 477. 

' Of these, about one thousand were Indians, and more than sixteen hundred were negroes. 

" Berkeley preached occasionally in a small Episcopal church at Newport, and presented the 
congregation with an organ, the first ever heard in America. Smibert was a Scotchman, and 
married and settled at Boston. His picture of Berkeley and his family is still preserved at Yale 
College [page 178], in New Haven. Berkeley (afterward made bishop of a diocese in Ireland) made 
great efforts toward the est.iblishment of the Arts and Learning, in America. Failing in his project 
of founding a new University, lie became one of the most lil.ieral benefactors of Yale College. In 
view of the future progress of the colonies, he wrote that prophetic poem, the last verse oi' which 
contains the oft-quoted line — 

"Westward the course of Empire takes its T7.".y." 

» Page 121. " Pago 130; 



1755.] NEW JERSEY. 15'J 

CHAPTER VII. 

NEW JERSEY. [1GG4.] 

The settlements in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Delaware, we have 
considered together in the same chapter,' as constituting a series of events hav- 
ing intimate relations with each other. The history ot" the colonial organization 
3f' the first two, is separate and distinct. Delaware was never an independent 
3olony or State, until after the Declaration of Independence, in 177G. The 
founding of the New Jersey colony occurred when, in 1G64, the Duke of York 
sold the territory to Lord Berkeley and Sir George Carteret," and the new 
proprietors began the work of erecting a State. They published a form of 
igreement which they called " Concessions,"' in which liberal oficrs were made 
to emigrants who might settle within the territory. Among other provisions, 
the people were to be exempt from the payment of quit-rents and other burdens, 
For the space of five years. Allured by the liberality of the " Concessions," as 
(veil as by the salubrity of the climate and the fertility of the soil, many families 
jame from Long Island in 16G4, and settled at Elizabethtown ;' and in August, 
the following year, Philip Carteret (brother of one of the proprietors) was 
ippointed governor, and arrived at Elizabethtown with a number of settlers. 

At first all was peaceable. Nothing disturbed the repose of the colony 
luring the five years' exemption from rents ; but when, in 1G70, the specified 
lialfpenny, for the use of each acre of land, was required, nuu-murs of discon- 
tent were loud and universal. Those who had purchased land from the Indians, 
ienied the right of the proprietors to demand rent from them ; and some of the 
towns had even denied the authority of the Assembly, at its first sitting, in 
1668. The whole people combined in resisting the payment of quit-rents ; 
md after disputing with the proprietors almost two years, they revolted, called 
1 new Assembly, appointed a dissolute, illegitimate son of Sir George Carteret, 
governor, in May, 1672, and in July following, compelled Philij) Carteret to 
leave the province. Preparations were in progress to coerce the people into 
submission, when New Jersey, and all other portions of the territory claimed 
by the Duke of York, fell into the hands of the Dutch,' in August, 1673. On 
the restoration of the territory to the English," in November, 1674, the Duke 
of York procured a new charter,' and then, regardless of the rights of Berkeley 
and Carteret, he appointed Edmund Andros, "the tyrant of New England," ° 

' Page 92. 

■ Page 94. The province was called New Jersey, in honor of Carteret, who was governor of 
the ishnd of Jersey, in the British Channel, during tlie civil war. He was a staunch royalist, and 
was tlie last commander to lower the royal flag, when the Parliament had triumphed. 

' This was a sort oi constUntion, which provided for a government to be composed of a governor 
and council appointed by the proprietors, and an Assembly chosen by the freeholders of tlie prov- 
ince The legislative power resided in the Assembly ; the executive in the governor. Tlie Council 
and the Assembly were each restricted to twelve members. 

' So called, in honor of Elizabeth, wife of Sir George Carteret. 

' Page U7. " Page 147. ' Page 147. ° Pago 130. 



IC<] THE COLONIES. (1664. 

governor of the \>hole domain. Carteret demurred, and the duke partially 
restored his rights ; not, however, without leaving Andros a sufficient pretense 
for asserting his authority, and producing annoyances. Berkeley had become 
disgusted, and sold his interest in the province [March 28, 1G74] to Edward 
Byllinge, an English Quaker. Pecuniary embarrassment caused Byllinge to 
assign his interest to William Penn, and two others,' in 1675. These purchas- 
ers, unwilling to maintain a political union Avith other parties, successfully 
negotiated with Carteret for a division of the province, which took place on the 
11th of July, 1676. Carteret received the eastern portion as his share, and 
the Quakers the western part. From that time the divisions were known as 
East and West Jersey. 

The West Jersey proprietors gave the people a remarkably liberal consti- 
tution of government [March 13, 1677J ; and in 1677, more than four hundred 
Quakers came from England and settled below the Raritan. Andros required 
them to acknowledge the authority of the Duko of York. They refused ; and 
the matter was referred to the eminent Sir William Jones (the oriental scholar) 
for adjudication, who decided against the claims of the duke. The latter sub- 
mitted to the decision, released both provinces from allegiance to him, and the 
Jerseys became independent of foreign control. The first popular assembly 
in West Jersey met at Salem, in November, 1681, and adopted a code of laws 
for the government of the people.^ 

Soon after the death of Carteret, in December, 1679, tlic trustees of his 
estate offered East Jersey for sale. It was purchased by William Penn and 
eleven of his brethren, on the 11th of February, 1682, who obtained a new- 
charter, and on the 27th of July. 1683, appointed Robert Barclay," a very 
eminent Quaker preacher, from Aljcrdeen, governor for life. A large number 
of his sect came from Scotland and England ; and others from New England 
and Long Island settled in East Jersey to enjoy prosperity and repose. But 
repose, as well as the administration of Barclay, was of short duration ; for 
when James succeeded Charles,* he appeared to consider his contracts made 
while duke, not binding upon his honor as kiiiff. He sought to annul the 
American charters, and succeeded, as we have seen, in subverting the govern- 
ments of several,' through the instrumentality of Andros. The Jerseys were 
sufiferers in this respect, and were obliged to bow to the tyrant. When he was 
driven from the country in 1689,° the provinces were left without regular gov- 
ernments, and for more than twelve years anarchy prevailed there. The claims 
of the proprietors to jurisdiction, were repudiated by the people; and in 1702, 
they gladly relinquished the government by surrendering it, on the 25th of 

' Tliese purchasers immediately sold one half of their interest to the Earl of Perth, from whom 
the present town of Perth Amboy derives a. part of its name. Amboy, or Ambo, is an Indian 
name. 

■ A remarkable law w.is enacted at that session. It provided that in all criminal cases," excepn 
treason, murder, and theft, the aggrieved party should have power to pardon the offender. 

' He was the author of " An Apology for Quakers," a work highly esteemed by his sect.* It 
was written in Latin, and translated into several continental languages. Barclay and Penn were 
intimate personal friends, and travelled much together. He died in Ury, in 1690, aged 42 years. 

' Page 113. ' Pages 129, 156, and 15S. ° Page 130. 



1755.] PENNSYLVANIA. 161 

April, to the crown.' The two provinces were united as a royal domain, and 
placed under the government of Lord Cornbury, the licentious ruler of New 
York," in July following. 

Tlie province of New Jersey remained a dependency of New York, with a 
distinct legislative assembly of its own, until 1738, when, through the efforts 
of Lewis Morris," the connection was for ever severed. Morris was appointed 
the first royal governor of New Jersey, and managed public affairs with ability 
and general satisfaction. From that period until the independence of the colo- 
nies was declared, in 1776, the history of the colony presents but few events of 
interest to the general reader. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

PENNSYLVANIA. [1GS2.] 

The colonial career of Pennsylvania began when, in the autumn of 1682, 
William Penn arrived,^ and by a surrender by the agents of the Duke of York, 
and a proclamation in the presence of the popular Assembly, the Territories 
which now constitute the State of Delaware were united with his province.^ 
Already, Penn had proclaimed his intention of being governed by the law of 
kindness in his treatment of the Indians ; and when he came, he proceeded to 
lay the foundation of his new State upon Truth and Justice.'^ Where the Ken- 
sington portion of the city of Philadelphia now stands, as we have elsewhere 
mentioned, he met the Delaware chiefs in council, under the leafless branches 
of a wide-spreading elm,' on the 4th of November, 1682, and there made with 
them a solemn covenant of peace and friendship, and paid them the stipulated 
price for their lands. The Indians were delighted, and their hearts melted with 
good feeling. Such treatment was an anomaly in the history of the intercourse 
of their race with the white people. Even then the fires of a disastrous war 
were smouldering on the New England frontiers.^ It was wonderful how the 
savage heart, so lately the dwelling of deepest hatred toward the white man, be- 
came the shrine of the holiest attribute of our nature. "We will live in love 

' The proprietors retained tlieir property in the soil, and their claims to quit-rent.s. Their, 
organization !i:is never ceased ; and unsold, barren tracts of land in West Jersey are still held by 
that ancient tenure. - Page 149. 

^ Son of an officer in Cromwell's army, who purchased an estate near New York, known as 
Morrisiana He died in 1146. A part of that estate yet [1867] remains in possession of the Morris 
family * Page 96. ^ Page 96. 

' By his direction, his agent, "William Markham, had opened a friendly correspondence with the 
Indians, and Penn himself had addressed a letter to them, assuring them of his love and brotherly 
feelings toward them. 

' The Penn Society of Philadelphia erected a monument upon the spot where the venerable elm 
stood, near the intersection of Hanover and Beach-streets, Kensington district. The tree was blown 
down in 1810, and was found to be 283 years old. The monument is upon the site of the tree, and 
bears suitable inscriptions. " King PluUp's "War. page 92. 




162 THE COLONIES. [16S2. 

with William Penn and his children/' they said, '-as long as the moon and the 
sun shall endure." They were true to their promise — not a drop of Quaker 
blood was ever shed by an Indian. 

Having secured the lands, Penn's next care was to found a capital city. 
This he proceeded to do, immediately after the treaty with the Indians, upon 
lands purchased from the Swedes, lying between the Delaware and the Schuyl- 
kill Rivers. The boundaries of streets were marked upon the trunks of the 
chestnut, walnut, pine, and other forest trees which covered the land,' and the 
city was named Philadelphia, which signifies brotherly love. Within twelve 
months almost a hundred houses were erected,^ and the Indians came daily 
with wild fowl and venison, as presents for their "good 
Father Penn." Never was a State blessed with a more 
propitious beginning, and internal peace and prosperity 
marked its course while the Quakers controlled its coun- 
cils. 

The proprietor convened a second Assembly at Phil- 
adelphia, in jNIarch, 1GS3, and then gave the people a 
"Charter of Liberties," signed and sealed by his own 
hand. It was so ample and just, that the government 
was really a representative democracy. Free religious toleration was ordained, 
and laws for the promotion of public and private morality were framed.^ Un- 
like other proprietors, Penn surrendered to the people his rights in the appoint- 
ment of officers ; and until his death, his honest and highest ambition appeared 
to be to promote the happiness of the colonists. Because of this hajijiy relation 
between the people and the proprietor, and the security against Indian hostili- 
ties, Pennsylvania outstripped all of its sister colonies in rapidity of settlement 
and permanent prosperity. 

In August, 1G84, Penn returned to England, leaving five members of the 
Council with Thomas Lloyd, as president, to administer the government during 
his absence. Soon afterward, the English Revolution occurred [1688] and 
king James was driven into exile.' Penn's personal regard for James contin- 
ued after his fall ; and for that loyalty, which had a deeper spring than mere 
political considerations, he was accused of dissaifection to the new government, 
and suffered imprisonments. In the mean while, discontents had sprung up in 



" Tliis foet was the origin of the names of Chestnut, AValnut, Pine, Spruce, and other streets in 
Philadelpliia. For many years after the city was laid out, these living street-marks remained, and 
afiforded shade to the inhabitants. 

= Markham, Penn's agent, erected a house for the proprietor's use, in 1682. It is yet [18G7] 
standing in Letitia court, the entrance to which is from Market-street, between Front and Second- 
streets. Another, and finer house, was occupied by Penn in 1700. It yet remains on the corner 
of Norris's alley and Second-street. It was the residence of General Arnold in 1778. Note 3, 
page 287. 

* It was ordained " that to prevent lawsuits, three arbitrators, to be called Peace Makers, should 
be appointed by the county courts, to liear and determine small differences between man and man: 
that children should be taught some useful trade; that factors wronging their employers sliould 
make satisfaction, and one third over; that all causes for irrcligion and vulgarity should bo repress- 
ed ; and that no man should be molested for his religious opinions. 

* Note 7, page 113. 



1755.] THE CAROLINAS. 163 

Pennsylvania, and the "three lower counties on the Delaware,'" offended at 
the action of some of the Council, withdrew fro"^^^' .a April, 1691. 

Penn yielded to their wishes so far as to appoint a separate deputy governor 
for them. 

An important political change now occurred in the colony. Penn's provin- 
cial government was taken from him in 1692 [Oct. 31], and Pennsylvania was 
placed under the authority of Governor Fletcher, of New York, who reunited 
the Delaware counties [May, 1693], to the parent province. All suspicions of 
Penn's disloyalty having been removed in 1694, his chartered rights were 
restored to him [Aug. 30], and he appointed his original agent, William Mark- 
ham, deputy governor. He returned to America in December, 1699, and was 
pained to find his people discontented, and clamorous for greater political priv- 
ileges. Considering their demands reasonable, he gave them a new charter, or 
frame of government [Nov. 6, 1701], more liberal in its concessions than the 
former. It was cheerfully accepted by the Pennsylvania people, but those of 
the Delaware territories, whose delegates had already withdrawn from the 
Assembly [Oct. 20], evidently aiming at independence, declined it. Penn 
acquiesced in their decision, and allowed them a distinct Assembly. This satis- 
fied them, and their first independent legislature was convened at Newcastle in 
1703. Although Pennsylvania and Delaware ever afterward continued to have 
separate legislatures, they were under the same governor until the Revolution 
in 1776. 

A few weeks after adjusting difficulties, and granting the new charter, Penn 
returned to England [Dec, 1701], and never visited America again. His 
departure was hastened by the ripening of a ministerial project for abolishing 
ill the proprietary governments in America. His health soon aftei-ward de- 
clined, and at his death he left his American possessions to his three sons 
(Thomas, John, and Richard), then minors, who continued to administer the 
government, chiefly through deputies, until the War for Independence in 1776. 
Then it became a free and independent State, and the commonwealth purchiised 
ill the claims of Penn's heirs in the province, for about five hundred and eighty 
thousand dollars.^ 



CHAPTER IX. 

THE CAROLINAS. [16G5 — 1680.] 

Notwithstanding the many failures which had dampened the ardor of 
English speculators, who had engaged in planting settlements in America, hope 
still remained buoyant. Success finally crowned the efforts in New England 

^ Page 96. s Page 96. 

" On account of the expenses incurred in Pennsylvania, Penn was compelled to borrow $30,000, 
and mortgage bis province as security. This was the commencement of the State debt ofPennsyl- 



104 THE COLONIES. [I6G5. 

and further south, and tlic proprietors of the Carolinas, when settlements 
within that domain became permanent,' and tides of emigration from various 
sources flowed thitherward, began to have gorgeous visions of an empire in 
America, that should outshine those of the Old World. It then became their 
first care to frame a constitution of government, with functions adequate to the 
grand design, and to this task, the earl of Shaftesbury, one of the ablest states- 
men of his time, and John Locke, the eminent philosopher, were called. They 
completed their labors in March, 1669, and the instrument was called the 
Fundamental Constitutions.'' It was in the highest degree monarchical in its 
character and tendency, and contemplated the transplantation, in America, of 
all the ranks and aristocratic distinctions of European society. ° The spirit of 
the whole thing was adverse to the feelings of the people, and its practical 
development was an impossibility ; so, after a contest between proprietors and 
colonists, for twenty years, the magnificent scheme was abandoned, and the 
people were allowed to govern themselves, in their own more simple way.' The 
disorders which prevailed Avhen the first attempts were made to impose this 
scheme of government upon the people, soon ripened into rebellion, especially in 
the Albemarle, or northern colony.' E.xcessive taxation and commercial restric- 
tions bore heavily upon the industry of the people, and engendered wide-spread 
discontent. This was fostered by refugees from Virginia, tifter Bacon's rebel- 
lion, in 1676,' who sought shelter among the people below the Roanoke. They 
scattered, broad-cast, over a generous soil, vigorous ideas of popular freedom, 
and a year after Bacons death, ^ the people of the Alhemarle County Colony^ 
revolted. The immediate cause of this movement was the attempt of the acting 
governor to enforce the revenue laws against a New England vessel. Led on 
by John Culpepper, a refugee from the Carteret Comity Colony of South 
Carolina,' the people seized the chief magistrate [Dec. 10, 1677J and the pub- 
lic funds, imprisoned him and six of his council, called a new Assembly, ap- 
pointed a new magistrate and judges, and for two years conducted the affiiirs of 
government independent of foreign control. Culpepper went to England to 
plead the cause of the people, and was arrested and tried on a charge of treason. 

' Pages 97 and 08. 

- It consists of one hundred and twenty articles, and is supposed to liave been the production, 
chicfiy, of tile mind of Sliaftesbury. 

" There were to be two orders of nobility : the hip;her to consi.st of Lindgraves, or earfe, the 
lower of caciques, or harons. The territory was to be divided into counties, eacli containing 480,000 
acres, with one landgrave, and two caciques. There were also to be lords of manors, who, lilce the 
nobles, might hold courts and e.Kercise judicial functions. Persons holding fifty acres were to be 
freeholders ; the tenants held no political franchise, and could never attain to a higher ranlc. Tlic 
four estates of proprietors, earls, barons, and commons, were to sit in one legislative chamber. Tlio 
proprietors were always to be eight in number, to possess the whole judicial power, and have the 
supreme control of all tribimals. The commons were to have four members in the legislature to 
every three of the nobility. Thus an aristocratic majority was always secured, and tlie real reprc- 
sentiitives of the people had no power. Every religion was professedly tolerated, but the Church 
of England, only, was declared to be orthodox. Such is an outline of the absurd scheme proposed 
for governing tlie free colonies of the Carolinas. 

' A governor, with a council of twelve — six chosen by the proprietors, and six by the Assembly 
-^and a House of Delegates chosen by the freelioklcrs. 

" Page 0". ° Page 110. ' Page 112. 

» Page 97. " Page 98. 



1080.] TPIE CAROLINAS. 165 

Shaftesbury procured his acquittal, and he returned to the Carolinas.' Quiet 
was restored to the colony, and until the arrival of the unprincipled Seth 
Sothel (one of the proprietors), as governor, the people enjoyed repose. Thus 
early the inhabitants of that feeble colony practically asserted the grand politi- 
cal maxim, that taxation ivithout representation is tyranny,' for the defense 
of which our Revolutionary fathers fought, a century afterward. 

Governor Sothel arrived in North Carolina in 1683. Martin says that 
" the dark shades of his character were not relieved by a single ray of virtue ;" 
and Chalmers asserts that " the annals of delegated authority included no name 
so intamous as Sothel."' He plundered the people, cheated the proprietors, and 
on all occasions prostituted his oflSco to purposes of private gain. After endur- 
ing his oppression almost six years, the people seized him [1G89J, and were 
about sending him to England to answer their accusations before the proprietors, 
when he asked to be tried by the colonial Assembly. The favor was granted, 
and he was sentenced to banishment for one year, and a perpetual disquali- 
fication for the office of governor. He withdrew to the southern colony, where 
we shall meet him again.^ His successor, Philip Ludwell, an energetic, incor- 
ruptible man, soon redressed the wrongs of the people, and restored order and 
good feelings. Governors Harvey and Walker also maintained quiet and good 
will among the people. And the good Quaker, John Archdale, who came to 
govern both Carolinas in 1695, placed the colony in a position for attaining 
future prosperity, hitheito unknown. 

While these events were transpiring in the northern colony, the people of 
the Carteret,'^ or soutliern colony, were steadily advancing in wealth and num- 
bers. Their first popular legislature of which we have records, was convened 
in 1674,5 but it exhibited an unfavorable specimen of republican government. 
Jarring interests and conflicting creeds produced violent debates and irreconcil- 
aljle discord. For a long time the colony was distracted by quarrels, and 
anarchy prevailed. At length the Stono Indians gathered in bands, and plun- 
dered the plantations of grain and cattle, and even menaced the settlers with 
destruction. The appearance of this common enemy healed their dissensions, 
and the people went out as brothers to chastise the plunderei's. They com- 
pletely subdued the Indians, in 1680. Many of them were made prisoners, 
and sold for slaves in the West Indies, and the Stonos never afterward had a 
tribal existence. 

Wearied by the continual annoyance of the Indians, many English families 



' Culpepper afterward became surveyor-general of the province, and in 1680. he was employed 
in laying out the new city of Charleston. [See next page.] His previous expulsion from the southern 
colony, was on account of his connection wth a rebellious movement in 1672. 

» Page 211. 5 Page 167. * Page 98. 

' The settlers brought with them an unfinished copy of the " Fundamental Consiitulions" but 
they at once perceived the impossibility of conformity to that scheme of government. They lield a 
"parliamentary convention" in 1672, and twenty delegates were elected lay the people to act with 
the governor and the council, as a legislature. Thus early, representative government was estab- 
lished, but its operations seem not to have been very successful, and a legislature proper, of which 
we have any record, was not organized until 1674, when an upper and a lower House was estab- 
lished, and laws for the province wcro enacted. 



/ 



166 



THE COLONIES. 



[1665. 




CHARLESTON IN 1680. 



crossed the Ashley, and seated themselves upon the more eligible locality of 
Oyster Point, where they founded the present city of Charleston," in 1680. 

There a flourishing village soon appeared : 
and after the subjugation of the savages,'' 
the old settlement was abandoned, and now 
not a vestige of it remains upon the culti- 
vated plantation at Old Town, where it 
stood. The Dutch settlers^ spread over 
the country along the Edisto and San- 
tec, and planted the seeds of future flour- 
ishing communities, while immigrants from 
diSerent parts of Europe and from New 
England swelled the population of Charles- 
ton and vicinity. Nor did they neglect political afl[;iirs. While they were 
vigilant in all that pertained to their material interests, they were also aspir- 
ants, even at that early day, for political independence. 

Another popular legislature was convened at Charleston in 1682. It ex- 
hibited more harmony than the first,* and several useful laws were framed. 
Emigration was now pouring in a tide of population more rapid than any of the 
colonies below New England had yet e.xperienced. Ireland, Scotland,^ Holland, 
and France, contributed largely to the flowing stream. In 1686-7, quite a 
large number of Huguenots, who had escaped from the fiery persecutions which 
were revived in France by the revocation of the Edict of Nantes," landed at 
Charleston. English hatred of the Fi-ench' caused the settlers to look with 
jealousy upon these refugees, and for more than ten years [1686 to 1697] the 
latter were denied the rights of citizenship. 

Shaftesbury's scheme of government was as distasteful to the people of 
South Carolina, as to those of the northern colony,* and they refused to accept 
it. They became very restive, and seemed disposed to cast ofi" all allegiance to 
the proprietors and the mother country. At this crisis, James Colleton, a 
brother of one of the proprietors, was appointed governor [1686], and was 
vested with full powers to bring the colonists into submission. His administra- 
tion of about four years was a very tui'bulent one. He was in continual colli- 

' Note 1, page 165. The above engraving illustrates the manner of fortifying towns, as a de- 
fense against foes. It exhibits the walls of Charleston in 1680, and tlie location of churches in 
1704. The points marlced a a a, etc., are bastions for cannons. P, English church; Q, French 
church ; B, Independent church ; S, Anabaptist church ; and T, Quaker meeting-house. 

' Page 165. 

° They had founded the village of Jamestown several miles up the Ashley River. 

* Page 164. 

' In 1684, Lord Garden, and ten Scotch families, who had suffered persecution, cnme to South 
Carolina, and settled at Port Royal. The Spaniards at St. Augustine claimed jurisdiction over Port 
Royal; and during the absence of Cardon [1686], they attacked and dispersed the settlers, and des- 
olated tlieir plantations. 

' In the city of Nantes, Henry the Fourth of Prance issued an edict, in 1598. in favor of the 
Huguenots, or Protestants, allowing them free toleration. The profligate Louis the Fourteenth, 
stung with remorse in his old age, sought to gain the favor of Heaven hy bringing his whole people 
into the bosom of the Roman Catholic Church. He revoked the famous edict in 1686, and instantly 
the fires of persecution were kindled throughout the empire. Many thousands of the Protestants 
left France, and found refuge in other countries. ' Page 180. ' Page 97- 



1755.] THE CAROLINAS. 167 

sion with the people, and at length drove them to open rebellion. They seized 
the public records, imprisoned the secretary of the province, and called a new 
Assembly. Pleading the danger of an Indian or Spanish invasion,' the gov- 
ernor called out the militia, and proclaimed the province to be under martial 
law.' This measure only increased the exasperation of the people, and he was 
impeached, and banished from the province by the Assembly, in 1690. 

While this turbulence and misrule was at its height, Sothel arrived from 
North Carolina, pursuant to his sentence of banishment,^ and the people un- 
wisely consented to his assumption of the office of governor.* They soon 
repented their want of judgment. For two years he plundered and oppressed 
them, and then [1692] the Assembly impeached and banished him also. Then 
came Philip Ludlow to re-establish the authority of the proprietors, but the 
people, thoroughly aroused, resolved not to tolerate even so good a man as he, 
if his mission was to enforce obedience to tlie absurd Fiindmiiental Constitu- 
tions." After a brief and turbulent administration, he gladly withdrew to Vir- 
ginia, and soon afterward [1693], the proprietors abandoned Shaftesbury's 
scheme, and the good Quaker, John Archdale, was sent, in 1695, to administer 
a more simple and republican form of government, for both the Carolinas. His 
administration was short, but highly beneficial ;° and the people of South Car- 
olina always looked back to the efforts of that good man, with gratitude. He 
healed dissensions, established equitable laws, and so nearly effected an entire 
reconciliation of the English to the French settlers, that in the year succeeding 
his departure from the province, the Assemlily admitted the latter [1697] to all 
the privileges of citizens and freemen. From the close of Archdale's adminis- 
tration, the progress of the two Carolina colonies should be considered as separ- 
ate and distinct, although they were not politically separated until 1729.' 

NORTH C A R L I X A . 

We may properly date the permanent prosperity of North Carolina from the 
adminstration of Archdale,' when the colonists began to turn their attention to 
the interior of the country, where richer soil invited the agriculturist, and the 
fur of the beaver and otter allured the adventurous hunter. The Indians along 
the sea-coast were melting away like frost in the sunbeams. The powerful 
Hatteras tribe,' which numbered three thousand in Raleigh's time, were reduced 
to fifteen bowmen ; another tribe had entirely disappeared ; and the remnants 
of some others had sold their lands or lost them by fraud, and were driven back 
to the deep wilderness. Indulgence in strong drinks, and other vices of civiliz- 

' The Spaniards at St. Augustine had menaced the EngUsh settlements in South Carolina, and, 
as we have seen [note 5, page 1 66], had actually broken up a little Scotch colony at Port Royal 

^ Note 8, page 170. ' Page 165. 

' On his arrival, Sothel took sides with the people against Colleton, and thus, in the moment of 
their anger, he unfortunately gained their good will and confidence. ' Page 164. 

' The culture of rice was introduced into South Carolina during Archdale's administration. 
Some seed was given to the governor by the captain of a vessel from Madagascar. It was distrib- 
uted among several planters, and thus its cultivation beg,;n. 

' Page ni. " Page 165. " Note 5, page 20. 



Igg THE COLONIES. [16C5. 

ation, had decimated them, and their beautiful land, all the way to the Yadkin 
and Catawba, was speetlily opened to the sway of the white man. 

At the commencement of the eighteenth century, religion began to exert an 
influence in North Carolina. The first Anglican' church edifice was then built 
in Chowan county, in 1705. The Quakers' multiplied; and in 1707, a com- 
pany of Huguenots,' who had settled in Virginia, came and sat down upon the 
beautiful banks of the Trent, a triliutary of the Neuse River. Two years later 
[1709], a hundred German families, driven from their homes on the Rhine, by 
persecution, penetrated the interior of North Carolina, and under Count Graf- 
fenried, founded settlements along the head waters of the Neuse, and upon the 
Roanoke. While settlements were thus spreading and strengthening, and gen- 
eral prosperity blessed the province, a fearful calamity fell upon the inhabitants 
of the interior. The broken Indian tribes made a last effort, in 1711, to regain 
the beautiful country they had lost. The leaders in the conspiracy to crush 
the Tihite people, were the Tuscaroras* of the inland region, and the Corees"' 
further south and near the sea-board. They fell like lightning from the clouds 
upon the scattered German settlements along the Roanoke and Pamlico Sound. 
In one night [Oct. 2, 1711], one hundred and thirty persons perished by the 
hatchet. Along Albemarle Sound, the savages swept with the knife of mur- 
der in one hand, and the torch of desolation in the other, and for three days 
they scourged the white people, until disabled by fatigue and drunkenness. 
Those who escaped the massacre called upon their brethren of the southern 
colony for aid, and Colonel Barnwell, Avith a party of Carolinians and friendly 
Indians of the southern nations,'^ marched to their relief He drove the Tus- 
caroras to their fortified town in tlie present Craven county, and there made a 
treaty of peace with them. Ilis troops violated the treaty on their way back, 
by outrages upon the Indians, and soon hostilities were renewed. Late in the 
year [Dec, 1712], Colonel Moore' arrived from South Carolina with a few white 
men and a largo body of Indians, and drove the Tuscaroras to their fort in the 
present Greene county, wherein [March, 1713] he made eight hundred of them 
prisoners. The remainder of the Tuscaroras fled northward in June, and join- 
ing their kindred on the southern borders of Lake Ontario, they formed the 
sixth nation of the celebrated Iroquois confederacy in the province of New 
York.^ A treaty of peace was made with the Corees in 1715, and North Car- 
olina never afterward suffered from Indian hostilities.' 

S IT T n C A R L I X A . 

Although really united, the two colonies acted independently of each other 
from the close of the seventeenth century. Soon after the commencement of 

' The established Church of Ensrhind was so called, to distinguish it from tlie Romish Church. 
- Page 122. ^ Page 49. ■" Page 25. ' Page 20. 

" Tliey consisted of Creeks, Catawbas, Cherokees, and Yaniassees. Sec pages 26 to 30, inclusive. 
' A son of James Moore, who was governor of South Carolina in 1700. ' Pago 23. 

'' The province issued bills of credit ((or tlie first time) to the amount of about forty thousand 
dollar?:, to defray the expenses of the war. 



1755,] THE CAROLINAS. 169 

Queen Anne's War' [May, 1702], Governor Moore of South Carolina, proposed 
an expedition against the Spaniards at St. Augustine." The Assembly assented, 
and appropriated almost ten thousand dollars for the service. Twelve hundred 
men (one half Indians) were raised, and proceeded, in two divisions, to the 
attack. The main division, under the governor, went by sea, to blockade the 
harbor, and the remainder proceeded along the coast, under the command of 
Colonel Daniels. Tlie latter arrived first, and attacked and plundered the 
town. The Spaniards retired within their fortress with provisions for four 
months ; and as the Carolinians had no artillery, their position was impreg- 
nable. Daniels was then sent to Jamaica, in the West Indies, to procui-e bat- 
tery cannon, but before his return, two Spanish vessels had appeared, and so 
frightened Governor Moore that he raised the blockade, and fled. Daniels 
barely escaped capture, on his return, but he reached Charleston in s,afety. 
This ill-advised expedition burdened the colony with a debt of more than 
twenty-six thousand dollars, for the payment of which, bills of credit were 
issued. This was the first emission of paper money in the Carolinas. 

A more successful expedition was undertaken by Governor Moore, in De- 
cember, 1703, against the Apalachian' Indians, who were in league with the 
Spaniards. Their chief villages were between the Alatamaha and Savannah 
Rivers. These were desolated. Almost eight hundred Indians were taken 
prisoners, and the whole territory of the Apalachians was made tributary to the 
English. The province had scarcely become tranquil after this chastisement of 
the Indians, when a new cause for disquietude appeared. Sonie of the proprie- 
tors had long cherished a scheme for establishing the Anglican Church."' as the 
State religion, in the Carolinas. When Nathaniel Johnson succeeded Governor 
Moore, he found a majority of churchmen in the Assembly, and by their aid, 
the wishes of the proprietors were gratified. The Anglican Church was made 
the established religion, and Dissenters'' were excluded from all public offices. 
This was an usurpation of chartered rights ; and the aggrieved party laid the 
matter before the imperial ministry. Their cause was sustained ; and by order 
of Parliament, the colonial Assembly, in November, 1706, rcjiealed the law of 
disfranchisement, but the Church maintained its dominant position until the 
Revolution. 

The ire of the Spaniards was greatly excited by the attack upon St. Augus- 
tine,' and an expedition, composed of five French and Spanish vessels,' with a 
large body of troops, was sent from Havana to assail Charleston, take posses- 
sion of the province, and annex it to the Spanish domain of Florida.' The 
squadron crossed Charleston bar in May, 170G, and about eight hundred troops 
were landed at different points. The people seized their arms, and, led by the 
governor and Colonel Rhett, they drove the invaders back to their vessels, after 

' Page 135. = Page 51. 

^ A tribe of the Mobilkn family [page 29] situated soutli of the Savannah River. 
' Note 1, page 168. ' > Note 2, page 7G. ' Page 51. 

' It will be remembered [see page 135] that iu 1702, England declared war against France, and 
that Spain waa a party to the quarrel. ' Page 42. 



170 THE COLONIES. [1665. 

killing or capturing almost three hundrcLl men. They also captured a French 
vessel, with its crew. It was a complete victory. So the storm which appeared 
so suddenly and threatening, was dissipated in a day, and the sunshine of peace 
and prosperity again gladdened the colony. 

A few years later, a more formidable tempest brooded over the colony, 
when a general Indian confederacy was secretly formed, to exterminate the 
white people by a single blow. Within forty days, in the spring of 1715, the 
Indian tribes from the Cape Fear to the St. Mary's, and back to the mountains, 
had coalesced in the conspiracy ; and before the people of Charleston had any 
intimation of danger, one hundred white victims had been sacrificed in the 
remote settlements. The Creeks,' Yamasees,^ and Apalachians" on the south, 
confederated with the Cherokees, ' Catawbas,' and Congarees' on the west, in all six 
thousand strong ; while more than a thousand warriors issued from the Neuse 
i-egion, to avenge their misfortunes in the wars of 1712-13.' It was a cloud 
of fearful portent that hung in the sky ; and the people were filled with terror, 
for they knew not at what moment the consuming lightning might leap forth. 
At this fearful crisis. Governor Craven acted with the utmost wisdom and 
energy. He took measures to prevent men from leaving the colony ; to secure 
all the arms and ammunition that could be found, and to arm faithful negroes 
to assist the white people. He declared the province to be under martial law,' 
and then, at the head of twelve hundred men, black and white, he marched to 
meet the foe who were advancing with the knife, hatchet, and torch, in fearful 
activity. The Indians were at first victorious, but after several bloody encount- 
ers, the Yamassees and their southern neighlaors were driven across the Savan- 
nah [May, 1715], and halted not until they found refuge under Spanish gun.j 
at St. Augustine. The Cherokees and their northern neighbors had not yet 
engaged in the war, and they returned to their hunting grounds, deeply 
impressed with the strength and greatness of the Avhite people. 

And now the proprietary government of South Carolina was drawing to a 
close. The governors being independent of the people, were often haughty and 
exacting, and the inhabitants had borne the yoke of their rule for many years, 
with great impatience. While their labor was building up a prosperous State, 
the pi-oprietors refused to assist them in times of danger, or to re-imburse 
their expenses in the protection of the province from invasion. The whole 
burden of debt incurred in the war with the Yamassees, was left upon the 
shoulders of the people. The proprietors not only refused to pay any por- 
tion of it, but enforced their claims for quit-rents with great severity. The 
people saw no hope in the future, but in royal rule and protection. So they 
met in convention ; resolved to forswear all allegiance to the proprietors ; and 
on Governor Johnson's refusal to act as chief magistrate, under the king, they 

' Pa^e 30. - Page 30. ' Note 3, page 168. ■" Pao:e 21. ■■ Page 26. 

" Tliis was a small tribe that inhabited the country in the vicinity of the present city of Colum- 
bia, in South Carolina. _ ' Page 168. 

' Martial law may be proclaimed by rulers, in an emergency, and the civil law, for the time 
being, is made subser%aent to tlie military. The object is to allow immediate and energetic action 
for repeUing invasions, or for other purposea 



1755] GEORGIA. 171 

appointed [December 21, 1719] Colonel Moore' governor of the colony. The 
matter was laid before the imperial government, when the colonists were sus- 
tained, and South Carolina became a royal province.'' 

The people of North Carolina' also resolved on a change of government; 
and after a continued controversy for ten years, the proprietors, in 1729, sold 
to the king, for about eighty thousand dollars, all their claims to the soil and 
incomes in both provinces. North and South Carolina were then separated. 
George Burrington was appointed the first royal governor over the former, and 
Robert Johnson over the latter. From that period until the commencement of 
the French and Indian war,* the general history of the Carolinas presents but 
few features of interest, except the efforts made for defending the colony against 
the Spaniards and the Indians. The peoule gained very little by a change of 
owners ; and during forty-five years, until the revolution made the peoplj 
independent, there was a succession of disputes with the royal governors. 



CHAPTER X . 

GEORGIA. [17^2.] 

The colony founded by Oglethorpe on the Savannah River rapidly 
increased in numbers, and within eight years, twenty-five hundred immigrants 
were sent over, at an expense to the trustees^ of four hundred thousand dollar3. 
Yet prosperity did not bless the enterprise. Many of the settlers were unac- 
customed to habits of industry, and were mere drones ; and as the use of slave 
labor was prohibited, tillage was neglected. Even the industrious Scotch, Ger- 
man, and Swiss families who came over previous to 1740, could not give that 
vitality to industrial pursuits, Avhich was necessary to a development of the 
resources of the country. Anxious for the permanent growth of the colony, 
Oglethorpe went to England in 1734, and returned in 173G, with about three 
hundred immigrants. Among them were one hundred and fifty Highlanders, 
well skilled in military affairs. These constituted the first army of the colony 
during its early struggles. John Wesley, founder of the Methodist denom- 
ination, also came with Oglethorpe, to make Georgia a religious colony, and to 
spread the gospel among the Indians. He was unsuccessful ; for his strict 
moral doctrines, his fearless denunciations of vice, and his rigid exercise of 
ecclesiastical authority made him quite unpopular among the great mass of the 
colonists, who winced at restraint. The eminent George Whitefield also visited 
Georgia in 1738, when only twenty-three years of age, and succeeded in estab- 
lishing an orphan asylum near Savannah, which flourished many years, and 

' Note 1, page 168. 

' The first governor, by royal appointment, was Francis Nicliolson, who had been successively 
governor of New York [page 144], Maryland, Virginia, and Nova Scotia. 

= Page 1G7. ' Page 179. ^ Page 100. 



172 THE COLONIES. [I'i32; 

Vioa a real blessing. The Christian efforts of those men, prosecuted with the 
most sincere desire for the good of their fellow-mortals, were not appreciated. 
Their seed fell upon stony ground, and after the death of Whitefield, in 1770, 
his " House of Mercy" in Georgia, deprived of his sustaining influence, became 
a desolation. 

A cloud of trouble appeared in the Southern horizon. The rapid increase 
of the new colony e.xcited the jealousy of the Spaniards at St. Augustine, and 
the vigilant Oglethorpe, expecting such a result, prepared to oppose any hos- 
tile movements against his settlement. He established a fort on the site of 
Augusta, as a defence against the Indians, and he erected fortifications at 
Darien, on Cumberland Island, at Frederica (St. Simon"s Island), and on the 
north bank of the St. John, the southern boundary of the English claims. 
Spanish commissioners came from St. Augustine to protest against these prepar- 
ations, and to demand the immediate evacuation of the whole of Georgia, and 
of all South Carolina lielow Port Royal.' Oglethorpe, of course, refused com- 
pliance, and the Spaniards threatened him with war. In the winter of 1736-7, 
Oglethorpe went to England to make preparations to meet the exigency. He 
returned in October following, bearing the commission of a brigadier, and lead- 
ing a regiment of si.x hundred well-disciplined troops, for the defense of the 
whole southern frontier of the English possessions." But for two years their 
services were not much needed ; then war broke out between England and 
Spain [November, 1739], and Oglethorpe prepared an expedition against St. 
Augustine. In May, 1740, he entered Florida with four hundred of his best 
troops, some volunteers from South Carolina, and a large body of friendly 
Creek Indians ;" in all more than two thousand men. His first conquest was 
Fort Diecjo, twenty miles from St. Augustine. Then Fort Moosa, within two 
miles of the city, surrendered ; but when he appeared before the town and for- 
tress, and demanded instant submission, he was answered by a defiant refusal. 
A small fleet under Captain Price Idockaded the harbor, and for a time cut off 
supplies from the Spaniards, but swift-winged galleys' passed through the block- 
ading fleet, and supplied the garrison with several weeks' provisions. Ogle- 
thorpe had no artillery with which to attack the fortress, and being warned by 
the increasing heats of summer, and sickness in his camp, not to wait for their 
supplies to become exhausted, he raised the siege and returned to Savannah. 

The ire of the Spaniards was aroused, and they, in turn, prepared to invade 
Georgia in the summer of 1742. An armament, fitted out at Havana and St. 
Augustine, and consisting of thirty-six vessels, with more than three thousand 
troops, entered the harbor of St. Simon's, and landed a little above the town 
of the same name, on the IGth of July, 1742, and erected a battery of twenty 
guns. Oglethorpe had been apprised of the intentions of the Spaniards, and 



' Note 5, page 166. 

- His commission gave him the command of the militia of South Carolina also, and he stood as 
a guard between the English and Spanish possessions of the southern country. ' Page 30. 

' A low built vessel propelled by both sails and oars. The war vessels of the ancients were aE 
galleys. See Norman vessel, page 35. 



1732.] GEORGIA. 173 

after unsuccessfully applying to the governor of South Carolina for troops anil 
supplies, he marched to St. Simon's, and made his head- quarters at his princi- 
fortress at Frederica.' He was at Fort Simon, near the landing place of tho 
invaders, with less than eight hundred men, exclusive of Indians, when tho 
enemy appeared. He immediately spiked the guns of the fort, destroyed his 
stores, and retreated to Frederica. There he anxiously awaited hoped-for rein- 
forcements and supplies from Carolina, and then he successfully repulsed several 
detachments of the Spaniards, who attacked him. He finally resolved to make 
a night assault upon the enemy's battery, at St. Simon's. A deserter (a 
French soldier) defeated his plan ; but the sagacity of Oglethorpe caused the 
miscreant to be instrumental in driving the invaders from the coast. He bribed 
a Spanish prisoner to carry a letter to the deserter, which contained information 
respecting a British fleet that was about to attack St. Augustine.' Of course 
the letter was handed to the Spanish commander, and the Frenchman was 
arrested as a spy. The intelligence in Oglethorpe's letter alarmed the enemy; 
and while the officers were holding a council, some Carolina vessels, with sup- 
plies for the garrison at Frederica, appeared in the distance. Believing them 
to be part of the British fleet alluded to, the Spaniards determined to attack 
the Georgians immediately, and then hasten to St. Augustine. On their march 
to assail Frederica, they were ambuscaded in a swamp. Great slaughter of the 
invaders ensued, and the place is still called Bloody Marsh. The survivors 
retreated in confusion to their vessels, and sailed immediately to St. Augustine.^ 
On their way, they attacked the English fort at the southern extremity of Cum- 
berland Island," on the 19th of July, but were I'epulscd with tho loss of two 
galleys. The whole expedition was so disastrous to the Spaniards, that the 
commander (Don Manuel de Monteano) was dismissed from the service. Ogle- 
thorpe's stratagem saved Georgia, and, perhaps, South Carolina, from utter 
ruin. 

Having fairly established his colony, Oglethorpe went to England in 1743, 
and never returned to Georgia, where, for ten years, he had nobly labored to 
secure an attractive asylum for the oppressed.^ He left the province in a tran- 
quil state. The mild military rule under which the people had lived, was 
changed to civil government in 1743, administered by a president and council, 
under the direction of the trustees," yet the colony continued to languish. 
Several causes combined to produce this condition. We have already alluded 
to the inefiiciency of most of the earlier settlers, and the prohibition of slave 
labor.' They were also deprived of the privileges of commerce and of trafiic 

' Tlie remains of Fort Frederica vet formed >i very picturesque ruin on the plantation of 
W. W. Hazzard, Esq., of St. Simon's Island, in 18D6. 

" Oglethorpe addressed the Frenchman as if he was a spy of the English. He directed tho 
deserter to represent the Georgians as in a weak condition, to advise the Spaniards to attaclc them 
immediately, and to persuade the Spaniards to remain three days longer, within which time six 
British men-of-war, and two thousand men, from Carolina, would probably enter the harbor of St. 
Augustine. 

° They first burned Fort Simon, but in tlieir haste they left several of their cannons and a 
quantity of provisions behind them. 

' Fort WilUam. There was another small fort on the northern end of the island, called Fort 
Andrew. ' Page 100. ° Page 100. ' Page 171. 



174 THE COLONIES. [1492. 

with the Indians ; and were not allowed the ownership, in fee, of the lands 
which they cultivated.' In consequence of these restrictions, there were no 
incentives to labor, except to supply daily wants. General discontent pre- 
vailed. They saw the Carolinians growing rich by the use of slaves, and by 
commerce with the West Indies. Gradually the restrictive laws were evaded. 
Slaves were brought from Carolina, and hired, first for a short period, and then 
for a hundred years, or for life. The price paid for life-service was the money 
value of the slave, and the transaction was, practically, a sale and purchase. 
Then slave-ships came to Savannah directly from Africa ; slave labor was gen- 
erally used in 1750, and Georgia became a planting State. In 1752, at the 
expiration of the twenty-one years named in the patent,'^ the trustees gladly 
resigned the charter into the hands of the king, and from that time until the 
Revolution, Georgia remained a royal province. 



CHAPTER XI. 

A EETROSPECT. [1492—1756.] 

I-J the preceding pages we have considered the principal events which 
occurred within the domain of our Republic from the time of first discoveries, 
in 1492, to the commencement of the last inter-colonial war between the En- 
j^lish and French settlers, a period of about two hundred and sixty years. 
During that time, fifteen colonies were planted," thirteen of which were com- 
menced within the space of about fifty-six years^from 1607 to 1673. By the 
union of Plymouth and Massachusetts,* and Connecticut and New Haven,' the 
number of colonies was reduced to thirteen, and these were they which went 
into the revolutionary contest in 1775. The provinces of Canada and Nova 
Scotia, conquered by the English, remained loyal, and to this day they continue 
to be portions of the British empire. 

In the establishment of the several colonies, which eventually formed the 
thirteen United States of America, several European nations contributed vig- 
orous materials ; and people of opposite habits, tastes, and religious faith, became 
commingled, after making impressions of their chstinctive characters where their 
influence was first felt. England furnished the largest proportion of colonists, 
and her children always maintained sway in the government and industry of the 
whole country ; while Scotland, Ireland, Germany, Holland, France, Sweden, 
Denmark, and the Baltic region, contributed large quotas of people and other 
colonial instrumentalities. Churchmen and Dissenters,"^ Roman Catholics and 



' PiiRo 11 G. » Pacre 100. 

' Virginia, Plymouth, Massaclmsetts Bay, New Hampshire, Connecticut, New Haven, Rhode 
Island, New Yorlr, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, North and South Carolina, and 
Georgia. ' * Page 132. ' Pago SO. ° Note 2, page 76. 



1756.] A RETROSTECT. 175 

Quakers,' came and sat down by the side of each other. For a while, the dis- 
sonance of nations and creeds prevented entire harmony ; but the freedom en- 
joyed, the perils and hardships encountered and endured, the conflicts with 
pa»an savages on one hand, and of hierarchicaP and governmental oppression 
on the other, which they maintained for generations, shoulder to shoulder, dif- 
fused a brotherhood of feeling throughout the whole social body of the colonists, 
and resulted in harmony, sympathy, and love. And when, as children of one 
fiimily, they loyally defended the integrity of Great Britain (then become the 
'■mother country" of nearly all) against the aggressions of the French and In- 
dians' [175(3 to 1763], and yet were compelled, by the unkindness of that 
mother, to sever the filial bond' [1776], their hearts beat as with one pulsation, 
and they struck the dismembering blow as with one hand. 

There was a great diversity of character exhibited by the people of the sev- 
eral colonies, differing according to their origin and the influence of climate and 
pursuits. The Virginians and their southern neighbors, enjoying a mild cli- 
mate, productive of tendencies to voluptuousness and ease, were from those 
classes of English society where a lack of rigid moral discipline allowed free 
living and its attendant vices. They generally exhibited less moral restraint, 
more hospitality, and greater frankness, and social refinement, than the people 
of New England. The latter were from among the middle classes, and in- 
cluded a great many religious enthusiasts, possessing more zeal than knowl- 
edge. They were extremely strict in their notions ; very rigid in manners, 
and jealous of strangers. Their early legislation, recognizing, as it did, the 
most minute regulations of social life, often presented food for merriment.'' 
Yet their intentions were pure ; their designs were noble ; and, in a great de- 
gree, their virtuous purposes were accomplished. They aimed to make every 
member of society a Christian, according to their own pattern ; and if they 
did not fully accomplish their object, they erected strong bulwarks against those 



' Note 6, page 122, and note 3, page 123. 

' Hierarchy is, in a general sense, a priestly or ecelesiastieal government. Such was the original 
form of government of the ancient Jews, when the priesthood held absolute rule. 

" Period IV., chapter xii., page 179. * Page 251. 

' They assumed the right to regulate the expenditures of the people, even for wearing-apparel, 
according to their several incomes. The general court of Massachusetts, on one occasion, required 
the proper officers to notice the " apparel" of the people, especially their "ribands and great boots." 
Drinking of healths, wearing funeral badges, and many other things that seemed improper, were 
forbidden. At Hartford, the general court kept a constant eye upon the morals of the people. Free- 
men were compelled to vote under penalty of a fine of sixpence ; the use of tobacco was prohibited 
to persons under twenty years of age, without the certificate of a physician ; and no others were 
allowed to use it more than once a day, and then they must be ten miles from any house. The 
people of Hartford were all obliged to rise in the morning when the watchman rang his bell. These 
arc but a few of the hundreds of similar enactments found on the records of the New England 
courts. In 1G46, the Legislature of Massachusetts passed a law, which imposed the penalty of a 
flogging upon any one who should kiss a woman in the streets. More than a hundred years after- 
ward, tills law was enforced in Boston. The captain of a British man-of-war happened to return 
from a cruise, on Sunday. His overjoyed wife met him on the wharf, and he kissed her several 
times. The magistrates ordered him to be flogged. The punishment incurred no ignominy, and he 
associated freely with the best citizens. 'When about to depart, the captain invited the magistrates 
and others on board his vessel to dine. When dinner was over, he caused all the magistrates to 
be flogged, on deck, in sight of the town. Then assuring them that he considered accounts settled 
between him and them, he dismissed them, and set sail. 



176 



THE COLONIES. 



[1192. 





little vices wliieh compose great private and public 
evils. Dwelling upon a parsimonious soil, and pos- 
sessing neither the means nor the inclination foi 
sumptuous living, indulged in by their southern breth- 
ren, their dwellings were simple, and their habit'5 
frugal. 

In New York, and portions of Pennsylvania and 
New Jersey, the manners, customs, and pursuits of 

the Dutch prevailed even a century after the English 
conquest of New Netherlands [1664], and society had become 
permeated by English ideas and customs. They were plodding 
money-getters ; abhorred change and innovation, and loved ease. 
They possessed few of the elements of progress, but many of the 
substantial social virtues necessary to the stability of a State, and 
the health of society. From these the Swedes and Finns upon the 
Delaware' did not differ much ; but the habits of the Quakers, 
who finally predominated in West Jersey^ and Pennsylvania,^ 
were quite different. They always exhibited a refined simplicitv 
and equanimity, -without ostentatious displays of piety, that won 
esteem ; and they were governed by a religious sentiment without 
fimaticism, which formed a powerful safeguard against vice and 
immorality. 

In Maryland," the earlier settlers were also less rigid moralists than the 
New Englanders, and greater formalists in religion. They wei-e more refined, 
equally industrious, but lacked the stability of character and perseverance 
in pursuits, of the people of the East. But at the close of the period we have 
been considering [175G], the peculiarities of the inhabitants of each section 
were greatly modified hj inter-migration, and a general conformity to the ne- 
cessities of their several conditions, as founders of new States in a wilderness. 
The tooth of religious bigotry and intolerance had lost its keenness and its 
poison, and when the representatives of the several colonies met in a general 
Congress' [Sept., 1774], for tlie puljlic good, they stood as brethren before one 
altar, while the eloquent Duchu laid the fervent petitions of their hearts before 
the throne of Omnipotence. ° 

The chief pursuit of the colonists was, necessarily, agriculture ; yet, during 
the time we have considered, manufactures and commerce were not wholly neg- 
lected. -Necessity compelled the people to make many things which their 
poverty would not allow them to buy ; and manual labor, especially in the New 
England provinces, was dignified from the beginning. The settlers came where 
a throne and its corrupting influences were unknown, and where tlie idleness 
and privileges of aristocracy had no abiding-place. In the magnificent forests 



' This is .1 picture of one of the oldest houses in New EiT'lnnd. and is a favorable specimen of 
the best class of frame dwellintra at that time. It is yet [1867] standing, we believe, near Medtield, 
in Massachusetts. ° Page l-l-l. '■' Page 93. ■■ Page IfiO. 

' Page IGl. " Page 81. ' Page 228. " Page 228. 



1756.] A RETROSPECT. 177 

of the New World, where a feudal lord' had never stood, thej began a life full 
of youth, vigor, and labor, such as the atmosphere of the elder governments of 
the earth could not then sustain. They were compelled to be self-reliant, and 
what they could not buy from the workshops of England for their simple ap- 
parel and furniture, and implements of culture, they rudely manufiictured," and 
were content. 

The commerce of the colonies had but a feeble infancy ; and never, until 
they were politically separated from Great Britain [1776J, could their inter- 
change of commodities be properly dignified with the name of Commerce. En- 
gland early became jealous of the independent career of the colonists in respect 
to manufactured articles, and navigation acts,^ and other unwise and unjust 
restraints upon the expanding industry of the Americans, were brought to bear 
upon them. As early as 1636, a Massachusetts vessel of thirty tons made a 
trading voyage to the West Indies; and two years later [1638J, another vessel 
went from Salem to New Providence, and returned with a cargo of salt, cotton, 
tobacco, and negroes.' This was the dawning of commerce in America. The 
eastern people also engaged quite extensively in fishing ; and all were looking 
forward to wealth from ocean traffic, as well as that of the land, when the pass- 
age of the second Navigation Act,^ in 1660, evinced the strange jealousy of 
Great Britain. From that period, the attention of Parliament was often 
directed to the trade and commerce of the colonies, and in 1719, the House of 
Commons declared "that erecting any manufactories in the colonies, tended to 
lessen their dependence upon Great Britain."' Woolen goods, paper, hemp, 
and iron were manufactured in ^Massachusetts and other parts of New England, 
as early as 1732; and almost every family made coarse cloth for domestic use. 
Heavy duties had been imposed upon colonial iron sent to England ; and the 
colonists, thus deprived of their market for pig iron, were induced to attempt 
the manufacture of steel and bar iron for their own use. It was not until 
almost a century [1750] afterward that the mother country perceived the folly 
of her policy in this respect, and admitted colonial pig iron, duty free, first into 
London, and soon afterward into the rest of the kingdom. Hats were manufac- 

^ Note 15, page 62. 

° From the beginning of colonization there were shoemakers, tailors, and blacksmiths in the sev- 
eral colonies. Chalmers says of New England in 1673: "Tliere be fine iron works which cast no 
guns ; no house in New England has above twenty rooms ; not twenty in Boston have ten rooms 
each ; a dancing-school was set up liere. but put down ; a fencing-school is allowed. There be no 
musicians by trade. All cordage, sail-cloth, and mats, come from England ; no cloth made there 
wortli four sliillings per yard ; no alum,«no copperas, no salt, made by their sun." 

^ Tlie first Navigation Act [1651] forbade all importations into England, except in English 
ships, or tliose belonging to English colonies. In 1660, this act was confirmed, and unjust additions 
were made to it. The colonies were forbidden to export tlieir chief productions to any country ex- 
cept to England or its dependencies. Similar acts, all bearing heavily upon colonial commerce, 
were made law, from time to time See note 4, page 109. 

* Tliis was the first introduction of slaves into New England. The first slaves introduced into 
the English colonies, were those landed and sold in Virginia in 1620. [See note 6, page 105.] They 
were first recognized as such, hy law, in Massachusetts, in 1641 ; in Connecticut and Rhode Island, 
about 1650; in New York, in 1656; in Maryland, in 1663 ; and in New Jersey, in 1665. There 
were but few slaves in Pennsylvania, and tho.se were chiefly in Philadelphia. There were some 
there as early as 1690. The people of Delaware held some at about the same time. The introduc- 
tion of slaves into the Carolinas was coeval with their settlement, and into Georgia about the year 
1150, when the people generally evaded the prohibitory law. Page 174. ' Note 4, page 109. 

12 



X78 THE COLONIES. [1492. 

tured and carried from one colony to the other in exchange ; and at about the 
same time, brigantines and small sloops were built in Massachusetts and Penn- 
sylvania, and exchanged with West India merchants for rum, sugar, wines, and 
silks. These movements were regarded with disfavor by the British Govern- 
ment, and unwisely considering the increase of manufactures in the colonies to 
be detrimental to English interests, greater restrictions were ordained. It was 
enacted that all manufactories of iron and steel in the colonies, should be con- 
sidered a "common nuisance," to be abated within thirty days after notice 
being given, or the owner should suffer a fine of a thousand dollars.' The ex- 
portation of hats even from one colony to another was prohibited, and no hatter 
was allowed to have more than two apprentices at one time. The importation 
of sugar, rum, and molasses was burdened with exorbitant duties ; and the Caro- 
linians were forbidden to cut down the pine-trees of their vast forests, and con- 
vert their wood into staves, and their juice into turpentine and tar, for commer- 
cial purposes." These unjust and oppressive enactments formed a part of that 
"bill of particulars" which the American colonics presented in their account 
with Great Britain, when they gave to the world their reasons for declaring 
themselves " free and independent States." 

From the beginning, education received special attention in the colonies, 
particularly in New England. Schools for the education of both white and 
Indian children were formed in Virginia as early as 1621 ; and in 1692, Wil- 
liam and Mary College was established at Willianislaurg.' Harvard College, at 
Cambridge, Massachusetts, was founded in 1637. Yale College, in Connect!- , 
cut, was established at Saybrook in 1701,* and was removed to its present loca- 
tion, in New Haven, in 1717. It was named in honor of Elihu Yale, pres- 
ident of the East India Company, and one of its most liberal benefactors. The 
college of New Jersey, at Princeton, called Nassau HaU, was incorporated in 
1738 ;' and King's (now Columbia) College, in the city of New York, was 
foudned in 1750. The college of Philadelphia was incorporated in 1760. 
The college of Rhode Island (now Brown University) was established at War- 
ren in 1764. Queen's (now Rutger's) College, in New Jersey, was founded 
in 1770 ; and Dartmouth College, at Hanover, New Hamshire, was opened in 

' A law was enacted in 1750, which prohibited tlie " erection or contrivance of any mill or other 
engine for slitting or roUinpr iron, or any plating forge to work with a tilt hammer, or any furnace 
for making steel in the colonies." Such was the condition of manufactures in the United States one 
hundred years ago. Notwithstanding we are eminently an agricultural people, the census of 1850 
shows that we have, in round numbers, $530,000,000 invested in manuiiictures. The value of 
raw material is estimated at $550,000,000. The amount paid for labor during that year, was 
$240,000,000, distributed among 1,050,000 operatives. The value of manufactured articles is esti- 
mated at more than a thousand millions of dollars! 

' For a hundred years the British government attempted to confine the commerce of the colo- 
nies to the interchange of their agricultural products for English manuiiictures only. The trade of the 
growing colonies was certainly worth securing. From 1738 to 1748, the average value of exports 
from Great Britain to the American colonies, was almost three and a quarter millions of dollars 
annually. 

' The schools previously established did not flourish, and the funds appropriated for their sup- 
port were given to the college. 

* In 1700, ten ministers of the colony met at Saybrook, and each contributed books for the 
establishment of a college. It was incorporated in 1701. See note 8, page 158. 

' It was a feeble institution at first. In 1747, Governor Belcher became its patron. 



175G.] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN "n^AR. 179 

1771. It will be seen that the colonies could boast of no less than nine col- 
leges when the War for Independence commenced — three of them under the 
supervision of Episcopalians, three under Congregationalists, one each under 
Presbyterians, the Reformed Dutch Church, and the Baptists. But the pride 
and glory of New England have ever been its common schools. Those received 
the earliest and most earnest attention. In 1G36, the Connecticut Legislature 
enacted a law which required every town that contained fifty families, to main- 
tain a good school, and every town containing one hundred householders, to 
have a grammar school.' Similar provisions for general education soon pre- 
vailed throughout New England ; and the people became remarkable for their 
intelligence. The rigid laws which discouraged all frivolous amusements, 
induced active minds, during leisure hours, to engage in reading. The sub- 
jects contained in books then in general circulation, were chiefly History and 
Theology, and of these a great many were sold. A traveler mentions the fact, 
that, as early as 1686, several booksellers in Boston had " made fortunes by 
their business.'" But newspapers, the great vehicle of general intelligence to 
the popular mind of our day, were very few and of little worth, before the era 
of the Revolution.^ 

Such, in brief and general outline, were the American people, and such their 
political and social condition, at the commencement of the last inter-colonial 
war, which we are now to consider, during which they discovered their strength, 
the importance of a continental union, and their real independence of Great 
Britain. 



CHAPTER XII. 

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN "^VAR. [1750—1763.] 

We are now to consider one of the most important episodes in the history 
of the United States, known in Europe as the Seven Years' War, and in 

' These townships were, in general, organized rehgious communities, and had many interests in 
common. 

" Previous to 1753, there had been seventy bool^sellers in Massacliusetts, two in New Hamp- 
shire, two in Connecticut, one in Rhode Island, two in New York, and seventeen in Pennsylvania. 

' The first newspaper ever printed in America was the Boston Keios Letter, printed in 1704. 
Tlie next was established in Philiulelphia, in 1719. The first in New York was in 1725 ; in Mary- 
land, in 1728 ; in South Carolina, in 1731 ; in Rhode Island, in 1732 ; in Virginia, in 173G ; in New 
Hampsliire, in 1753; in Connecticut, in 1755; in Delaware, in 1761; in North Carolina, in 1703; 
in Georgia, in 1763 ; and in New Jersey, in 1777. In 1850, there were published in the United 
States, 2,800 newspapers and magazines, having a circulation of 5,000,000 of copies. The number 
of copies printed during tliat whole year was about 423,000,000. 

* We have no exact enumeration of tlie inhabitants of the colonies; but Mr. 'Bancroft, after a 
careful examination of many official returns and private computations, estimates the numljcr of 
white people in the colonies, at the commencement of tlie French and Indian War, to have been 
about 1,165,000, distributed as follows : In New England (N. H., Mass., R. I., and Conn.), 425,000 ; 
in the middle colonics (N. Y., N. J., Penn,, Del., and Md.), 457,000 ; and in the southern colonies 
(Va., N. and S. Carolina, and Geo.), 283,000. The estimated number of slaves, 260,000, of wliom 
about 11,000 were in New England ; middle colonies, 71,000 ; and the southern colonies, 178.000. 
Of the 1,165,000 white people. Dr. Franklin estimated tliat only about 80,000 were of foreign birth, 
showing the fiict that emigration to America had almost ceased. At the licpinning of the Revolu- 
tion, in 1775, the estimated population of the thirteen colonies was 2,803,000. The documents of 
Congress, in 1775, gives the round number of 3,000,000. 



180 THE COLONIES. [1756. 

America as the Frexch AND Indian War. It may with propriety be con- 
sidered introductory to the AVar for Independence, -which resulted in the birth 
of our Republic. The first three inter-colonial wars, or the conflicts in America 
between the English and French colonies, already noticed," originated in hostil- 
ities first declared by the two governments, and commenced in Europe. The 
fourth and last, which resulted in establishing the supremacy of the English in 
America, originated here in disputes concerning territorial claims. For a hun- 
dred years, the colonies of the two nations had been gradually expanding and 
increasing in importance. The English, more than a million in number, occu- 
pied the seaboard from the Penobscot to the St. Mary, a thousand, miles in 
extent, all eastward of the great ranges of the Alleghanies, and far northward 
toward the St. Lawrence. The French, not more than a hundred thousand 
strong, made settlements along the St. Lawrence, the shores of the great lakes, 
on the Mississippi and its tributaries, and upon the borders of the Gulf of ^lex- 
ico. They early founded Detroit [1683], Kaskaskia [1684], Vincennes [1690], 
and New Orleans [1717]. The English planted agricultural colonies; the 
French were chiefly engaged in ti-affic with the Indians. This trade, and the 
operations of the Jesuit^ missionaries, who were usually the self-denying pio- 
neers of commerce in its penetration of the wilderness, gave the French great 
influence over the tribes of a vast extent of country lying in the rear of the 
English settlements.' 

France and England at that time were heirs to an ancient quarrel. Origin- 
ating far back in feudal ages, and kept alive by subsequent collisions, it burned 
vigorously in the bosoms of the respective colonists in America, where it was 
continually fed by frequent hostilities on frontier ground. They had ever 
regarded each other with extreme jealousy, for the prize before them was 
supreme rule in the New World. The trading posts and missionary stations 
of the French, in the far north-west, and in the bosom of a dark wilderness, 
several hundred miles distant from the most remote settlement on the English 
frontier, attracted very little attention, until they formed a part of more exten- 
sive operations. But when, after the capture of Louisburg,-" in 1745. the French 
adopted vigorous measures for opposing the extension of British power in Amer- 
ica : when they built strong vessels at the foot of Lake Ontario'* — made treaties 
of friendship with the Delaware" and Shawnee" tribes ; strengthened Fort Niag- 
ara ;' and erected a cordon of fortifications, more than sixty in number, between 
Montreal and New Orleans — the English were aroused to immediate and effective 
action in defense of the territorial claims given them in their ancient charters. 
By virtue of these, they claimed dominion westward to the Pacific Ocean, south 
of the latitude of the north shore of Lake Erie ; while the French claimed a title 
to all the territory watered by the Mississippi and its tributaries, under the 
more plausible plea, that they had made the first explorations and settlements 

' King William's War (page 130); Queen Anne's War (pajje 135); and King George's War (page 
136). ' Note 4, page 130. ' ChieHyofthe Algonquin nation. Page 17. 

' Page 138. 'At Fort Froutenac, now Kingston, Upper Canada. 

" Page 20. ' Page 19. " Page 200. 



1763.] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN 'R'AR. 181 

in that region.' The claims of the real owner, the Indian, were lost sight of 
in the discussion.' 

These disputes soon ended in action. The territorial question was speedily 
brought to an issue. In 1749, George the Second granted six hundred thou- 
sand acres of land, on the south-east bank of the Ohio River, to a company 
composed of London merchants and Virginia land speculators, with the exclusive 
privilege of traflBc with the Indians. It was called The Ohio Cotnpamj. 
Surveyors were soon sent to explore, and make boundaries, and prepare for 
settlements; and English traders went even as far as the country of the 
Miamies' to traffic with the natives. The French regarded them as intruders, 
and, in 1753, seized and imprisoned some of them. Apprehending the loss of 
traffic; and influence among the Indians, and the ultimate destruction of their 
line of communication between Canada and Louisiana, the French commenced 
the erection of forts between the Alleghany River and Lake Erie, near the 
present western line of Pennsylvania.' The Ohio Coz/^/ja^y complained of 
these hostile movements ; and as their grant lay within the chaitered limits of 
Virginia, the authorities of that colony considered it their duty to interfere. 
Robert Dinwiddle, the lieutenant-governor, sent a letter of remonstrance to j\I. 
De St. Pierre, the French commander.' George AVashington was chosen to be 
the bearer of the dispatch. He was a young man, less than twenty-two years 
of age, but possessed much experience of forest life. He already held the com- 
mission of adjutant-general of one of the four militia districts of Virginia. 
From early youth he had been engaged in land surveying, had become accus- 
tomed to the dangers and hardships of the w'ildcrness, and was acquainted with 
the character of the Indians, and of the country he was called upon to traverse. 

Young Washington, as events proved, was precisely the instrument needed 
for such a service. His mission involved much personal peril and hardship. 
It required the courage of the soldier, and the sagacity of the statesman, to 
perform the duty properly. The savage tribes through which he had to pass, 
were hostile to the English, and the French ho was sent to meet were national 
enemies, wily and suspicious. With only two or three attendants," Washington 
started from Williamsburg late in autumn [Oct. 31, 1753], and after journey- 
ing full four hundred miles (more than half the distance through a dark wilder- 
ness), encountering almost incredible hardships, amid snow, and icy floods, and 
hostile Indians, he reached the French outpost at Venango on the 4th of De- 

' Page 180. 

" "When the agent of the Ohio Company went into the Indian country, on the borders of the 
Ohio River, a messenger was sent by two Indian sachems, to make the significant inquiry, "Where 
is the Indian's land? The Enghsh claim it all on one side of the river, the French on the other; 
where does the Indian's land lay?" ' Page 19. 

* Twelve hundred men erected a fort on the south shore of Lake Erie, at Presque Isle, now 
Erie ; soon afterward, another was built at Le BoeuE on the Venango (French Creek), now the Ul- 
lage of Waterford; and a third was erected at Venango, at the junction of French Creek and the 
Alleghany River, now the village of Franklin. 

' Already the governors of Virginia and Pennsylvania had received orders from the imperial 
government, to repel the French by force, whenever they were "found within the undoubted limits 
of tlieir province." 

' He was afterward joined by two others at Wills' Creek (now Cumberland), in Maryland. 



1S2 THE COLONIES. [1756. 

cembei'. He Mas, politely received, and his visit was made the occasion of great 
conviviality by the oiBcers of the garrison. The free use of wine made the 
Frenchmen incautious, and they revealed to the sober Washington their hostile 
designs against the English, which the latter had suspected. He perceived the 
necessity of dispatching business, and returning to Williamsburg, as speedily 
as possible ; so, after tarrying a day at Venango, he pushed forward to the 
head-quarters of St. Pierre, at Le Boeuf. That officer entertained him politely 
during four days, and then gave him a written answer to Dinwiddle's remon- 
strance, enveloped and sealed. Washington retraced his perilous pathway 
through the wilderness, and after an absence of eleven weeks, he again stood in 
the presence of Governor Dinwiddle, on the 16th of January, 1754, his mission 
fulfilled to the satisfaction of all. His judgment, sagacity, courage, and e.xecu- 
tive force — equalities which eminently fitted him for the more important duties 
as chief of the Revolutionary armies, more than twenty years afterward [1775] 
— were nobly developed in the performance of his mission. They were publicly 
acknowledged, and were never forgotten. 

Already the Virginians were restive under royal rule, and at that time 
were complaining seriously of an obnoxious fee allowed by the Board of Trade, 
in the issue of patents for lands. The House of Burgesses refused, at first, to 
pay any attention to Dinwiddle's complaints against the French ; but at length 
they voted fifty thousand dollars for the support of troops which had been 
enlisted to march into the Ohio country. The revelations Inade to AVashington, 
and the tenor of St. Pierre's reply, confirmed the suspicions of Dinwiddle, and 
showed the wisdom of the legislative co-operation. St. Pierre said he was acting 
in obedience to the orders of his superior, the Marquis Du Quesne,' at Montreal, 
and refused to withdraw his troops from the disputed territory. Dinwiddie 
immediately prepared an expedition against the French, and solicited the co-op- 
eration of the other' colonies. It was the first call for a general colonial union 
against a common enemy. All hesitated except North Carolina. The legisla- 
ture of that colony promptly voted four hundred men, and they were soon on 
the march for Winchester, in Virginia. They eventually proved of little use, 
for becoming doubtful as to their pay, a greater part of them had disbanded 
before reaching Winchester. Some volunteers from South Carolina and New 
York, also hastened toward the seat of future war. The Virginians responded 
to the call, and a regiment of six hundred men was soon organized, with Colonel 
Joshua Fry as its conmiander, and Major Washington as his lieutenant. The 
troops rendezvoused at Alexandria, and from that city, Washington, at the head 
of the advanced corps, marched [April 2, 1754| toward the Ohio. 

Private and public interest went hand in hand. AVhile these military prep- 
arations were in progress, the Ohio Company had sent thirty men to construct 
a fort at the confluence of the Alleghany and Monongahela Rivers, now the site of 
Pittsburg. They had just commenced operations [April 18], when a party of 
French and Indians, under Contrecoeur, attacked and expelled them, completed 

' Pronounced Du Eane. 



1763.] THE FEENCH AND INDIAN "^VAR. 183 

the fortification, and named it Du Quesne, in honor of the governor-general of 
Canada." When intelligence of this event reached Washington on his march, 
he hastened forward with one hundred and fifty men, to a point on the Monon- 
gahela, less than forty miles from Fort Du Quesne. There he was informed 
that a strong force was marching to intercept him, and he cautiously fled back 
to the Great Meadows, where he erected a stockade," and called it Fort Neces- 
sity.' Before completing it, a few of his troops attacked an advanced party of 
the French, under Jumonville. They were surprised at the dead of night 
[May 28], and the commander and nine of his men were slain. Of the fifty 
who formed the French detachment, only about fifteen escaped. This was the 
first blood-shedding of that long and eventful conflict known as the French and 
Indian War. Two days afterward [May 30], Colonel Fry died, and the 
whole command devolved on Washington. Troops hastened forward to join the 
young leader at Fort Necessity, and with about four hundred men, he proceeded 
toward Fort Du Quesne. M. de Villiers, brother of the slain Jumonville, had 
marched at about the same time, at the head of more than a thousand Lidians 
and some Frenchmen, to avenge the death of his kinsman. Advised of his 
approach, Washington fell back to Fort Necessity, and there, on the 3d of July, 
he was attacked by almost fifteen hundred foes. After a conflict of about ten 
hours, de Villiers proposed an honorable capitulation.' Washington signed it 
on the morning of the 4th, and marching out of the stockade with the honors 
of war, departed, with his troops, for Virginia. 

It was during this military campaign, that a civil movement of gi'eat import- 
ance was in progress. The Ejiglish and French governments had listened to 
the disputes in America with interest. At length the British ministry, per- 
ceiving war to be inevitable, advised the colonies to secure the continued 
friendship of the Six Nations,^ and to unite in a plan for general defense. 
All the colonies were invited to appoint delegates to meet in convention at 
Albany, in the summer of 1754. Only seven responded by sending delegates.' 
The convention was organized on the 19th of June.' Having renewed a treaty 
with the Indians, the subject of colonial union was brought forward. A plan 
of confederation, similar to our Federal Constitution, drawn up by Dr. Franklin, 
was submitted.' It was adopted on the 4th of July, 1754, and was ordered to 
be laid before the several colonial Assemblies, and the imperial Board of Trade," 

' Page 182. 

^ Stockade is a general name of strueturcs for defense, formed by driving strong posts in tlie 
ground, so as to make a safe inclosure. It is tlie same as a palisade. See picture on page 127. 

" Near tlie national road from Cumberland to Wlieeling, in the soutii-eastern part of Fayette 
county, Pennsylvania. Tlie Great Meadows are on a fertile bottom about four miles from tlie foot 
of Laurel Hill, and fifty from Cumberland. 

' A mutual restoration of prisoners was to take place, and the English were not to erect any 
establishment beyond the mountains, for the space of a year. The English troops were to march, 
unmolested, back to Virginia. ' Page 25. 

" New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Tork, Pennsylvania, and 
Maryland. 

' James Delancy, of New Tork was elected president. There were twenty-five delegates in all. 

' Franklin was a delegate from Pennsylvania, The idea of union was not a new one. William 
Penn suggested the advantage of a union of all the English colonies as early as 1700; and Coxe, 
Speaker of the New Jersey Assembly, advocated it in 1722. Now it first found tangible expression 
under the sanction of authority. " Note 5, page 134. 



184 THE COLONIES. [1756. 

for ratification.' Its fate was singular. The Assemblies considering it too 
aristocratic — giving the royal governor too much power — refused their assent ; 
and the Board of Trade rejected it because it was too democratic.'' Although 
a legal union was not consummated, the grand idea of political fraternization 
then began to bud. It blossomed in the midst of the heat of the Stamp Act 
excitement eleven years later [1765], and its fruit appeared in the memorable 
Congress of 1774. 

The convention at Albany had just closed its labors, when the Indians com- 
menced murderous depredations upon the New England frontiers [August and 
September, 1754] ; and among the tribes west of the Alleghanies, French emis- 
saries were busy arousing them to engage in a war of extermination against the 
English. Even in full view of these menaces, some of the colonies were tardy 
in preparations to avert the evil. Shirley was putting forth energetic efforts in 
Massachusetts ; New York voted twenty-five thousand dollars for military serv- 
ice, and Maryland thirty thousand dollars for the same. The Enghsh govern- 
ment sent over fifty thousand dollars for the use of the colonists, and with it a 
commission to Governor Sharpe of Maryland, appointing him commander-in- 
chief of all the colonial forces. Disputes about military rank and precedence 
soon ran high between the Virginia regimental officers, and the captains of 
independent companies. To silence these, Dinwiddie unwisely dispensed with 
all field officers, and broke the Virginia regiments into separate companies. This 
arrangement displeased Washington ; he resigned his commission, and the year 
1754 drew to a close without any efficient preparations for a conflict with the 
French.' 

CAMPAIGN OF ItSS. 

Yet war had not been declared by the two nations ; and for more than a 
year and a half longer the colonies were in conflict, before England and France 
formally announced hostility to each other. In the mean while the British 
government, perceiving that a contest, more severe than had yet been seen, 
must soon take place in America, extended its aid to its colonies. Edward 
Braddock, an Irish ofiicer of distinction, arrived in Chesapeake Bay, with two 
regiments of his countrymen, on the 20th of February, 1755. He had been 

' It proposed a general government to be administered by one chief magistrate, to be appointed 
by tlie crown, and a council of forty-eiglit members, cliosen by tlie several legislatures. Tliis coun- 
cil, answering to our Senate, was to have power to declare war, levy troops, raise money, regulate 
trade, conclude peace, and many other things necessary for the generSl good. The delegates from 
Connecticut alone, objected to the plan, because it gave the governor-general veto power, or the 
right to refuse his signature to laws ordained by the Senate, and thus prevent them becoming stat- 
utes. 

'' The Board of Trade had proposed a plan which contained all the elements of a system for the 
utter enslavement and dependence of tlie Americans. They proposed a general government, composed 
of the governors of the several colonies, and certain select members of the several councils. These 
were to have power to draw on the British Treasury for money to carry on the inipendmg war : the 
sura to be reimbursed by taxes imposed upon the colonists by Parliament. The colonists preferred 
to do their own fighting, and levy their own taxes, independent of Great Britain. 

'■' According to a return made to the Board of Trade at about this time, the population of the colo- 
nies amounted to one million four hundred and eighty-five thousand, sLx hundred and tlurty-four. 
Of these, two hundred and ninety-two thousand seven hundred and thirty-eight were negroes. 



1763.] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN "WAR. 185 

appointed commander-in-chief of all the British and provincial forces in Amer- 
ica ; and at his request, six colonial governors' met in convention at Alexandria, 
in April following, to assist in making arrangements for a vigorous campaign. 
Three separate expeditions were planned ; one against Fort du Quesno, to be 
led by Braddock ; a second against Niagara and Frontenac (Kingston), to be 
commanded by Governor Shirley ; and a third against Crown Point, on Lako 
Ohamplain, under General William Johnson,^ then an influential resident among 
the Mohawk nation of the Iroquois confederacy.' Already a fourth expedition 
had been arranged by Shirley and Governor Lawrence of Nova Scotia, designed 
to drive the French out of that province, and other portions of ancient Acadie.* 
These extensive arrangements, sanctioned by the imperial government, awakened 
the most zealous patriotism of all the colonists, and the legislatures of the sev- 
eral provinces, except Pennsylvania and Georgia, voted men and supplies for 
the impending war. The Quaker Assembly of Pennsylvania was opposed to 
military movements ; the people of Georgia were too poor to contribute. 

There was much enthusiasm in New England, and the eastern expedition 
first proceeded to action. Three thousand men, under General John Winslow,' 
sailed from Boston on the 20th of May, 1755, and landed at the head of the 
Bay of Fundy. There they were joined by Colonel Monckton with three hun- 
dred British regulars" from the neighboring garrison, and that oiBcer, having 
official precedence of Winslow, took the command. They captured the forts in 
possession of the French there, in June, without difficulty, and placed the whole 
region under martial rule.' This was the legitimate result of war. But the 
cruel sequel deserves universal reprobation. The total destruction of the French 
settlements was decided upon. Under the plea that the Acadians would aid 
their French brethren in Canada, the innocent and happy people were seized in 
their houses, fields, and churches, and conveyed on board the English vessels. 
Families were broken, never to be united ; and to compel the surrender of those 
who fled to the woods, their starvation was insured by a total destruction of 
their growing crops. The Acadians were stripped of every thing, and those 
who were carried away, were scattered among the English colonies, helpless 
beggars, to die heart-broken in a strange land. In one short month, their 
paradise had become a desolation, and a happy people were crushed into the dust. 

The western expedition, under Braddock, was long delayed on account of 
difficulties in obtaining provisions and wagons. The patience of the commander 
was sorely tried, and in moments of petulanco he used expressions against the 
colonists, which they long remembered with bitterness. He finally commenced 
his march from Will's Creek (Cumberland) on the 10th of June, 1755, with 
about two thousand men, British and provincials. Anxious to reach Fort du 

' Shirley, of Massachusetts; Dinwiddie, of Virginia; Delancey, of Kew York; Sharpe, of Mary- 
land; Morris, of Pennsylvania; and Dobbs. of North Carolina. Admiral Keppcl, commander of the 
Britisli fleet, was also present. ' P.age 190. ' Page 25. ' Page 58. 

' He was a great grandson of Edward Winslow, the third governor of Plymouth. He was a 

major-general in the Massachusetts militia, but on this occasion held tlie office of lieutenant-colonel. 

This term is used to denote soldiers who are attached to the regular army, and as distinguished 

from volunteers and militia. The latter term applies to the great body of citizens who are liable to 

do perpetual military duty only in time of war. ' Note 8, page 170. 



186 



THE COLONIES. 



[1756. 




FORT VV QUESNE. 



Quesnc before the garrison should receive re-inforcements, ho made forced 
marches ^ith twelve hundred men, leaving Colonel Dunbar, 
bis second in command, to follow with the remainder, and 
the wagons. Colonel Washington' had consented to act as 
Braddock's aid, and to him was given the command of the 
provincials. Knowing, far better than Braddock, the perils 
of their march and the kind of warfare they might expect, he 
ventured, modestly, to give advice, founded upon his experi- 
ence. But the haughty general would listen to no suggestions, 
especially from a provincial subordinate. This obstinacy resulted in bis ruin. 
When within ten miles of Fort du Quesne, and while marching at noon-day, on 
the 9th of July, in foncied security, on the south side of the Jlonongabela, a 
volley of bullets and a cloud of arrows assailed the advanced guard, under 
Lieutenant-Colonel Gage." They came from a thicket and ravine close by, 
where a thousand dusky warriors lay in ambush. Again Washington asked 
permission to fight according to the provincial custom, but was refused. 
Braddock must maneuver according to European tactics, or not at all. For 
three hours, deadly volley after volley fell upon the British columns, while 
Braddock attempted to maintain order, where all was confusion. The slain 
soon covered the ground. Every mounted officer but Washington was killed or 
maimed, and finally, the really brave Braddock himself, after having several 
horses shot under him, was mortally wounded.' 'Washington remained unhurt.^ 
Under his direction the provincials rallied, while the regulars, seeing their gen- 
eral fall, were fleeing in gi'eat confusion. The provincials covered their retreat 
so gallantly, that the enemy did not follow. A week after- 
ward, Washington read the impressive funeral service of the 
Anglican Church.' over the corpse of Braddock, by torch- 
light [July 15. 1T55J ; and he was buried, where his grave 
mar now [186 7J be seen, near the National road, between the 
fifty-third and fifty-fourth mile from Cumberland, in Mary- 
land. Colonel Dunbar received the flying troops, and marched 
to Philadelphia in August, with the broken companies. Wash- 
in<^ton, with the southern provincials, went back to Virginia. 
Thus ended the second expedition of the campaign of 1755. 

' Pn"o 181. " Afterwuid GKntral Gage, commander-m-chicf of the British troops at 

Boston, at the begipniug of the Revolution. Page 22r.. 

' Braddock was shot by Thomas F.iucctt, one of the provincial soldiers. His plea was self- 
preservation. Braddock had issued a po-'itive order, that none of the English should protect them- 
selves behind trees, as the French and Indians did. Faucett's brother had taken such position, and 
when Bi-addock perceived it, he struck hira to the earth with his sword. Thomas, on seeing his 
brother fall, shot Braddock in the back, and then the provincials, fighting as they pleased, were 
saved from utter destruction. 

' I>r. Oraik. who was with 'Washington at this time, and also attended him in his last iUness, 
says, that while in the Ohio country with him, fifteen ye.ars afterw.ird, an old Indian chief came, as 
he said. ■' a long wiiy" to see the Virginia colonel at whom he fired his rifle fifteen times during the 
battle on the Monongahelii, without iiitting him. Wa.slungton was never wounded in battle. On 
this occasion he h.ad two horses shot under him. and four bullets p.assed through his coat. 'Writing 
of this to his brother, he remarked, •' By the all-powerfiil dispensations of Providence, I have been 
protectoil beyond all human probability or expectation, * * * although death was leveling my 
companions on every side." ' Xote 1, page 1G8. See pictiu^ on page 187. 




GES. BRADDOCK. 






n> 




Bl'kku, of Braduock. 



1763.] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 189 

The third expedition, under Governor Shirley, designed to operate against 
the French posts at Niagara and Frontenac, experienced less disasters, but was 
quite as unsuccessful. It was late in August before Shirley had collected the 
main body of his troops at Oswego, from whence he intended to go to Niagai'a 
by water. His force was twenty-five hundred strong on the 1st of September, 
yet circumstances compelled him to hesitate. The prevalence of storms, and 
of sickness in his camp, and, finally, the desertion of the greater part of his 
Indian allies,' made it perilous to proceed, and he relinquished the design. 
Leaving sufiicient men to garrison the forts which he had commenced at 
Oswego,' he marched the remainder to Albany [Oct. 24], and returned to 
Massachusetts. 

The fourth expedition, under General Johnson, prepared for attacking 
Crown Point, ' accomplished more than that of Braddock' or Shirley, but failed 
to achieve its main object. In July [1755], about six thousand troops, 
drawn from New England, New York, and New Jersey, had assembled at the 
head of boat navigation on the Hudson (now the village of Fort Edward), fifty 
miles north of Albany. They were under the command of General Lyman,^ 
of Connecticut ; and before the arrival of General Johnson, in August, with 
cannons and stores, they had erected a strong fortification, which was afterward 
called Fort Edward.^ On his arrival, Johnson took command, and with the 
main body of the troops, marched to the head of Lake Geoi-ge, about fifteen 
miles distant, where he established a camp, protected on both sides by an im- 
passable swamp. 

While the provincial troops were making these preparations. General the 
Baron Dieskau (a French officer of much repute), with about two thousand 
men, chiefly Canadian militia and Indians, was approaching from Montreal, 
by way of Lake Champlain, to meet the English.' When Johnson arrived at 
Lake George, on the 7th of September, Indian scouts informed him that Dies- 
kau was disembarking at the head of Lake Champlain (now the village of 

■ Tribes of the Six Nations [page 25], and gome Stookbridge Indians. The latter were called 
Housatonics, from the river on which they were found. They were a division of the Mohegan 
[page 21] tribe. 

■ Fort Ontario on the east, and Fort Pepperell on the west of Oswego River. Fort Pepperell 
was afterward called Fort Oswego. See map, page 192. Tlio house was built of stone, and the 
walls were three feet thick. It was within a square inelosure composed of a thick waU, and two 
strong square towers. 

' Upon this tongue of land on Lake Champlain, the French erected a fortification, which they 
called Fort St. Frederick. On the Vermont side of tlie lake, opposite, there was a French settle- 
ment as early as 1731. In allusion to the chiranies of their houses, which remained long after the 
settlement was destroyed, it is still known as Chmincy Point. 

' Page 185. 

' Born in Durham, Connecticut, m the year 17 IG. He was a graduate of Tale College, and be- 
came a lawyer. He was a member of the colonial Assembly in 1750, and performed important 
services during the whole war that soon afterward ensued. He commanded the expedition that 
captured Havana in 1762; and at the peace, In 1763, he became concerned in lands in the Missis- 
sippi region. He died in Florida in 1775. 

" It was first called Fort Lyman. Johnson, meanly jealous of General Lyman, changed the 
name to Fort Edward. 

' Dieskau and his French troops, on their way from France, narrowly escaped capture by Ad- 
miral Boscawen, who was cruising, with an English fleet, off Newfoundland. They eluded his fleet 
during a fog, and went in safety up the St. Lawrence. 



190 



THE COLONIES. 



[1756. 




FORT EDWARD. 



Whitehall), preparatory to inarching against Fort Edward. The next scouts 
brought Johnson the intelligence that Dieskau's Indians, 
terrified by the English cannons when they approached 
Fort Edward, had induced him to change his plans, and 
that he was inarching to attack his camp. Colonel 
Ephraim Williams, of Deerfield, Massachusetts, was imme- 
diately sent [Sept. 8], with a thousand troops from that 
colony, and two hundred Mohawks,' under the famous chief, 
Hendrick, to intercept the enemy. They met in a narrow 
defile, four miles from Lake George. The English sud- 
denly fell into an ambuscade. Williams and Hendrick 
were both killed,' and their followers fell back in great con- 
fusion, upon Johnson's camp, hotly pursued by the victors. One of the Mas- 
sachusetts regiments, which fought bravely in this action, was commanded by 
Timothy Ruggles, who was president of the Stamp Act Congress,* held at New 
York in 1765, but who, when the Revolution broke out, was active on the side 
of the Crown. 

The commander-in-chief was assured of the disaster before the flying fugi- 
tives made their appearance. He immediately cast up a breastwork of logs and 
limbs, placed upon it two cannons which he had received from Fort Edward 
two days before, and when the. enemy came rushing on, 
close upon the heels of the English, he was prepared to 
receive them. The fugitives had just reached Johnson's 
camp when Dieskau and his flushed victors appeared. 
Unsuspicious of heavy guns upon so rude a pile as John- 
son's battery exhibited, they rushed forward, with sword, 
pike, and tomahawk, and made a spirited attack. One 
volley from the English cannons made the Indians flee in 
terror to the shelter of the deep forests aro.und. The Ca- 
nadian militia also fled, as General Lyman and a body of 
troops approached from Fort Edward ; and, finally, the French troops, after 
continuing the conflict several hours, and losing their commander,' withdrew, 
and hastened to Crown Point. Their baggage was captured by some New 
Hampshire troops from Fort Edward, and the defeat was complete. 

General Johnson erected a fortification on the site of his camp, at the head 
of the lake, and called it Fort William Henry. It was constructed under the 
direction of Richard Gridley, who commanded the artillery in the siege of 
Louisburg, ten years before.' Being informed that the French were strength- 




SIR WILLIAM JOHNSON. 



' Papre 23. 

' While on Iiig way north, 'U'illiams stopped at Albany, made his will and lieqiicathed certain 
property to found a free school for western Massaoliusctts. Tliat was tlie foimdation of " WiUiams' 
College" — his best monument. The rock near which his body was found, on the right side of the 
road from Glenn's Falls to Lake George, still bears his name ; and a collection of water on the bat- 
tle-ground, is called Bloody Pond. ' Page 215. 

' Dieskau was found mortally wounded, carried into the English camp, and there tenderly 
treated. He was afterward conveyed to New York, from whence be sailed to England, where he 
died. ' Not3 1, page 137. 



17G3.] 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN TVAR. 



191 



ening their works at Crown Point, and were fortifying Ticoncleroga,' he thought 

it prudent to cease ofiFensive operations. He garrisoned Fort Edward and Fort 

William Henry, returned to Albany, and as the season was 

advanced [October, 1755], he dispersed the remainder of his 

troops. For his services in this campaign, the king conferred 

the honor of knighthood upon him, and gave him twenty-five 

thousand dollars with which to support the dignity. This 

honor and emolument properly belonged to General Lyman, 

the real hero of the campaign.'' Johnson had Sir Peter Warren 

and other friends at court, and so won the unmerited prize. 




FORT WILLIAM 
UENKY. 



GAilPAIGN OP 1151 



The home governments now took up the quarrel. The campaign of 1755, 
having assumed all the essential features of regular war, and there appearing 
no prospect of reconciliation of the belligerents, England formally proclaimed 
hostilities against France, on the 17th of Maj, 1756, and the latter soon after- 



j't:^. 




ABERCROMBIE. 



ward [June 9] reciprocrated the action. Governor 
Shirley, who had become commander-in chief, after the 
death of Braddock, was superseded by General Aber- 
crombie' in the spring of 1756. He came as the lieu- 
tenant of Lord Loudon, whom the king had appointed 
to the chief command in America, and also governor of 
Virginia. Loudon was an indolent man, and a remark- 
able procrastinater, and the active general-in-chief was 
Abercrombie, who, also, was not remarkable for his 
skill and forethought as a commander. He arrived 
with several British regiments early in June. The 
plan of the campaign for that year had already been arranged by a convention 
of colonial governors held at Albany early in the season. Ten thousand men 
were to attack Crown Point ;^ six thousand were to proceed against Niao-ara;' 
three thousand against Fort du Quesne f and two thousand were to cross the 
country from the Kennebec, to attack the French settlements on the Chaudiere 
River. 

The command of the expedition against Crown Point was intrusted to Gen- 
eral Winslow,' who had collected seven thousand 'men at Albany, when Aber- 

' Page 196. 

" Lyman urged Johnson to pursue the French, and assail Crown Point. The Mohawks burned 
for an opportunity to avenge the death of Hendrick. But JohnSon preferred ease and safety, and 
spent tlie autumn iu constructing Fort William Henry. He meanly witliheld all praise from Ly- 
man, in his dispatches to government. Johnson was bom in Ireland, iu 1714. He came to Amer- 
ica to take charge of the lands of his uncle, Admiral Warren [page 137], on the Mohawk River, 
and gained great influence over the Indians of New York. He died at his scat (now the village 
of Johnstown) in the Mohawk valley, in 1774. 

' A strong party in England, irritated liy the failures of the campaign of 1755, cast the blame 
of Braddoek's defeat and other disasters, upon the Americans, and finally procured the recall of 
Shirley. He completely vindicated hia character, and was afterward appointed governor of the 
Bahama Islands. ' Page 200. ' Page 200. ° Page 186. ' Page 185, 



192 



THE COLONIES. 



[1756. 



crombie arrived. Difficulties immediately occurred, respecting military rank, 
and caused delay. They were not adjusted -when the tardy Loudon arrived, at 
midsummer ; and his arrogant assumption of superior rank for the royal officers, 
increased the irritation and discontent of the provincial troops. When these 
matters were finally adjusted, in August, the. French had gained such positive 
advantages, that the whole plan of the campaign was disconcerted. 

Baron Dieskau' was succeeded by the Marquis de Montcalm, in the com- 
mand of the French troops in Canada. Perceiving the delay of the English, 
and knowing that a large number of their troops was at Albany, short of pro- 
visions, and suffering from small-pox, and counting wisely upon the inefficiency 
of their commander-in-chief, he collected about five thousand Frenchmen, Ca- 
nadians, and Indians, at Frontenac,^ and crossing Lake Ontario, landed, with 
thirty pieces of cannon, a few miles east of Oswego. Two days afterward, he 
appeared before Fort Ontario [Aug. 11, 1756], on the east side of the river, 
then in command of Colonel Mercer. After a short but brave resistance, the 
garrison abandoned the fort [Aug. 12], and withdrew to an older fortification, 
on the west side of the river.^ Their commander was killed, and they were 
soon obliged to surrender themselves [Aug. 14] prisoners 
of war. The spoils of victory for INIontcalm, were four- 
teen hundred prisoners, a large amount of military stores, 
consisting of small arms, ammunition, and provisions ; one 
hundred and thirty-four pieces of cannon, and several ves- 
sels, large and small, in the harbor. After securing them, 
he demolished the forts, ^ and returned to Canada. The 
whole country of the Six N.\Tioxs was now laid open to 
the incursions of the French. 
The loss of Oswego was a severe blow to the English. When intelligence 
of that event reached Loudon, he recalled the troops then on their way toward 
Lake Champlain ; and all the other expeditions were abandoned. Forts Wil- 
liam Henry^ and Edward" were strengthened ; fifteen hundred volunteers and 
drafted militia, under Washington, were placed in stockades' for the defense of 
the Pennsylvania and Virginia frontiers ; ami on the western borders of the 
Carolinas several military posts were established as a protection against the 







USWECOl^l 


%«,/""""" 



FORTS AT OSWEGO. 



' Pasre 189. ' Note 5, page ISO. 

' ^ palisaded bloek-hou.se, built by order of Governor Burnet in 
1727, near the spot where Fort Pepperell was erected. A redoubt 
or block-house is a fortified buildinp:, of peculiar construction, well cal- 
culated for defense. They were generally built of logs, in the form 
represented in the engraving. They were usually two stories, with 
narrow openings through which to fire muskets from within. They 
were sometimes prepared with openings for cannons. 

' This was to please the Six Nations, who had never felt con- 
tented with this supporter of power in their midst. The demolition 
of these forts, induced the Indians to assume an attitude of neutrality, 
by a solemn treaty. 

' Page 191. It commanded a view of the lake from its head to 
the Narrows, fifteen miles. 
° P.age 190. The Hudson is divided at Port Edward, into two channels, by Roger's Island, 
upon wiTicli the provincial troops out of the fort, usually encamped. ' Note 2, page 183. 




BLOCK HOUSE. 



1763.] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN "WAR. 193 

Cherokees' and Creeks,^ whom French emissaries were exciting to hostilities 
acaiust the English. Hitherto, since the commencement of hostilities, some of 
the colonial Assemblies had been slow to make appropriations for the support 
of the war. Pennsylvania and South Carolina, actuated by different motives, 
had held back, but now the former made an appropriation of thirty thousand 
pounds, to be issued in paper, and the latter granted four thousand pounds 
toward enlisting two companies for the public service. 

The most important achievement of the provincials during that year, was 
the chastisement of the Indians at Kittaning, their chief town, situated on the 
Alleghany River. During several months they had spread terror and desola- 
tion along the western frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia, and almost a 
thousand white people had lieen murdered or carried into captivity. These acts 
aroused the people of Pennsylvania, and Dr. Franklin undertook the military 
command of the frontier, with the rank of colonel. His troops were voluntary 
militia. ' Under his directions, a chain of forts and blockhouses was erected 
along the base of the Kittaning mountains, from the Delaware to the Maryland 
line. Franklin soon perceived that he was not in his right place, and he 
abandoned military life forever. The Indians continuing their depredations, 
Colonel John Armstrong of Pennsylvania," accompanied by Captain Mercer* of 
Virginia, with about three hundred men, attacked them on the night of the 8th 
of September [1756], killed their principal chiefs, destroyed their town, and 
completely humbled them. Thus ended the campaign of 1756. The French 
still held in possession almost all of the territory in dispute, and of the most 
important of their military posts. They had also expelled the English from 
Oswego and Lake George, and had compelled the powerful Six Nations to 
make a treaty of neutrality. On the whole, the campaign of 1756 closed with 
advantages on the part of the French. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1757. 

A military council was held at Boston on the 19th of January, 1757, when 
Lord Loudon proposed to confine the operations of that year to an expedition 
against Louisburg, ' and to the defense of the frontiers. Because he was com- 
mander-in-chief, wiser and better men acquiesced in his plans, but deplored his 
want of judgment and executive force. The people of New England, in par- 
ticular, were greatly disappointed when they ascertained that the execution of 
their favorite scheme of driving the French from Lake Champlain was to bo 
deferred. However, the general ardor of the colonists was not abated, and the 
call for troops was so promptly responded to, that Loudon found himself at the 
head of six thousand provincials on the first of June. The capture of Louis- 
burg was Loudon's first care. He sailed from New York on the 20th of that 
month, and on arriving at Halifax ten days afterward [June 30], he was joined 

' Page 27. ' Page 30. 

He was a general ia the war for Independence, twenty years later. See note 1, page 249. 
' Page 2G9. " Pajfe 137. 

13 



194 



THE COLONIES. 



[1756. 



by Admiral Ilolbornc, ■with a powerful naval armament and five thousand land 
troop.s, from England. They were about to proceed to Cape Breton.' when 
they were informed that si.K thousand troops were in the fortress at Louisburg,'' 
and that a French fleet, larger tlian Ilolborne's, was lying in that harbor. 
The latter had arrived and taken position while Loudon was moving slowly, 
with his characteristic indecision. The enterprise was abandoned, and Loudon 
returned to New York [Aug. SI], to hear of defeat and disgrace on the north- 
ern frontier, the result of his ignorance and utter unskillfulness. 

Montcalm had again borne away important trophies of victory. Toward 
the close of July, he left Ticonderoga with about nine thousand men (of whom 
two thousand were Indians), and proceeded to besiege Fort William Henry, at 
the head of Lake George." The garrison of three thousand men was commanded 
by Colonel Monro, a brave English officer, who felt strengthened in his position 
by the close pro.ximity of his chief, General Webb, who was at the head of four 
thousand troops at Fort Edward,' only fifteen miles distant. But his confidence 
in his commanding general was sadly misplaced. When Montcalm demanded a 
surrender of the fort and garrison [August 3, 1757], Monro boldly refused, and 
sent an express to General Webb, for aid. It was not furnished. For si.x days 
Montcalm continued the siege, and expresses were sent daily to AVebb for rein- 
forcements, but in vain. Even when General Johnson," with a corps of 
provincials and Putnam's Rangers, ° had, on reluctant permission, marched 
several miles in the direction of the beleaguered fort, Webb 
recalled them, and sent a letter to Monro, advising him to 
surrender. That letter was intercepted by Montcalm,' and 
with a peremptory demand for capitulation, he sent it to 
Monro. Perceiving further resistance to be useless, Monro 
yielded. Montcalm was so pleased with the bravery dis- 
played by the garrison, that he agreed upon very honorable 
terms of surrender, and promised the troops a safe escort to 
Fort Edward. His Indians, expecting blood and booty, 
were enraged by the merciful terms, and at the moment 
when the English entered the forests a mile from Fort Wil- 
liam Henry, the savages fell upon them with great fury, 
slaughtered a largo number, plundered their baggage, and 
pursued them to within cannon shot of Fort Edward. 
Montcalm declared his inability to restrain the Indians, and 
expressed his deep sorrow. The fort and all its appendages were burned 
or otherwise destroyed.' It was never rebuilt ; and until 1854, nothing marked 

' Note 5, page 137. ' Page 137. ' Page 191. * Page 190. ' Page 190. 

° Israel Putnam, afterward a major-general in tlie army of tlio Revolution. He now held the 
commission of major, and witli M.njor Rogers and his rangers, performed important services during 
tlie wliole Frenclrand Indian War. 

' It is said that Montealm was just on the point nf raising the siege and returning to Ticon- 
deroga, when Webb's cowardly letter fell into liis liands. Tlic number and strength of Jolinson'a 
troops had been greatly exaggerated, and Montcalm was preparing to flee. 

'■ JIajor Putnam visited tlie ruins wliile the fires were yet burning, and ho described the scene 
as very appalling. The bodies of murdered Englishmen were scattered in every direction, some of 




LAKE GEORGE AND 
TICIXITY. 



1163.] FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 195 

its site but an irregular line of low mounds on the border of the lake, a short 
distance from the village of Caldwell. Since then a hotel has been erected 
upon the spot, for the accommodation of summer tourists. Thus ended the 
military operations of the inefficient Earl of Loudon, for the year 1757. 

The position of aifaii-s iu America now alarmed the English people. The 
result of the war, thus for, was humiliating to British pride, while it incited 
the French to greater effi>rts in the maintenance of their power in the West. 
In the Anglo-American' colonies there was much irritation. Thoroughly 
imbued with democratic ideas, and knowing their competeircy, unaided by royal 
troops, to assert and maintain their rights, they regarded the interferences of 
the home government as clogs upon their operations. Some of the royal gov- 
ernors were incompetent and rapacious, and all were marked by a haughty 
deportment, offensive to the sturdy democracy of the colonists. Their demands 
for men and money, did not always meet with cheerful and ample responses ; 
and the arrogant assumption of the English officers, disgusted the commanders 
of the provincial troops, and often cooled the zeal of whole battalions of brave 
Americans. Untrammeled by the orders, exactions, and control of imperial 
power, the Americans would probably have settled the whole m itter in a single 
campaign: but at the close of the second year of the war [1756] the result 
appeared more uncertain and remote than ever. The people of England had 
perceived this clearly, and clamored for the dismissal of the weak and corrupt 
ministry then in power. The popular will prevailed, and Wilham Pitt, by far 
the ablest statesman England had yet produced, was called to the control of 
public affairs in June, 1757. Energy and good judgment marked every move- 
ment of his administration, especially in measures for prosecuting the war in 
America. Lord Loudon was recalled," and General Abercrombie^ was appointed 
to succeed him. A strong naval armament was prepared and placed under the 
command of Admiral Boscawen ; and twelve thousand additional English troops 
were allotted to tlie service in America.* Pitt addressed a letter to the several 
colonies, asking them to raise and clothe twenty thousand men. He promised, 
in the name of Parliament, to furnish arms, tents, and provisions for them ; 
and also to reimburse tiie several colonies all the money they should expend in 
raising and clothing the levies. These liberal offers had a magical effect, and 
an excess of levies soon appeared. New England alone raised fifteen thousand 
men;^ New York furnished almost twenty-seven hundred, New Jersey one 

them half consumed among the embers of the conflaprrntion. Among: the dead were more than one 
huulred women, many of whom liad been scalped [riote 4, page 14] by the InJians. 

Tills is the title given to Americans who are of English descent. Those who are descendants 
of the Saxons who settled in England, are called Anglo-Saxons. 

Pitt gave as a chief reason for recalling Loudon, that he could never hear from him, and did 
not know what he was about. Loudon was always arranging great plans, but executed nothing. 
It was remarked to Dr. Franklin, when he made inquiries concerning him, tlat he was "like St. 
George on the signs — always on horseback, but never rides forward." ' Page 191. 

Pitt had arranged such an admirable militia .'iystem for home defense, that a large number of 
the troops of the standing army could be spared for foreign service. 

I Public and private advances during 1758, in Massachusetts alone, amounted to more than a 
milliou of dollars. The taxes on real estate, in order to raise money, were enormous; in many 
instances equal to two ihirds of the income of the tax-pnyers. Yet it was levied liy their ovm repre- 
sentatives, and they did not murmur. A few years later, an almost nominal tax in the form of duty 



196 



THE COLONIES. 



[1756. 



thousand, Pennsylvania almost three thousand, and Virginia over two thousand. 
Some came from other colonies. Royal American troops (as they were called) 
organized in the Carolinas, -were ordered to the North ; and when Abercrombie 
took command of the army in the month of May, 1758, he found fifty thousand 
men at his disposal ; a number greater than the whole male population of the 
French dominions in America, at that time.' 




LOItD AilllERST. 



CAMPAIGN OF 1758. 

The plan of the campaign of 1758, was comprehensive. Louisburg," Ticon- 
deroTa, and Fort du Quesne,^ were the principal points of operations pecified in 
it. This was a renewal of Shirley's scheme, and ample 
preparations were made to carry it out. The first blow 
was directed against Louisburg. Admiral Boscawen 
arrived at Halifax early in May, with about forty armed 
vessels bearing a land force of over twelve thousand men, 
under General Amherst' as chief, and General AVolfe^ as 
his lieutenant. They left Halifax on the 28th of May, 
and on the 8th of June, the troops landed, without much 
opposition, on the shore of Gabarus Bay, near the city 
of Louisburg." The French, alarmed by this demonstra- 
tion of power, almost immediately deserted their outposts, 
and retired within the town and fortress. After a vigorous resistance of almost 
fifty days, and when all their shipping in the harbor was destroyed, the French 
surrendered the town and fort, together with the island of Cape Breton and 
that of St. John (now Prince Edward), and their dependencies, by capitulation, 
on the 26th of July, 1758. The spoils of victory were more than five thousand 
prisoners, and a large quantity of munitions of war. By this victory, the 
English became masters of the coast almost to the mouth of the St. Lawrence. 
When Louisburg fell, the power of France in America began to wane, and from 
that time its decline was continual and rapid. 

Activity now prevailed everywhere. While Amherst 
and Wolfe were conquering in the East, Abercrombie and 
young Howe were leading seven thousand regulars, nine 
thousand provincials, and a heavy train of artillery, 
against Ticonderoga, then occupied by Montcalm with 
about four thousand men. Abercrombie' s army had ren- 
dezvoused at the head of Lake George, and at the close 
of a calm Sabbath evening [July, 1758] they went down 
that beautiful sheet of water in flat-boats, and at dawn 

upon an article of luxury, levied without tlmr consent, excited the people of tbat colony to rebellion. 
See page 169. 

' The total number of inhabitants in Canada, then capable of bearing arms, did not exceed 
twenty thousand. Of them, between four and five thousand were regular troops. 

■ Page 229. ' Page 18G. 

* Lord Jeffrey Amherst was born in Kent, England, in 1717. He was eommander-in-chier of 
the army in England, during a part of our war for independence, and afterward He died in 1797, 
ai^ed eightv years. ' Note 8, page 200. " Note 5, page 137. 




TICONDEROGA. 



1763.] 



THE FRENCH AND INDIAN "WAR. 



197 




LOUD HOWE. 



[July 6] landed at its northern extremity. The Tvhole 
country from there to Ticonderoga w;is then covered 
with a dense forest, and tangled morasses lay in the 
pathway of the English army. Led by incompetent 
guides, they were soon bewildered, and while in this 
condition, they were suddenly attacked by a French 
scouting party. The enemy was repulsed, but the vic- 
tory was at the expense of the life of Lord Howe.' He 
fell at the head of the advanced guard, and a greater 
part of the troops, who considered him the soul of the 
expedition, retreated in confusion to the landing-place. 

In the midst of the temporary confusion incident to the death of Howe, 
intelligence reached Abercrombic that a reinforcement for Montcalm was 

approaching. Deceived concern- 
ing the strength of the French 
lines across the neck of the pen- 
insula on which the fortress stood,' 
lir pressed forward to the attack 
witliout his artillery, and ordered 
his troops to scale the breast- 
works [July 8], in the foce of 
the enemy's fire. These proved 
much stronger than he antici- 
pated,^ and after a bloody con- 
flict of four hours, Abercrombio 
fell back to Lake George, leav- 
ing almost two thousand of his men dead or wounded, in the deep forest.'' He 
hastened to his former camp at the head of the lake, and then, on the urgent 
solicitation of Colonel Bradstreet, he detached three thousand men under that 
officer, to attack the French post at Frontenac^ They went by way of Oswego 




r.UIN'S OF TICOXDEROGA. 



' Lord Howe wa'! brother of Admirnl Lonl IIowo, who commanded the British fleet on tho 
American coast, in 1776-77, and of Sir 'Williani Howe, tlie commander of the land forces. Ho was 
greatly beloved by the troops; and Mante, wlio was in tho .service, remarks: "With him the soul 
of the expedition seemed to expire." He was only thirty-four years of age when he fell. The 
legislature of Massachusetts Bay appropriated one thoasand two hundred and fifty dollars for a 
monument to his memory, in Westminster Abbe}'. His remains were conveyed to Albany by 
Captain (afterward General) Philip Schuyler, and there placed in a vault belonp,in<!, to the liimily 
of tliat olBcer. They were afterward removed to a place under the chancel of St. Peter's Churcli, 
on State-streot, Albany, where they remain. At the time of their removal, it was ibund that Lonl 
Howe's hair, whieli was very short when he was killed, had gi'own several inches, and exhibited 
beautiful smooth and glossy locks. 

' The diagram (p. 196) shows the general form of the principal works. The groimd on whicli 
Ticonderoga stood is about one hundred feet above tho level of the lake. Water is upon three .^ide?, 
and a deep morass extends almost across the fourth, forming a narrrow neck, where tlie French ha I 
erected a strong line of breastworks with batteries. This line was about a mile north-west of tlvj 
fortress, which occupied the point of the peninsula. The ruins of the fort, delineated in the abovo 
sketch, are yet [1867] quite picturesque. 

' The Ijreastworks were nine feet in height, covered in front by sharpened branches of felled 
trees, pointing outward like a mass of Ijayonets. 

' Among the wounded was Captain Charles Lee, afterward a general ia tho armv of the Revo- 
lution. See note 4, page 248. ' Pago 180. 



198 THE COLONIES. [1756. 

anil Lake Ontario, and two days after landing [August 27, 1758], they cap- 
tured the fort, garrison, and shipping, ■without much resistance.' Bradstreet 
lost only three or four men in the conflict, Ijut a fearful sickness broke out in 
his camp, and destroyed about five hundred of them. With the remainder, ho 
slowly retraced his steps, and at the carrying-place on the Mohawk, where the 
village of Rome now stands, his troops assisted in building Fort Stanwi.x." Al^er- 
crombic, in the mean while, after gaiTisoning Fort George,' returned ■with the 
remainder of his troops to Albany. 

The expedition against Fort du Quesne," in the West, ■was commanded by 
Genei'al John Forbes, ■who, in July, had about nine thousand men at his dis- 
posal, at Fort Cumberland and Raystown, including the Virginia troops under 
Colonel Washington, the Carolina Royal Americans, and an auxiliary force of 
Cherokee Indians. Protracted sickness, and perversity of will and judgment 
on the part of Forbes, caused delays almost fatal to the expedition. Contrary 
to the advice of W^asliington, he insisted, under the advice of some Pennsylvania 
land speculators, in constructing a new road, further north, over the mountains, 
instead of follo-n'ing the one made by Braddock. His progress ■was so slow, that 
in September, ■when it was kno^wn that not more than eight hundred men were 
at Fort du Quesne,' Forbes, ■with six thousand troops, -was yet east of the Al- 
leghanics. Major Grant, at the head of a scouting party of Colonel Boquct'a 
advanced corps, ■was attacked [Sept. 21], defeated, and made prisoner. Still 
Forbes moved slowly and methodically, and it was November [Nov. 8] before 
he joined Boquct -with the main body, fifty miles from the point of destination. 
The approach of -n-intcr, and discontent of the tioops, caused a council of ■war 
to decide upon abandoning the enterprise, ■when three prisoners gave informa- 
tion of the extreme weakness of the French garrison. Washington ■was imme- 
diately sent forward, and the whole army prepared to follow. Indian scouts 
discovered the Virginians ■when they were within a day's march of the fort, 
and their fear greatly magnified the number of the provincials. The French 
garrison, reduced to five hundred men, set fire to the fort [Nov. 24], and fled 
down the Ohio in boats, in great confusion, leaving every thing behind them. 
The Virginians took possession the following day. Forbes left a detachment 
of four, hundred and fifty men, to repair and garrison the fort, and then 
hastened back to go into ■winter quarters. The name of Fort da Quesne was 
changed to Fort Pitl, in honor of the great English statesman." 

' They made ciglit hundred prisoner.'', and sciacd nine armed vessels, sixty cannons, sixteen 
mortars, a large quantity of ammunition and stores, and goods designed for traffic witli tlie Indians. 
Among Bradstreet's subalterns, -H-asNatlianiel Woodhull, afterward a general at the eonimeneement 
of tlie war for Independence. [See note 3, page 252.] Stark, Ward, Pomeroy, Gridle_v, Putnam, 
Schuyler, and many others who wers distinguished in tlio Revolutionary struggle, were active pai- 
ticipants in the scenes of the French and Indian 'U'ar. 

' Page 278. 

^ Fort George was erected about a mile south-cast of the ruins of Fort William Henry, at tho 
head of Lake George. The ruins of tho main work, or citadel, are still [1SG7J quite prominent. 

^ Page 186. 

' The capture of Fort Frontenac spread alarm among the French west of that important post, 
because their supplies from Canada were cut olT. It so affected the Indians with fear, that a greater 
part of those who were allied to tho French, deserted them, and Fort du Quesne was feelily gar- 
risoned. ° I'age 195. 



1763.] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR. 199 

With this event, closed the campaign of 1758, which resulted in great gain 
to the English. They had effectually humbled the French, by capturing three 
of their most important posts,' and by weakening the attachment of their 
Indian allies. Mimy of the Indians had not only deserted the French, but at 
a great council held at Easton, on the Delaware, during the summer of that year 
they had, with the Six Nations,- made treaties of friendship or neutrality 
with the English.' The right arm of French success was thus paralyzed, and 
peace was restored to the frontiers of Pennsylvania and Virginia. 

CAMPAIGN OF 1759. 

Four years had elapsed since the commencement of this inter-colonial war. 
The final struggle was now at hand. Encouraged by the success of the cam- 
paign? just closed, Pitt conceived the magnificent scheme of conquering all 
Canada, and destroying, at one blpw, the French dominion in America. That 
dominion was now confined to the region of the St. Lawrence, for more distant 
settlements in the west and south, were like weak colonics cut off from the 
parent country. Pitt had the rare fortune to possess the entire confidence and 
esteem of the Parliament and the colonists. The former was dazzled by his 
greatness ; the latter were deeply impressed with his justice. He had promptly 
reimbursed all the e.xpenses incurred by the provincial Assemblies during the 
campaign,'' amounting to almost a million of dollars, and they as promptly sec- 
onded his scheme of contjuest, wliich had been communicated to them under an 
oath of secrcsy. The unsuccessful Abercrombie^ was succeeded by the success- 
ful Amherst," and early in the spring of 1759, the new commander-in-chief 
found twenty thousand provincial troops at his disposal. A competent land and 
naval force was also sent from England to co-operate with the Americans, and 
the campaign opened with brilliant prospects for the colonies. The general 
plan of operations against Canada was similar to that of Phipps and Winthrop 
in 1G90.' A strong land and naval force, under General Wolfe, was to ascend 
the St. Lawrence, and attack Quebec. Another force, under Amherst, was to 
drive the French from Lake Champlain, seize Montreal, and join Wolfe at 
Quebec ; and a third expedition, commanded by General Prideaux, was to cap- 
ture Fort Niagara, and then hasten down Lake Ontario to Montreal. 

On the 22d of July, 1759, General Amherst appeared Iwfore Ticondcroga 
with eleven thousand men. The French commander had just heard of the 
arrival of Wolfe at Queljes [June 27], and offered no resistance. The garrison 
left the lines on the 23d of July, and retired within the fort, and three days 
afterward [July 26] they abandoned that also, partially demolished it, and fled 
to Crown Point. Amherst pursued them, and on his approach, they took to 
their boats [Aug. 1]. and went down the lake to Isle Aux Noix,'' in the Sorel 



' Louisbur<^, Frontenac, and Du Quesne. Others, except Quebec, were stocknflea. Note 2, 
page 183. . - Page 25. 

^ The chief tribe? represented, were the Delawares, Shawnees, Nanticokes, Mohegans, Conoys, 
and Monseys. The Twightwces, on the Ohio [page 19], had always remained thj friends of tho 
English. < Page 195. ' Page 191. 

° Pago 196. ' Page 131. ' Pronouaced Noo-dh. 



200 



THE COLO X IE S. 



[iTse 




C'JtUWN I'ulNT.- 



River. Amherst remained at CroTvn Point long enough to construct a sufficient 
number of rude boats to convey his troons, artillery, and bag- 
gage, and then started to drive his enemy before him, across the 
St. Lawrence. It ivas now mid-autumn [Oct. 11]. and heavy 
storms compelled him to return to Crown Point, and place his 
troops in winter quarters.' While there, they constructed that 
strong fortress, whose picturesque ruins, after the lapse of almost 
a hundred years, yet [1807] attest its strength. 
Accompanied by Sir "William Johnson, as his lieuten- 
ant, Prideaux collected his forces (chiefly provincials)^ 
at Oswego, and sailed from thence to Niagara. He 
landed without opposition, on the ITth of July, and im- 
mediately commenced the siege. On the same day lie 
was killed, by the bursting of a gun, and was succcedril 
in command by General Johnson. The beleaguered gar- 
rison, in daily expectation of reinforcements which had 
been ordered from the southern and western forts, held 
out bravely for three weeks, when, on the 24th of July, 
the expected troops appeared. They were almost three thousand strong, one 
half being French regulars, and the remainder Indians, many of them from the 
Creek* and Cherokee" nations. A severe conflict ensued. The relief forces 
were completely routed, and on the following day [July 25], Fort Niagara and 
its dependencies, and the garrison of seven hundred men, were surrendered to 
Johnson. The connecting link of French military posts between Canada and 
Louisiana' was efTectually broken, never again to be united. Encumbered with 
his prisoners, and unable to procure a sufficient number of vessels for the pur- 
pose, Johnson could not proceed to Montreal, to co-operate with Amherst and 
Wolfe on the St. Lawrence, according to the original plan.' He garrisoned 
Fort Niagara, and returned home. 

Animated with high hopes, Wolfe* left Louisburg, with eight thousand 
troops, under a convoy of twenty-two line-of-battle ships, and as many frigates 



r 


' 


K '" — - 








" 


.■■~—~^ 


-^ ■' *-^ '. 


i 


'■^~' 


^^ -'*^""» 


iA 


-A 


%^1 




^ -J'c 


-J « -r"^^,'!: 



FdKT NIAGARA. 



' A\Tule at Crown Point, Major Rogers, at the head of his celebrated Ranser?, went on an ex- 
pedition against tlie St. Francis Indians, who had lou^ been a terror to tlie frontier settlements of 
New England. The village was destroyed, a large number of Indians were slain, and the Rangers 
were completely victorious. They sufl'ered from cold and hunger while on their return, and many 
were left dead in the forest before the party reached the nearest settlement at Bellows Falls. 
Rogers went to England after the war, returned in 1775, joined the British army at New York, 
and soon went to England again, where he died. 

^ The above diagram shows the general form of the military works at Crown Point. These, 
like the ruins at Ticonderoga, are quite picturesque remains of the past. A A A shows the position 
of the strong stone barracks, portions of which are yet standing. W shows the place of a very deep 
well, dug through the solid rock. It was filled up, and so remained until a few years ago, when 
some money-diggers, foohshly believing tliere was treasure at the bottom, cleaned it out. They 
found nothing but a few scraps of iron and other rubbish. 

^ Johnson's influence over the Si.K Nations, maile m.iny of them disregard the treaty of neutral- 
ity made with Montcalm [note -t, page 192], and a considerable number accompanied him to 
Niag.ira. * Page 30. *' Page 27. ° Page 180. ' Page 199. 

^ James Wolfe was the son of a British general, and was born in Kent, England, in 1726. Be- 
fore he was twenty years of age, he was distinguished m battle. IIo was now only thirty-three 
years old. 



1763.] 



THE FREXCH AXD INDIAN WAR. 



201 




GEXER.1X WOLFi:. 



and smaller armed vessels, commanded by Admirals Holmes and Saunders, and, 
on the 27th of June, landed upon Orleans Island, a few miles below Quebec. 
That city then, as now, consisted of an Upper and Lower Town, the former 
within fortified walls, upon the top and declivities of a high peninsula ; the 
latter lying upon a narrow beach at the edge of the 
water. Upon the heights, three hundred feet above the 
water, was a level plateau called the Plains of Abra- 
ham. At the mouth of the St. Charles, which here 
enters the St. Lawrence, the French had moored several 
floating batteries.' The town was strongly garrisoned 
by French regulars, and along the north bank of the 
St. Lawrence, from the St. Charles to the Montmorenci 
Kiver, was the main French army, under I\Iontcalm,^ in 
a fortified camp. It was composed chiefly of Canadian 
mihtia and Indians. 

On the 30th of July, the English, after a slight skirmish, took possession 
of Point Levi, opposite Quebec, and throwing hot shot from a battery, they 
almost destroyed the Lower Town. They could not damage the strong fortifi- 
cations of the city from that distance, 
and Wolfe resolved to attack the 
French camp. He had already land- 
ed a large force, under Generals 
Townshend and Jlun-ay, and formed 
a camp [July 10, 1759], below the 
River Montmorenci. General I\Ionck- 
ton, with grenadiers' and other troops, 
crossed from Point Levi, and landed 
MILITARY OPERATIONS AT QUEBEC. ypon the bcach [July 31], at the base 

of the high river bank, just above that stream. Murray and Townshend were 
ordered to force a passage across the Montmorenci, and co-operate with him, 
but iMonckton was too eager for attack to await their coming. He unwisely 
rushed forward, but was soon repulsed, and compelled to take shelter behind a 
block-house^ near the beach, just as a heavy thunder-storm, which had been 
gathering for several hours, burst upon the combatants. Night came on before 
it ceased, and the roar of the rising tide warned the English to take to their 
boats. Five hundred of their number had perished. 

Two months elapsed, and yet the English had gained no important advan- 
tages. Wolfe had received no intelligence from AmhersJ;, and the future ap- 




' These were a kind of flat-boats, with proper breastworks or other defenses, and armed witli 
cannons. 

■ He was descended from a rtoble Enmily. He was appointed governor of Canada in 1756. His 
remains are beneath the Ursuline convent at Quebec. 

^ Grenadiers are companies of tlie regular armj-, distinguished from the rest by some peculiarity 
of dress and accoutrements, and always composed "of the tallest and most muscular men in the ser\-- 
ice. They are generally employed iu bayonet charges, and sometimes carry grenades, a kind of 
smaU bomb-shell. • 'N(3te 3, page 192. 



202 THE COLONIES. [1756. 

peared gloomy. The exposure, fatigue, and anxiety vrliich he had endured 
produced a violent fever, and at the beginning of September [1759J, lie lay 
prostrate in his tent. He called a council of war at his bedside, and, on the 
suggestion of Townshend, it -ivas resolved to scale the heights of Abraham,' and 
assail the town on its weakest side. Wolfe heartily approved of the design. 
A plan was speedily matured, and feeble as he was, the commander-in-chief 
determined to lead the assault in person. The camp at the ]\Ion i morenci was 
broken up [Sept. 8], and the attention of INIontcalm was diverted from the real 
designs of the English, by seeming preparations to again attack his lines. The 
afiliir was managed so secretly and skillfully, that even De Bourgainville, who 
had been sent up the St. Lawrence liy Montcalm, with fifteen hundred men, 
to watch the movements of the English, had no suspicion of their designs. 

All preparations having been completed, the English ascended the river, in 
"several vessels of the fleet, on the evening of the 12th of September. They 
went several miles above the intended landing-place. Leaving the ships at 
midnight, they embarked in flat boats, with mufllcd oars, and moved silently 
down to the mouth of a ravine, a mile and a half from the city, and landed.^ 
At dawn [Sept. 13], Lieutenant-Colonel Howe' led the van up the tangled 
ravine, in the face of a shaip fire from a guard above. He was followed by the 
generals and the remainder of the troops, with artillery ; and at sunrise the 
whole army stood in battle array upon the Plains of Abraham. It was an 
apparition little anticipated by the vigilant Montcalm. He 
perceived the peril of the city ; and marching his whole army 
immediately from his encampment, crossed the St. Charles, and 
between nine and ten o'clock in the morning, confronted the 
English. A general, fierce, and bloody liattle now ensued. Al- 
though twice severely wounded, Wolfe kept his feet; and as 
the two armies closed upon each other, he placed himself at the 
head of his grenadiers, and led them to a charge. At that mo- 
ment a bullet entered his breast. He was carried to the rear, 
and a few moments afterward, Monckton, who took the com- 
mand, also fell, severely wounded. Townshend continued the 
battle. IMontcalra soon received a fiital wound :' and the French, 
tcrrilsly pierced by English bayonets, and smitten by Highland broadswoids, 
broke and fled. Wolfe died just as the battle ended, with a smile upon his lips, 
because his ears heaid the victory-shouts of his army. Five hundred French- 

' The declivity from Cape Diamond, on which the chief fortress stands, along the St Lawrence 
to tlie cove below Sillery, was called by the general name of the Heights of Abraham, the plains of 
that name being on the top. See map on page 201. 

^ This place is known as Wolfe's Cove : and the ravine, which here breaks the steepness of the 
rocky shore, and up which the English clambered, is called Wolfe's Ravine. 

' Aftcra-ard General Sir 'William Howe, the commanrter-in-chitf of the Enghsh forces in Amer- 
ica, when the Revolution had fairly commenced. Page 247. 

< He was carried into the city, and when told tliat he must die, he said, "So much the better; 
I shall then he spared the mortification of seeing the surrender of Quebec." His remains are yet 
in Quebec ; those of Wolfe were conveyed to England. People of the two nations have long dwelt 
peacealily together in that ancient city, and they have united in crecfng a tall granite obelisk, 
dedicated to the Unked memory of Wolib and Montcalm. 





,jusnisHolm!I\ 



IffilEA^IBl ©F WOILilP' 



1163.] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN ■SVAR. 203 

men were killed, and (including the wounded) a thousand were taken prisoners. 
The English lost six hundred, in killed and wounded. 

General Townshend now prepared to besiege the city. Threatened famine 
within aided him; and five days after the death of Wolfe [Sept. 18, 1759], 
Quebec, with its fortifications, shipping, stores, and people, was surrendered to 
the English, and five thousand troops, under General Murray, immediately took 
possession. The fleet, with the sick and the French prisoners, sailed for 
Halifax. The campaign now ended, yet Canada was not conij^uered. The 
French yet held Montreal, and had a considerable land and naval force al)ovc 
Quebec. 

CAMPAIGN OF 17G0. 

Notwithstanding these terrible disasters, the French were not dismayed, 
and early in the spi-ing of 1760, Vaudreuil, then governor-general of Canada, 
sent M. Levi, the successor of Montcalm, to recover Quebec. He went down 
the St. Lawrence, with six frigates and a sti'ong land force. General Murray 
marched out, and met him at Sillery, about three miles above Quebec, and 
there, on the 4th of April, was fought one of the most sanguinary battles of the 
war. Murray was defeated. He lost all his artillery, and about a thousand 
men, but succeeded in retreating to the city with the remainder. Levi now 
laid siege to Quebec, and Murray's condition was becoming }:(^rilous, from the 
want of supplies, when an English squadron, with reinforcements and provisions, 
appeared [May 9] in the St. Lawrence. ' Levi supposed it to be the whole 
British fleet, and at once raised the siege [May lOJ, and fled to Montreal, after 
losing most of his shipping. 

Now came the final struggle. The last stronghold of the French was now 
to be assailed ; and Vandreuil gathered all his forces at Montreal for the 
conflict. Amherst had made extensive preparations during the summer ; and 
early in September [Sept. 6-7], three English armies met before the doomed 
city. Amherst, at the head of ten thousand troops, and a thousand warriors 
of the Six Natioxs, under General Johnson,' arrived on the 6th, and was 
joined, the same day, by General I\Iurray, and four thousand troops, from 
Quebec. The next day, Colonel Haviland arrived, with three thousand troops, 
from Crown Point,- having taken possession of Isle Aux-Noix' on the way. 
Against such a crushing force, resistance would be vain ; and Vandreuil im- 
mediately signed a capitulation [Sept. 8, 1760], surrendering Montreal, and 
all other French posts in Canada, into the hands of the English.' The regular 
troops, made prisoners at Montreal, were to be sent to France ; and the Cana- 
dians were guarantied perfect security in person, property, and religion.' 
General Gage" was appointed governor at Montreal ; and Murray, with four 
thousand men, garrisoned Quebec. 

■ Pnge 190. = Page 198. = Note 8, page 197. 

' The chief posts surrendered were Presque Isle (now Erie, Pennsylvania\ Detroit, and i[a> 
kinnw. 

' Tliey were chiefly Roman Catholics, and that is yet the prevailing relijion in Lower Canada 
° Pages ISO and 226. 



204 THE COLOXIES. [1756. 

The conquest of Canada produced great joy in the Anglo-American 
colonies,' and in none was it more intense than in that of New York, 
because its whole northern frontier lay exposed to the enemy. The exultation 
was very great in New England, too, for its eastern frontiers were now relieved 
from the terrible scourge of Indian warfare, by which they had been desolated 
six times within a little more than eighty years. In these wars, too, the 
Indians had become almost annihilated. The subjugation of the French seemed 
to be a guaranty of peace in the future, and the people everywhere assembled 
to utter public thanksgiving to IIiM who rules the nations. 

Although the war had ceased in America, the French and English contin- 
ued it upon the ocean, and among the West India Islands, with almost con- 
tinual success for the latter, until 1763, when a definitive treaty of peace,'' 
agreed upon the year before, was signed at Paris [February 10, 1763], by 
which France ceded to Great Britain all her claimed possessions in America, 
eastward of the Mississippi, north of the latitude of Iberville River.^ At tho 
same time, Spain, with whom the English had been at war for a year previously, 
ceded [February 10. 1763] East and West Florida to the British crown. And 
now, England held undisputed possession (except by the Indians) of the whob 
Continent, from the shores of the Gulf of Mexico to the frozen North, and from 
ocean to ocean.* 

The storm of war still lowered in the southern horizon, when tho French 
dominion ceased in Canada. While the English were crushing the Gallic power 
in the north, the frontier settlements of the Carolinas were suffering dreadfully 
from frequent incursions of Indian war parties. French emissaries were busy 
among the Cherokee.?, hitherto the treaty friends of the English ; and their 
influence, and some wrongs inflicted upon the Indians by some frontier Virginia 
Rangers, produced hostilities, and a fierce war was kindled in March, 1760.' 
Tho Avhole western frontier of tho Carolinas was desolated in the course of a few 
weeks. The people called aloud for help, and Amherst heeded their supplica- 
tions. Early in April, Colonel jMontgomery, with some British regulai-s and 
provincial troops, marched from Charleston, South Carolina, and laid waste a 
portion of the Cherokee country." Those bold aboriginal highlanders were not 
subdued; but when, the following year, Colonel Grant led a stronger force 
against them,' burned their towns, desolated their fields, and killed many of 
their warriors, they humbly sued for peace [June, 1761], and ever afterward 
remained comparatively quiet. 

The storm in the South had scarcely ceased, when another, more porten- 
tous and alarming, gathered in the North-west. Pontiac, a sagacious chief of 

' Note 1. page 193. " Franco and England, Spain and Portugal, wero parties to this treaty. 

^ New Orleans, and the whole of Louisiana, was ceded by France to Spain at the same tim'^. 
and she relinquished her entire possessions in North America, In 1800, 'Spain, by a secret treaty, 
rctroceded Louisiana to France; and in 1803, Napoleon sold it to the United States for fifteen mil- 
lions of dollars. See page 390. 

' The cost, to England, of this Seven Years' War, as the conflict was called in Europe, w.ns five 
hundred and sixty millions of dollars. ' Page 27. ° Pacce 27. 

' Marion, Moultrie, and several other men, afterward distinguished in the war for Independ- 
ence, accompanied Grant on this occasion. 



nC3.] THE FRENCH AND INDIAN ■U'AR. 205 

the Ottawas,' who had been an early ally of the French, secretly confederated 
several of the Algonquin tribes, in 1763, for the purpose of expelling the 
English from the country west of the Alleghanies.' After the fall of Montreal, ° 
Pontiac had professed an attachment to the English ; and as there seemed safety 
for settlers west of the mountains, immigration began to pour its living stream 
over those barriers. Like Philip of Mount Hope,' Pontiac saw, in the futui-e, 
visions of the displacement, perhaps destruction, of his race, by the pale-faces ; 
and he determined to strike a blow for life and country. So adroitly were his 
plans matured, that the commanders of the western forts had no suspicions of 
his conspiracy until it was ripe, and the first blow had been struck, in the 
month of June. Within a fortnight, all the jwsts in possession of the English, 
west of Oswego, fell into his hands, except Niagara,' Fort Pitt," and Detroit. 
Colonel Bouquet saved Pittsburg ;' Niagara was not attacked ; and Detroit, 
after sust;iining a siege of almost twelve months, was relieved by Colonel Brad- 
street,* who arrived there with reinforcements, in May, 1764. The Indians 
were now speedily subdued, their power was broken, and the hostile tribes sent 
their chiefs to ask for pardon and peace. The haughty Pontiac refused 
to bow to the white people, and took refuge in the country of the Illinois, 
where he was treacherously murdered' in 1769. This was the last act in the 
dramaof the French and Indi.\n War." 

In our consideration of the history of the United States, we have now 
arrived at a point of great interest and importance. We have traced the growth 
of the colonies through infancy and youth, as their interests and destinies gradu- 
ally commingled, until they really formed one people," strong and lusty, like 

' Page 18. 

'' Tlie confederation consisted of tlio Ottawas, Jllamies, Wyandots, Chippowas, Pottawatomie.s, 
Mississaguies, Shawnoese, Outaganiies or Foxes, and Winuebagoes. The Senecas, tlie most westerly 
clan of the Six Nations, also joined in the conspiracy. = Page 203. 

* Page 124. ' Page 200. " Page 198. 

' Henry Bouquet was a brave English officer. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel in 1"5G, 
and was in" the expedition against Fort du Quesne (page 198). In 17G:!, Amherst sent him from 
Montreal, with provisions and military stores for Fort Pitt. His arrival was timely, and lie saved 
the garrison from destruction. The following }'ear he commanded an expedition against the Indians 
in Ohio, and was successful. His journal was published after the war. ' Page 198. 

" An English trader bribed a Peoria Indian to murder him, for which he gave him a barrel of 
rum. The placo of his death was Cahokia, a small vilkige on the east side of tlie Mississippi, a little 
below St. Louis. Pontiac was one of the greatest of all the Indian chiefs known to the white peo- 
ple, and deserved a better fate. It is said, that during the war of 1T63, he appointed a commissary, 
and Issued bills of credit. So highly was he esteemed by the French inhabitants, that these were 
received by tiiem. Montcalm thought much of him; and at the time of his death, Pontiac was 
dressed in a French uniform, presented to him by that commander. See page 202. Pontiac was 
buried where the city of St. Louis now stands, and that busy mart is his monument, though not his 
memorial. 

'" The work most accessible to the general reader, in which the details of colonial events may 
be founJ, is Graham's Colonial Hislory of the United States, in two volumes octavo, pubhshed by 
Blanchard and Lea, Pliiladelphia. 

" It must not be understood, that there was yet a perfect unity of feeling among the various 
coloijists. Sectional interests produced sectional jealousies, and these worked much mischief, even 
whil*soldiers from almost every colony were fighting .shoulder to shoulder [page 190] in the conti- 
nental army. Burnaby, who traveL-d in America at this period, expressed the opinion, that 
sectional jealousy and dissimilarity would prevent a permanent union ; yet lie avers that the people 
were imbued with ideas of independence, and that it was frequently remarked among them, that 
■'the tide of doniiuinn was running westward, and tliat America was destined to be the mistress of 
the world." Tl le colonists themselves were not unmindful of the importance of then- position, and 



206 THE COLONIES. [1756. 

the mature man, prepared to vindicate natural rights, and to fashion political and 
social systems adapted to their position and wants. We view them now. con- 
scious of their physical and moral strength, possessing clear views of right and 
justice, and prepared to demand and defend both. This is the point in the 
progress of the new and growing nation to which our observation is now 
directed, when the great question was to be decided, whether independent self- 
control should be enjoyed, or continued vassalage to an ungenerous parent 
should be endured. Our next topic will be the events connected with the 
settlement of that question. It is a topic of highest significance. It looms up 
in the panorama of national histories like some giant Alp, far above its fellows, 
isolated in grandeur, yet assimilated in sympathy with all others. 

they gave freely of their substance to carry on the contest for the mastery. Probably, the " Seven 
Years' "War'' cost the colonies, in the aggregate, full twenty millions of dollars, besides the flower 
of tlieir youtli ; and, in return, Parliament granted them, during the contest, at different periods, 
about five millions and a half of dollars. Parliament subsequently voted one million of dollars to 
the colonies, but, on account of the troubles arising from the Stamp Act and kindred measures, min- 
isters withheld the sum. 

The following is a list, taken from official records, of "The grants in Parliament for Rewards, 
Kncouragement, and Indemnification to the Provinces in North America, for their Services and Ex- 
penses during the last [seven years'] "War : 

" On the 3d of February, 1756, as a free gift and reward to the colonies of New England, New I 
York, and Jersey, for their past services, and as an encouragement to continue to exert themselves 
with vigor, $0 7 5,000. 

"May 19th, 1757. For the use and relief of the provinces of North and SoutU Carolina, and 
Virginia, in recompense for services performed and to be performed, 8250,000. 

"June 1st, 1758. To reimburse the province of Massachusetts Bay their expenses in furnishing 
provisions and stores to the troops raised by them in 1756, $136,900. To reimburse the province 
of Connecticut their expenses for ditto, S0S,G80. 

"April 30th, 1759. As a compensation to the respective colonies for the expenses of clothing, 
pay of troops, etc., $1,000,000. 

"March 31st, 1760. For the same, gl, 000,000. For the colony of New York, to reimburse 
their expenses in furnishing provisions and stores to the troops in 1756, $14,885. 

"Jan. 20th, 1761. As a compensation to the respective colonies for clothing, pay of the troops, 
etc.,' 81,000,000. 

"Jan. 26th, 1762. Ditto, $666,666. 

"March 15th, 1763. Ditto, $666,666. 

"April 22d, 1770. To reimburse the province of New Hampshire their expenses in furnishing 
provisions and stores to the troops in the campaign of 1756, $30,045. Total, $5,408,842." 

In a pamphlet, entitled Highls of Britaim and Claims of AsiERici, an answer to the Declara- 
tion of the Continental Congress, setting forth the causes and the necessity of their taking up arms, 
printed in 1776, is a table showing the annual e.xpendituresof the British government in support of 
the civil and military powers of the American colonies, from tlie accession of the famdy of Hanover, 
in 1714, until 1775. The expression of the writer is, "Employed in the defense of America." This ' 
is incorrect; for the wars with the French on tliis continent, which cost the greatest amount of ; 
money, were wars for conquest and territory, though ostensibly for the defense of the Anglo-Amer- 
ican colonies against the encroachments of their Gallic neighbors. During the period alluded to 
(sixty years), the sums granted for the army amounted to $43,899,625; for the navy, $50,000,000; 
money laid out in Indian presents, in holding Congresses, and purchasing cessions of land, 
$30,500,000; making a total of $123,899,625. TVithin that period the following bounties on 
American commodities were paid: On indigo, $725,110; on hemp and flax, $27,800; on naval 
.stores imported into Great Britain from America, $7,293,810; making tlie total sum paid on ac- 
count of bounties, $8,047,320. The total amount of money expended in sixty years on account of 
America, $131,946,945. 




CHAPTER I. 

Principles, like the ultimate particles ot 
JAMES oTig matter, and the laivs of God, are eternal, inde- 

structible, and unchangeable. They have 
existed in the moral realm of our world since the advent of man ; and devious 
as may be their manifestations, according to circumstances, they remain the 
same, inhei'ently, and always exhibit the same tendencies. When God gave to 
man an intelligent soul, and invested him with the prerogatives of moral free 
agency, then was born that instinctive love of lil^erty which, through all past 
time, has manifested itself in individuals and in societies ; and in every age, the 
consciences of men have boldly and indignantly asked, in the presence of 
oppression, 

"If I'm design'd yon lordling's slave, 

By Nature's laws designed ; 

Why was an independent wish 

E'er planted in my mind ? 
If not, why am I subject to 
' His cruelty or scorn? 

Or why has man the will and pow'r 
To make his fellow mourn ?" ' 



208 THE REVOLUTION. [1761. 

Nations, like men, have thus spoken. The principles of civil and religious 
liberty, and the inalienable rights of man which they involve, were recoo-nized 
and asserted long before Columbus left Palos for the New World.' Their 
maintenance had shaken thrones and overturned dynasties before Charles the 
First was brought to the block ;- and they had lighted the torch of revolution lontr 
before the trumpet-tones of James Otis* and Patrick Henry' aroused the Anglo- 
Americans' to resist British aggression. From the earliest steps in the progress 
of the American colonics, we have seen the democratic theories of all past reform- 
ers developed into sturdy democratic practice ; and a love of liberty which had 
germinated beneath the heat of persecution in the Old World, budded and 
blossomed all over the New, wherever English hearts beat, or English tongues 
gave utterance. Nor did English hearts alone cherish the precious seedling, 
nor English tongues alone utter the noble doctrines of popular sovereignty ; but 
in the homes of all in this beautiful land, whatever country gave the inmates 
birth, there was a shrine of freedom, and a refuge for the oppressed. Here 
king-craft and priest-craft never had an abiding-place, and their ministers were 
always weak in the majestic presence of the popular will. 

Upon the Ijleak shores of Massachusetts Bay ; upon the banks of the Hud- 
son, the Delaware, the Potomac, and the James ; and amid the pine-forests or 
beneath the palmettos of the Carolinas, and the further South, the colonists, 
from the very beginning, had evinced an impatience of arbitrary rule ; and 
every manifestation of undue control by local magistrates or distant monarchs — 
every eifort to abridge their liberties or absorb their gains, stimulated the 
growth of democratic principles. These permeated the whole social and politi- 
cal life in America, and finally evolved from the crude materials of royal 
charters, religious covenants, and popular axioms, that gala.xy of representative 
governments which, having the justice of the English Constitution, the truth 
of Christian ethics, and the wisdom of past experience for their foundation, 
were united in '"the fullness of time," in that symmetrical combination of free 
institutions known as the Republic of the United States of America. 

It is a common error to regard the Revolution which attended the birth of 
this Republic, as an isolated episode in the history of nations, having its causes 
in events immediately preceding the convulsion. It was not the violent result 
of recent discontents, but the culmination of a long scries of causes tending to 
such a climax. The parliamentary enactments which kindled the rebellion-in 
1775, were not oppressive measures entirely novel. They had their counter- 
parts in the British statute books, even as early as the restoration of monarchy 
[1660J° a hundred years before, when navigation laws,' intended to crush the 
growing commerce of the colonies were enacted. They were only re-assertions 
of tyrannical legislative power and royal prerogatives, to which the colonies, in 
the weakness of their infoncy and early youth, were compelled to submit. Now 
they had grown to maturity, and dared to insist upon receiving exact justice. 

' Page 39. - Note :i, page 108. ' rap-e 212. ' Note 1, jiage 214. 

' Note 1, iiage 19.1. " Tage 100. ' Note 4, page 100. 



1"5.] PEELISfiyAKY EVENTS. 209 

Thej had recently emerged from an exhausting war, which, instead of weaken- 
ing them, had taught them their real moral, political, and physical strength. 
They had also learned the important lesson of power in union, and profited by 
its teachings. Having acquired a mastery over the savages of the wilderness, 
and assisted in breaking the Frencii power on their frontiers, into atoms.' they 
felt their manhood stirring within them, and they tacitly agreed no longer to 
submit to the narrow and oppressive policy of Great Britain. Their industry 
and commerce were too expansive to be confined within the narrow limits of 
those restrictions which the Board of Trade,' from time to time, had imposed, 
and they determined to regard them as mere ropes of sand. For long and 
gloomy years they had struggled up, unaided and alone, from feebleness to 
strength. They had built fortifications, raised armies, and fought battles, for 
England's glory and their own preservation, without England's aid, and often 
without her sympathy.^ And it was not until the growing importance of the 
French settlements excited the jealousy of Great Britain, that her ministers 
perceived the expediency of justice and liberality toward her colonies, in order 
to secure their loyalty and efficient co-operation.'' Compelled to be self-reliant 
from the beginning, the colonists were made strong by the mother's neglect ; 
and when to that neglect she added oppression and scorn, they felt justified in 
using their developed strength in defense of their rights. 

The colonists had grown strong, not only in material prosperity, percep- 
tions of inalienable rights, and a will to be free, but in many things in which 
the strength and beauty of a State consist, they exhibited all the most prom- 
inent develoi)ments of a great nation. A love for the fine arts had been grow- 
ing apace for many years ; and when the Revolution broke out, AVest^ and 
Copley," natives of America, were wearing, in Europe, the laurel-crowns of 
supreme excellence as painters. Literature and science were beginning to be 
highly appreciated, and the six colonial colleges' were full of students. God- 
frey, the glazier, who invented the quadrant, had flourished and passed away ;' 



» Page 20.S. ' Note 5. page 13-1. 

' Georgia, alone, received parliamentary aid [page 100], in the establishment of settlements. In 
all the other colonies, where va.st sums were expended in fitting out expeditious, purchasing tlie 
soil of the Indians, and sustaining tlie settlers, neither tlie crown nor parliament ever contributed 
a farthing of pecuniary aid. The settling of Massachusetts alone, cost a million of dollars. Lord 
Baltimore spent two hundred thousand dollars in colonizing Maryland ; and William Penn became 
deepTy involved in deljt, in his efforts to settle and improve Pennsylvania. * Page 197. 

' Benjamin West was born in Chester county, Pennsylvania, in 1738. His parents were 
Quakers. He commenced art-life as a portrait-painter, when wealthy men furnished him with 
means to go to Italy. He soon triumphed, went to England, was patronized by the king, and 
became the most eminent historical painter of his age. He died in London in 1820, in the eighty- 
second year of his age. 

° John Singleton Copley was also bom in 173S. in the city of Boston. He became a' pupil of 
Smibert [note 8, page 158], and became an eminent portrait-painter. His family relations identified 
' him with the Royalists at the commencement of the Revolution, and he went to England to seek 
y employment, where he was patronized by West. There he painted two memorable pictures ; one 
for thi House of Lords, the otlier for the House of Commons. These established his flimo, and led to 
fortun?. His son became lord chancellor of England, and was made a peer, with the title of Lord 
Lyndhurst. Copley died in England, in 1815, at the age of seventy-seven years. 

^' Page 178. 
Thomas Godfrey was a native of Pennsylvania, and was bom in 1704. He was the real 
mventor of the quadrant known as Hadley's. See Lossiug's Eminent Americans. 

13 



210 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1761. 



Bartram, the farmer, had become ."American Botanist to his Majesty;"'' 
Franklin, the printer, was known, wherever civilization had planted her ban- 
ners, as the lightning-tamer and profound moral philosopher ; and Rittenhouse, 
the clock-maker, had calculated and observed the transit of Venus, and con- 




(Oi^trf^^Uj^ 



structed that Planetarium which is yet a wonder in the world of mechanism.* 
Theology and the legal profession, had taken high ground. Edwards^ had 
written his great work on The Freedom of the Will, and was among the 
dead ; and already Otis,' Henry,'' Dickenson," Rutledge,' and other lawyers, 
had made their brilliant marks, and were prepared to engage in the great strug- 
gle at hand. All classes of men had noble representatives in the colonies, when 
the conflict commenced. 

There was no cause for complaint on the part of the colonists, of the willful . 
exercise of tyrannical power, for purposes of oppression, by Great Britain. 

' See Lossing's Eminent Americans. 

" David Rittenhouse was born in Roxboroug;)i, Pennsylvania, in 1732. As he exhihited great 
mechanical genius, his father apprenticed him to a clock-maker, and he became one of tlie most 
eminent mechanicians and mathematicians of liis time. He discovered that remarkable feature in 
algebraic analysis, called fluxions, and applied it to the mechanic arts. He constructed a machine 
which represented the motions of the solar system. That Planetarium is now in tlie possession of 
the College of New Jersey, at Princeton Eittcnhou.se succeeded Franklin as president of the . 
American Philosophical Society. He died in 179.3, at the age of sixty-four years. 

' Jonathan Edwards was one of the most eminent of American divines. He was bom in East 
Windsor, Connecticut, in 179."!, and died at Princeton, New Jersey, while president of the college, ' 
in 1758. * Page 212. ' Page 214. " Page 219. ' Page 310. 



1775.] 



PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 



211 



There was no motive for such a course. But they reasonably complained of 
an unjust and illiberal policy, which accomplished all the purposes of absolute 
tyranny. The rod of iron was often covered with velvet, and was w^ielded as 
often by ignorant, rather than by wicked, hands. Yet the ignorant hand, with 




-22^ 



»„.^Z^^i^^?^y^'«<iJK 




the concealed rod, smote as lustily and offensively, as if it had been a wicked 
one, and the rod bare. The first form of governmental and proprietary oppres- 
sion' was in the appointment of local ruler.s. The people were not represented 
in the appointing power. Then came commercial restrictions," prohibitions to 
manufiicture,^ imposts upon exchanges,* and direct ta.xation, by enactments of 
parliament, in which the colonists were not represented. At the beginning, 
they had asserted, and during their whole progress tlicy had maintained, that 
important political ma.xim, that taxation without repre.sentation, isti/ra/inij. 
This was the fundamental doctrine of their political creed — this was the test of 
all parliamentary measures — this was the strong rock upon which the patriots 
of the Revolution anchored their foith and hope. 

When the French and Indian War was closed by the treaty of Paris, 



' Three forms of government had existed, namely, charier, proprietary, and royal The New 
England governments were based upon ro}'al charters; New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and 
the Carolinas, were owned and governed by individuals or companies, and the remainder were 
immediately subject to the crown. Notwithstanding this diversity in the source of government, the 
anti-monarchical spirit pervaded the people of all, from tlio begiiming, and gave binh to popular 
legislative assemblies. » 

' Note 3, pajo 177. ' Pages 17" and ITS. * Page 17 S. 



212 THE REVOLUTION. [1761. 

in 1763, the colonists looked forward to long years of prosperity and 
repose. A young monarch,' virtuous and of upright intentions, had been 
recently [1761] seated upon the British throne. Having confidence in his 
integrity, and having lately felt the justice of the government, under the direc- 
tion of Pitt,- they were disposed to forget past grievances; and being identified 
with the glory of England, now become one of the first powers on the earth, 
they were fond of their connection. But the serenity of the political sky soon 
disappeared, and it was not long before violent tempests were raging there. 
Even before the treaty at Paris, a cloud had arisen which portended future 
trouble. The war had exhausted the British treasury,' and ministers devised 
various schemes for replenishing it. They had observed the resources of the 
colonists, as manifested by their efforts during the recent struggle,' and as they 
were relieved from further hostilities by the subjugation of Canada' [1759], 
the government looked to them for aid. Instead of asking it as Vi favor, it was 
demanded as a right ; instead of inviting the colonial Assemblies to levy taxes 
and make appropriations, government assumed the right to tax their expanding 
commerce ; and then commenced a vigorous enforcement of existing revenue 
laws, which had hitherto been only nominally oppressive.' 

One of the first acts which revealed the intentions of Parliament to tax the 
colonies by enforcing the revenue laws, was the authorization, in 1761, of 
^Vrits of Assistance. These were general search-warrants, which not only 
allowed the king's ofiicers who hold them, to iDreak open any citizen's store or 
dwelling, to search for and seize foreign merchandise, on which a duty bad not 
been paid, but compelled sheriffs and others to assist in the work. The people 
could not brook such a system of potty oppression. The sanctities of private 
life might be invaded, at any time, by hirelings, and the assertion, based upon 
the guaranties of tlie British Constitution, that "every Englishman's house is 
his castle," would not be true. These writs were first issued in Massachusetts, 
and immediately great excitement prevailed. Their legality was questioned, and 
the matter was lirought before a court held in the old town hall in Boston. 
The advocate for the Crown (Mr. Gridley) argued, that as Parliament was the 
supreme legislature for the whole British nation, and had authorized these 
writs, no subject had a right to complain. He Avas answered by James Otis,' 



' George the Tliirrl. He was crowned in ItGl, at the age of twenty years. He reigned almost 
sixty years, and died in 1820. ' Page 195. ^ Note 4. page 204. 

* French and Indian War. ' Page 204. 

° Commercial restrictions were imposed upon the colonies as early as 1G51 [note 4, page 109]. 
In 16G0, 1672, 1676, 1691. and 1G92, attempts were made by parliament to derive a revenue by a 
tariB-taxation upon the colonies. In 1G96 a proposition was made to levy a direct tax upon the 
colonies. Then, not only in Britain, but in America, the power of parliament (wherein tlie colonists 
were not represented), to tax those colonies, was strenuously denied. 

' James Otis was born in Barnstable, Massachusetts, in 1725. and became the leader of the 
Revolutionary party in that province, at the beginning. He was wounded by a blow from a cudgel, 
in the hands of a British official in 1769, and never fairly recovered. For years he Avas nfBieted 
with occasional lunacy, and presented but a wreck of the orator and scholar. The following anec- 
dote is related of Mr. Otis, as illustrative of his ready use of Latin, even during moments of mental 
aberration. Men and boys, heartless or thou.slitless, would sometimes make themselves merry at 
his expense, when he was seen in the streets afflicted with lunacy. On one occasion he was pass- 
ing a crockery store, when a young man, who had a knowledge of Latin, sprinkled some water h 



1775.] PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 21S 

the younger, then advocate-general of the province. On that occasion, the 
intense fire of his patriotism beamed forth witli inexpressible brilliancy, and his 
eloquence was like lightning, far-felt and consuming. On that day the trumpet 
of the Revolution was sounded. John Adams afterward said. "The seeds of 
patriots and heroes were then and there sown ;''and when the orator exclaimed, 
" To my dying day I will oppose, with all the power and fixculties God has given 
me, all such instruments of slavery on one hand, and villany on the other,"' the 
independence of the colonies was proclaimed.' From that day began the triumphs 
of the popular will. Very few writs were issued, and these were ineffectual. 

Young King George unwisely turned his back upon Pitt,' and listened to 
the councils of Bute," an unprincijjled Scotch adventurer, who had been his 
tutor. Disastrous conse([uences ensued. Weak and corrupt men controlled 
his cabinet, and the pliant Parliament approved of illiljcral and unjust measures 
toward the colonists. The Sugar bill,' which had produced a great deal of ill- 
feeling in the colonies, was re-enacted ; and at the same time, George Grenville, 
then prime minister, proposed " certain stamp duties on the colonies." The 
subject was left open for consideration almo.^t a year, when, in the spring of 
1765, in defiance of the universal opposition of the Americans, the famous 
Stamp Act, which declared that no legal instrument of writing should be valid, 
unless it bore a government stamp, became a law.* Now was executed, without 
hesitation, a measure which no former ministry had possessed courage or reck- 
lessness enough to attempt." 



upon him from a sprinkling-pot with which he wa.s wetting the floor of the second story, at the same 
time saying, Pluit iantum, ne-scio quantum. Scis ne iu? "It rains so much, I Itnow not how mucli. 
Do you Icnow?" Otis immediately picked up a missile, and, hurling it through the window of the 
crockery store, it smashing every thing in its way, exclaimed, Fregi tot, nescio quut. Sets ne tu 1 
"I have broken so many, I know not how many. Do you know?" Mr. Otis, according to his 
expressed desire, was kiUed by lightning in 1782. See portrait at the head of this chapter. 

' Later than this [1768], Otis wrote to a friend in London, and said : " Our fathers were a good 
people ; we have been a frea people, and if you will not let us remain so any longer, we sliall be a 
great people, and the present measures can have no tendency but to hasten with great rapidity, 
events wliicli every good and honest man would wish delayed for ages." He evidently alluded to 
the future independence of the colonies. 

" Pitt, disgusted by the ignorance and assurance of- Bute and the misplaced confidence of the 
king, resigned his office, and retired to his country seat at Hayes. The king esteemed him highh', 
but was too much controlled by Bute to follow his own inclinati.ons. It was not long, however, 
before public aft'airs became so complicated, that the king was compelled to call upon the great 
commoner to untangle them. 

^ Bute was a gay Scotch earl, poor and proud. He became a favorite with the mother of George 
the Third, was appointed his tutor, and acquired such influence over the mind of tlie prince, that on 
liis accession to the throne, ho made him his chief minister and adviser. The English people were 
much incensed ; and the unwise measures of the early }'ears of George's reign, were properly laid 
to the charge of Bute. A placard was put up in London, with the words, "No Scotch minister — 
no petticoat government." The last clause referred to the influence of the queen mother. 

' A bill which imposed a duty upon sugar, cofiee, indigo, &c., imported into the colonies from 
the West Indies. 

' The stamps -were upon blue paper, in the form seen in the engraving on page 21.'!, and were 
to be attaclied to every piece of paper or parchment, on which a legal instrument was written. 
For these stamps government charged specific prices: for example, for a common property deed, 
one shilling and sixpence; for a diploma or certificate of a college degree, two pounds, &e., &c. 

« During Robert Walpole's administration [1732], a stamp duty was proposed. He said, "I 
will leave the taxation of America to some of my successors, who have more courage than I have." 
Sir 'William Keith, governor of Pennsvlvania, proposed such a tax in 1739. Franklin thought it 
.just, when a delegate in tlie Coloninl Congress at Albany, in 1754 [page 183]. But when it was 
proposed to Pitt in 1759, he said, " I will never burn my fingers with an American Stamp Act." 



214 



THE RE\'OLUTIOX. 



[1761. 



Tho colonists had watched with anxiety the growth of this new germ of 
oppression : and the intelhgence of the passage of the Act produced general 
and intense indignation in America. The hearts of the people were yet thrilled 
by the eloquent denunciations of Otis ; and soon Patrick Henry sent forth h 




response equally eloquent from the heaving bosom of the Virginia Assembly.' 
The people, in cities and villages, gathered in excited groups, and boldly 
expressed their indignation. The pulpit denounced the wicked scheme, and 

' Patrick Henry was a very Boanerges at tlie opening of tho Revolution. He was bom in 
Hanover County, Virginia, in 1736. In j-outh and manhood he was exceedingly indolent and dull. 
At the age of twenty-seven, his eloquence suddenly beamed forth in a speech in court, in his native 
county, and he soon became a leading man in Virginia. He was elected the first Republican gov- 
ernor of his State, in mc, and Iield tliat office again in 1784. He died in 1799, at the age of 
almost sixty-three years. At the time alluded to in the text, Henry introduced a series of re.solu- 
tions, highly tinctured with rebellious doctrines. Ho asserted the general rights of all tlie colonies; 
then the exclusive right of tlie Virginia Assembly to tax the people of that province, and boldly 
declared that the people were not bound to obey any law relative to taxation, which did not pro- 
ceed from tlieir representatives. Tlie la.st resolution declared tliat whoever sliould dissent li'om tho 
doctrines inculcated in the others, should be considered an "enemy of the colonies." The introduc- 
tion of these resolutions produced great excitenifnt and alarm. Henrj' supported them with all tho 
power of his wonderful eloquence. Some rose from their seats, and others sat in breathless silence. 
At length, when alluding to tyrants, he exclaimed, " Caesar had his Brutus, Charles the First his 
Cromwell, and George the Tliird" — there was a cry of " Treason ! Treason !" He paused a moment, 
and said — "may profit by their example. If tliat be treason, make the most of it." [See picture 
at the head of this chapter.] A part of his resolutions were adopted, and these formed the first 
gauntlet of defiance cast at the feet of tho British monarch. Their power was I'elt throughout the 
land. 




1775.] PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 215 

associations of Sons of Liberty^ in every colony put forth their energies in 
defense of popular freedom.' The press, then assuming great power, spoke out 
like an oracle of Truth. In several cities popular excite- 
ment created mobs, and violence ensued. The Stamps 
were seized on their arrival, and secreted or burned. 
Stamp distributors' were insulted and despised ; and on 
the first of November, 1765, when the law was to take 
effect, there were no officials courageous enough to 
enforce it. 

The people did not confine their opposition to expres- 
sions at indignation meetings, and acts of violence. The li onlLL,lJNu. 
public sentiment took a more dignified form, and assumed 
an aspect of nationality. There was a prevailing desire 
for a general Congress, and several colonies, in the midst of the great excite- 
ment, appointed delegates for that purpose. They met in the city of New- 
York, on the 7th of October, 1765,' continued in session fourteen days, and in 
three well-written documents,* they ably set forth the grievances and the rights 
of the colonists, and petitioned the king and parliament for a redress of the 
former, and acknowledgment of the latter. The proceedings of this Second 
Colonial Congress'' were applauded by all the provincial Assemblies, and the 
people of America were as firmly united in heart and purpose then, as they 
were after the Declaration of Independence, more than ten years later. 

At length the momentous day — the first of November — arrived. It was 
observed as a day of fasting and mourning. Funeral processions paraded the 
streets of cities, and bells tolled funeral knells. The colors of sailing vessel.5 
were placed at half-mast, and the newspapers exhibited the black-line tokens 
of public grief The courts were now closed, legal marriages ceased, ships 
remained in port, and for some time all business was suspended. But the lull 
in the storm was of brief duration. The people were only gathering strength 
for more vigorous achievements in defense of their rights. The Sons of Lib- 
erty put forth new efforts ; mobs began to assail the residences of officials, and 
burn distinguished royalists, in effigy." Merchants entered into agreements 

' These associations were composed of popular leaders and others, who leagued with the 
avowed determination to resist oppression to the uttermost. After their organization in the differ- 
ent colonies, they formed a sort of national league, and by continual correspondence, aided ellectu- 
ally in preparing the way for the Re%'olution. 

' Men appointed by the crown to sell the government stamps, or stamped paper. 

' Massachusetts, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and South 
Carolina, were represented. The Assemblies of those not represented, declared their readiness to 
agree to whatever measures the Congress might adopt. Timothy Ruggles, of Massachusetts (who 
afterward commanded a corps of Tories) [note 4, page 224], presided. 

' A Declaration of Eights, written by John Cruger, of New York ; a Memorial to both Homes of 
Parliament, by Robert R. Livingston, of New York ; and a Petition to the iing, by James Otis, of 
Massachusetts. ■ » Pace 183. 

Public indignation is thus sometimes manifested. A figure of a man intended to represent 
the obnoxious individual, is paraded, and then hung upon a scaffold, or burned at a stake, as an 
intimation of the deserved fate of the person thus represented. It was a common practice in En- 
gland at the time in question, and has been often done in our own countrv since. Nowliere was 
popular indignation so warmly manifested as in New York. Cadwallad(?r Colden, a venerable 
Scotchman of eighty years, was acting-governor of New York. He refused to deliver up the 



216 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1761. 



not to import goods from Great Britain while the obnoxious Act remained a law ; 
and domestic manufactures were commenced in almost every family." The 
wealthiest vied Avith the middling classes in economy, and wore clothing of 
their own manufacture. That wool might not become scarce, the use of sheep 




/^>^A 



flesh for food, was discouraged. Soon, from all classes in America, there went 
to the ears of the British ministry, a respectful but firm protest. It was 
seconded by the merchants and manufacturers of London, whose American 
trade was prostrated,' and the voice, thus made potential, was heard and heeded 
in high places. 

Btamped paper on the demand of tlio people, when they proceeded to hang him in effigy, near the 
spot where Leisler was executed [page US] seventy-five years before. They also burned his fine 
coach in front of the fort, near the present Bowling Green, and upon the smoking pile they cast hia 
effigy. Colden was a man of great scientific attainments. He wrote a History of the Five Nations 
[page 23], and was in constant correspondence with some of tlie most eminent philosophers and 
scholars of Europe. A life of Colden, from the pen of Jolui W. Francis, M.D., L.LD., may be found 
in the American Medical and Philosophical Register, 1811. He died in September, 1776. 

' The newspapers of the d.-iy contain many laudatory notices of the conformity of wealthy 
people to these agreements. On one occasion, forty or filly young ladies, who called themselves 
"Daughters of Liberty," met at the house of the Rev. Mr. Morehead, in Boston, witji their spinning- 
wheels, and spun two hundred and thirty-two skeins of yam, during the day, and presented them 
to the pastor. It is said "there were upward of one hundred spinners in Mr. Morehead's Society." 
" Within eighteen months." wrote a gentleman at Newport, R. I., " four hundred and eighty-seven 
yards of cloth, and thirty-six pairs of stockings, have been spun and knit in the family of James 
Nixon, of this town." 

' Half a million of dollars were due them by the colonists, at that time, not a dime of which 
could be collected under the existing state of things. 




1775.] PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 217 

While these events ■were in progress, Grenville had been succeeded in oflBce 
by the Marquis of Rockingham, a friend of the colonies, and an enlightened 
statesman. William Pitt,' who had been called from his retirement by the 
voice of the people, hoping much from the new ministry, appeared in Parlia- 
ment, and was there the earnest champion of the Amer- 
icans. Justice and e.xpediency demanded a repeal of the 
Stamp Act, and early in January, 1706, a bill for that 
purpose was introduced into the House of Commons, and 
was warmly supported by Pitt, Colonel Barro, and others 
Then Edmund Burke first appeared as the champion of 
right; and during the stormy debates on the subject, 
which ensued, he achieved some of those earliest and 
most wonderful triumphs of oratory, which established his 

<- 11 1 1 ■ II- 1 I mi WILLIAM PITT 

fame, and endearetl him to the American people. Ihe 
obno.xious act was repealed on the 18th of !March, 1766, when London ware- 
houses were illuminated, and flags decorated the shipping in the Thames. In 
America, public thanksgivings, bonfires, and illuminations, attested the general 
joy ; and Pitt,' who had boldly declared his conviction that Parliament had no 
right to tax the colonies without their consent,'' was lauded as a political Mes- 
siah. Non-importation associations were dissolved, business was resumed, and the 
Americans confidently expected justice from the mother country, and a speedy 
reconciliation. Alas ! the scene soon changed. 

Another storm soon began to lower. Pitt, himself tenacious of British 
honor, and doubtful of the passage of the Repeal Bill without some concessions, 
had appended to it an act, which declared that Parliament possessed the power 
" to bind the colonies, in all cases whatsoever." The egg of tyranny which 
lay concealed in this " declaratory act," as it was called, was not perceived by 
the colonists, while their eyes, were filled with tears of joy ; but when calm re- 
flection came, they saw clearly that germ of future oppressions, and were 
uneasy. They perceived the Repeal Bill to be only a truce in the war upon 
freedom in America, and they watched every movement of the government 
party with suspicion. Within a few months afterward, a brood of obnoxious 
measures were hatched from that egg, and aroused the fiercest indignation of 
the colonists. 

The American people, conscious of rectitude, were neither slow nor cautious 

' Note 2,- page 213. 

" Edmund Burke was born in Ireland, in 1730. He became a lawyer, and was a very popular 
writer, as well as a speaker. He was in public office about thirty years, and died in 1797. 

^ William Pitt was born in England in 1708, and held many high offices of trust and emolu- 
ment. During an exciting debate in Parliament, on American aftiiirs, in the spring of 1778, he 
swooned, and died within a month afterward. 

' "Taxation," said Pitt, "is no part of the governing or legislative power. Taxes are the vol- 
untary gift or grant of the commons alone." "I rejoice," he said, "that America has resisted. 
Three millions of people, so dead to all the feelings of liberty, as voluntarily to become slave.s, would 
have been fit instruments to make slaves of the rest." And Colonel Barre declared that the colon- 
ists were planted by English oppression, grew by neglect, and in all the essential elements of a free 
people, were perfectly independent of Great Britain. He then warned the government to act justly, 
or the colonies would be lost to Great Britain forever. 



218 THE EEVOLUTIOX. [1761. 

in exhibiting their indignation, and this boldness irritated their oppressors. A 
large portion of the House of Lords,' the whole bench of bishops," and many of 
the Commons, were favorable to coercive measures toward the Americans. Not 
doubting the power of Parliament to ta.x them, they prevailed on the ministry 
to adopt new schemes for replenishing the exhausted treasury' from the coffers 
of the colonists, and urged the justice of employing arms, if necessary, to en- 
force obedience. Troops were accordingly sent to America, in June, 1766 ; 
and a JIutiny Act was passed, which provided for their partial subsistence by 
the colonies.* The appearance of these troops in New York, and the order for 
the people to feed and shelter the avowed instruments of their own enslavement, 
produced violent outbreaks in that city, and burning indignation all over the 
land. The Assembly of New York at once arrayed itself against the govern- 
ment, and refused compliance with the demands of the obnoxious act. 

In the midst of the darkness, light seemed to dawn upon the Americans. 
Early in the month of July, Pitt was called to the head of the British ministry, 
and on the 30th of that month, he was created Earl of Chatham. He opposed 
the new measures as unwise and unjust, and the colonists hoped for reconcilia^ 
tion and repose. But Pitt could not always prevent mischief During his 
absence from Parliament, on account of sickness, the Chancellor of the Ex- 
chequer (Charles Town^hend) coalesced with Grenville in bringing new tax- 
ation schemes before that body.' A bill was passed in June, 1767, for levying 
duties upon tea, glass, paper, painters' colors, etc., which should be imported 
into the colonies. Another was passed, in July, for establishing a Board of 
Trade in the colonies, independent of colonial legislation, and for creating resi- 
dent commissioners of customs to enforce the revenue laws.' Then another, a 
few days later, which forbade the New York Assembly to perform any legisla^ 
tive act whatever, until it should comply with the requisitions of the Mutiny 
Act. These taxation schemes, and blows at popular liberty, produced excite- 
ment throughout the colonies, almost as violent as those on account of the 
Stamp Act.' The colonial Assemblies boldly protested ; new non-importation 
associations were formed ; pamphlets and newspapers were filled with inflam- 
matory appeals to the people, defining their rights, and urging them to a united 
resistance f and early in 1768, almost every colonial Assembly had boldly ex- 

' E eery peer in the British realm is a legislator by virtue of his title ; and when they are assem- 
bled for legislative duties, they constitute the House of Lords, or upper branch of the Jegislaturei 
answering, in some degree, to our Senate. 

' Two archbishops, and twenty-four bishops of England and '^"ales, hare a right to sit and vote 
in the House of Lords, and liave the same political importance as the peers. By the act of union 
between Ireland and England, four "lords spiritual" from among the archbishops and bishops of the 
former country, liave a seat in the House of Lords. The "lords temporal and lords spiritual" con- 
stitute the Hmise of Lords. The House of Commons is composed of men elected by the people, and 
answers to the Honse of Representatives of our Federal Congress. ° Page 212. 

' This act also allowed military oCBcers, possessing a warrant from a justice of the peace, to 
break into any house where lie might suspect deserters were concealed. Lilce the Writs of Assist- 
ance [page 212], tliis power miglit be used for wicked purposes. 

' In January, 1767, Grenville proposed a direct taxation of the colonies to the amount of twenty 
thousand dollars. 

° Note 6, page 212, and note 5, page 134. ' Page 215. 

° Among the most powerful of these appeals, were a series of letters, written by Jolni Dicken- 
son of Philadelphia, and entitled Letters of a Pennsylvania farmer. Like Paine's Crisis, ten yeata 



PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 



219 



pressed its conviction, that Parliament had no right to tax the colonies. These 
expressions were in response to a circular issued by Massachusetts [Feb., 1768J 
to the several Assemblies, asking their co-operation in obtaining a redress of 
grievances. That circular greatly offended the Ministry ; and the governor of 




Massachusetts was instructed to command the Assembly, in the king's name, to 
rescind the resolution adopting it. The Assembly, on the 30th of June follow- 
ing, passed an almost unanimous vote not to rescind,' and made this very order 
an evidence of the intentions of government to enslave the colonists, by restrain- 
ing the free speech and action of their representatives. 

The British Ministry, ignorant and careless concerning the character and 
temper of the Americans, disregarded the portentous warnings which every 
vessel from the New World bore to their ears. Having resolved on employing 
physical force in the maintenance of obedience, and not doubting its potency, 



later [note 4, page 250], these Letters produced a wide-spread and powerful effect on the public 
mind. James Otis asserted, in a pamphlet, that " taxes on trade [tariffs], if designed to raise a 
revenue, were as much a violation of their rights as any other tax." John Dickenson was born in 
Maryland, in November, 1732. He studied law in England for three years, and made his first ap- 
pearance in public Hfe, as a member of the Pennsylvania Assembly. He was a member of the 
Stamp Act Congress [page 215], and of the Continental Congress [page 226]. He was an eloquent 
speaker, and elegant writer. He was oppos:'d to the independence of the colonies, but acquiesced, 
and was an able member of the convention that framed the Federal Constitution. He remained long 
in public life, and died in 1808, at the age of seventy-five years. 

' James Otis and Samuel Adams were the principal speakers on this occasion. " 'WTien Lord 
Hillsborough [colonial secretary] knows," said the former, "that we will not rescind our acts, he 
should appeal to Parliament to rescind theirs. Let Britons rescind their measures, or the colonita 
are lost to them forever." 



220 THE REVOLUTION. [1761. 

they became less regardless of even the forms of justice, and began to treat the 
colonists as rebellious subjects, rather than as free British brethren. Ministers 
sent orders to the colonial Assemblies, warning them not to imitate the factious 
disobedience of Massachusetts ; and the royal governors were ordei-ed to enforce 
submission by all means in their power. The effect of these circulars was to 
disgust and irritate the Assemblies, and to stimulate their sympathy for Massa- 
chusetts, now made the special object of displeasure. 

It was in the midst of the general excitement, in May, 1768, that the new 
commissioners of customs arrived at Boston. They were regarded with as 
much contempt as were the tax-gatherers in Judea, in the time of our Saviour.' 
It was difficult to i-estrain the more ignorant and excitable portion of the pop- 
ulation from committing personal violence. A crisis soon arrived. In June, 
1768, the sloop Liberty, belonging to John Hancock, one of the leaders of the 
popular mind in Boston,' arrived at that port with a cargo of Madeira wine. 
The commissioners demanded the payment of duties, and when it was refused, 
they seized the vessel. The news spread over the town, and the people re- 
solved on immediate and effectual resistance. An assemblage of citizens soon 
became a mob, who dragged a custom-house boat through the town, burned it 
upon the Common, assailed the commissioners, damaged their houses, and com- 
pelled them to seek safety in Castle William, a small fortress at the entrance 
to the harbor.^ Alarmed by these demonstrations of the popular feeling, Gov- 
ernor Bernard unwisely invited General Gage,' then in command of British 
troops at Halifax, to bring soldiers to Boston to overawe the inhabitants.' They 
came in September [Sept. 27, 1768], seven hundred in number, and on a quiet 
Sabbath morning, landed under cover of the cannons of the British ships which 
brought them, and with drums beating, and colors flying, they marched to the 
Common," with all the parade of a victorious army entering a conquered city.. 
Religion, popular freedom, patriotism, were all outraged, and the cup of the 
people's indignation was full.' The colonists were taught the bitter, but neces- 
sary lesson, that armed resistance must oppose armed oppression.'' 

Like the Assembly of New York, that of INIassachusetts refused to afford 



' The publicans, or toll-gatherers of Judea, being a standing monument of the degradation of the 
.Tews under the Roman yoke, were abhorred. One of the accusations against our Saviour was, that 
he did " eat with publicans and sinners." ' Page 231. 

' About three miles south-east from Boston. The fortress was ceded to tlie United States in 
1798; and the following year it was visited by President Adams, and named Fort Independence, its 
present title. In connection with Castle William, we find tlie first mention of the tune of " Yanliee 
Doodle." In the Boston Journal of the Times, September 29, 1768, is the following: "Tlie fleet 
was brought to anchor near Castle William ; tliat niglit there was throwing of sky-rockets ; and 
those passing in boats observed great rejoicings, and that the Yankee Doodle Song was the capital 
piece in the band of music." ' Page 186. 

' The British ministry had already resolved to send troops to Boston to subdue the rebellious 
propensities of the people. 

° A large public park on the southern slope of Beacon Hill 

' As the people refused to svipply the troops with quarters, they were placed, some in the Stato 
House, some in Faneuil Hall [page 225], and others in tents on tlie Common. Cannons wero 
planted at difiercnt points; sentinels challenged the citizens as they passed ; and the whole town 
had the appearance of a camp. 

° There were, at that time, full two hundred thousand men in the colonies capable of bearing 
arms, 



1775.] PRELIillNART EVENTS. 221 

food and shelter for the royal troops in that province, and for this offense, Par- 
liament, now become the suj)ple instrument of the crown, censured their dis- 
obedience, approved of coercive measures, and, by resolution, prayed the king 
to revive a long obsolete statute of Henry the Eighth, by which the governor 
of the refractory colony should be required to arrest, and send to England for 
trial, on a charge of treason, the ringleaders in the recent tumults. The colo- 
nial Assembly indignantly responded, by re-asserting the chartered privileges 
of the people, and denying the right of the king to take an offender from the 
country, for trial. And in the House of Commons a powerful minority battled 
manfully for the Americans. Burke pronounced the idea of reviving that old 
statute, as "horrible.'' " Can you not trust the juries of that country?" he 
asked. " If you have not a party among two millions of people, you must 
either change your plans of government, or renounco the colonies forever." 
Even Grenville, the author of the Stamp Act, opposed the measure, yet a ma- 
jority voted in favor of the resolution, on the 26th of January, 1769. 

The British troops continued to be a constant source of irritation, while, 
month after month, the colonics were agitated by disputes with the royal gov- 
ernors, the petty tyranny of lesser officials, and the interference of the imperial 
government with colonial legislation. The Assembly of Massachusetts, encour- 
aged by the expressed sympathy of the other colonies, firmly refused to appro- 
priate a single dollar for the support of the troops. They even demanded their 
withdrawal from the city, and refused to transact any legislative business while 
they remained. Daily occurrences exasperated the people against the troops, 
and finally, on the 2d of March, 1770, an event, apparently trifling in its char- 
acter, led to bloodshed in the streets of Boston. A rope-maker cpiarreled with 
a soldier, and struck him. Out of this affray grew a fight between several sol- 
diers and rope-makers. The latter were beaten, and the result aroused the 
vengeance of the more excitable portion of the inhabitants. A few evenings 
afterward [Mai'ch 5], about seven hundred of them assembled in the streets, 
for the avowed purpose of attacking the troops.' A sentinel was assaulted near 
the custom-house, when Captain Preston, commander of the ^uard, went to his 
rescue with eight armed men. The mob darod the soldiers to fire, and attacked 
them with stones, pieces of ice, and other missiles. One of the soldiers who 
received a blow, fired, and his six companions also discharged their guns. 
Three of the citizens were killed, and five were danger- /^"-^jsife 

ously wounded.' The mob instantly retreated, when all mf ja 

' These were addressed by a tall man, disguised by a white wi,i and 
a scarlet cloak, who closed liis harangue by shouting, " To the main 
guard! to the main guard!" and then disappeared. It was always be- 
lieved that the tall man was Samuel Adams, one of the most inflexible 
patriots of the Revolution, and at that time a popular leader. He was 
a descendant of one of the early Puritans [page 75], and was born in 
Boston in 1722. He was one of the signers of the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence; was afterward governor of Massachusetts; and died in 
1803. A purer patriot than Samuel Adams, never lived. SIMLEL AD MIS. 

' The leader of the mob was a powerful mulatto, named Crispus 
Attacks. He and Samuel Gray and James Caldwell, were killed instantly ; two others received 
mortal wounds. 




222 THE RETOLUTIOX. [1761. 

the bells of the city rang an alarum, and in less than an hour several thou- 
sands of exasperated citizens were in the streets. A terrible scene of blood 
would have ensued, had not Governor Hutchinson assured the people that 
justice should be vindicated in the morning. They retired, but with firm re- 
solves not to endure the military despotism any longer. 

The morning of the 6th of March was clear and frosty. At an early hour 
Governor Hutchinson was called upon to fulfill his promise. The people de- 
manded the instant removal of the troops from Boston, and the trial of Captain 
Preston and his men, for murder. These demands were complied with. The 
troops were removed to Castle William [March 12, 1770], and Preston, ably 
defended by John Adams and Josiah Quincy, two of the popular leaders, was 
tried and acquitted, with six of his men, by a Boston jury. The other two sol- 
diers were found guilty of manslaughter. This result was a comment on the 
enforcement of the statute of Henry the Eighth, highly favorable to the Amer- 
icans. It was so regarded in England, and was used with good efiect by the 
opposition in Parliament. It showed that in the midst of popular excitement, 
the strong conservative principles of justice bore rule. The victims of the riot 
were regarded as martyrs to liberty,' and for many years, the memory of the 
'•' Boston Massacre," as it was called, was kept alive by anniversary orations in 
the city and vicinity. 

Perceiving the will and the power of the colonists in resisting taxation with- 
out their consent, the British ministry now wavered. On the very day of the 
bloody riot in Boston [March 5], Lord North, who was then the English prime 
minister, proposed to Parliament a repeal of all duties imposed by the act of 
1767," except that upon tea. An act to that efiect was passed a month after- 
ward [April 12]. This concession was wrung from the minister partly by the 
clamor of English merchants and manufacturers, who again felt severely the 
operations of the non-importation associations in America. As tea was a lux- 
ury. North supposed the colonists would not object to the small duty laid upon 
that article, and he retained it as a standing assertion of the rifjht of Parliament 
to impose such duties. The minister entirely mistook the character of the peo- 
ple he was dealing with. It was not the petty amounl of duties of which they 
complained, for all the taxes yet imposed were not in the least burdensome to 
them. They were contending for a great princip/e, which lay at the foundation 
of their liberties ; and they regarded the imposition of a duty upon one article 
as much a violation of their sacred rights, as if ten were included. They ac- 
cepted the ministerial concession, but, asserting their rights, continued their 
non-importation league against the purchase and use of tea.' 

' They were buried with great parade. All the bells of Eofton and vicinity tolled a funeral 
knell while the procession was moving ; and as intended, the affair made a deep impression on the 
public mind. ' Page 218. 

' Even before North's proposition was made to Parliament, special agreements concerning the 
disuse of tea, had been made. Already the popular feeling on this subject had b?en manifested to- 
ward a Boston merchant who continued to sell tea. A company of half-grown boys placed an elBgy 
near his door, witli a finger upon it pointing toward his store. While a man was attempting to 
pull it down, he was pelted with dirt and stones. He ran into the store, and seizing a gun, dis- 
charged its contents among the crowd. A boy named Snyder was killed, and Christopher Gore 



1175.] PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 223 

The spirit of opposition was not confined to the more northern and eastern 
colonies. It was rife below the Roanoke, and was boldly made manifest when 
occasion required. In 1771, the Carolinas, hitherto exempted from violent out- 
bursts of popular indignation, although never wanting in zeal in opposing the 
Stamp Act, and kindred measures, became the theater of great excitement. To 
satisfy the rapacity and pride of royal governors, the industry of the province 
of North Carolina, especially, was enormously taxed.' The oppression was real, 
not an abstract principle, as at the North. The people in the interior at length 
formed associations, designed to resist unjust taxation, and to control public 
affairs. They called themselves Regulators ; and in 1771, they were too nu- 
merous to be overawed by local magistrates. Their operations assumed the 
character of open rebellion ; and in the spring of that year. Governor Tryon" 
marched into that region with an armed force, to subdue them. They met him 
upon Alamance Creek, in Alamance county, on the 16th of May, and there a 
bloody skirmish ensued. The Regulators were subdued and dispersed, and 
Tryon marched back in triumph to the sea-board, after hanging six of the lead- 
ers, on the 19th of June following. These events aroused, throughout the South, 
the fiercest hatred of British power, and stimulated that earnest patriotism so 
early displayed by the people below the Roanoke, when the Revolution broke out.' 

The upper part of Narraganset Bay exhibited a scene, in the month of 
June, 1772, which produced much excitement, and widened the breach between 
Great Britain and her colonies. The commander of the British armed schooner 
Ga.yi:-, stationed there to assist the commissioners of customs* in enforcing the 
revenue laws, annoyed the American navigators by haughtily commanding them 
to lower their colors when they passed his vessel, in token of obedience. The 
William Tells of the bay refused to bow to the cap of this petty Gesler.' For 
such disobedience, a Providence sloop was chased by the schooner. The latter 
grounded upon a low sandy point; and on that night [June 9, 1772], sixty-four 
armed men went down from Providence in boats, captured the people on board 
the Gasp}, and burned the vessel. Although a large reward was offered for the 
perpetrators (who were well known in Providence*), they were never betrayed. 

(afterward governor of Massachusetts) was wounded. The affair produced great excitement. At 
about tlie same time, three hundred " mistresses of families" in Boston signed a pledge of total ab- 
stinence from the use of tea, while the duty remained upon it. A few days afterward a large num- 
ber of young ladies signed a similar pledge. 

' Governor Tryon caused a palace to bo erected for his residence, at Newbem, at a cost of 
$75,000, for the payment of which the province was taxed. This was in 1768, and was one of the 
principal causes of discontent, wliioh produced the outbreak here mentioned. 

= Page 248. = Page 237. * Page 220. 

' Gesler was an Austrian governor of one of the cantons of Switzerland. He placed his cop on 
a pole, at a gate of the town, and ordered all to bow to it, when they should enter. William Tell, a 
brave leader of the people, refused. He was imprisoned for disobedience, escaped, aroused his 
countrymen to arms, who drove their Austrian masters out of the land, and achieved the indepen- 
dence of Switzerland. 

" One of the leaders was Abraham "Wliipple, a naval commander during the Revolution [page 
310]. Several others were afterward distinguished for bravery during that struggle. Four years 
afterward, when Sir James Wallace, a British commander, was in tlie vicinity of Newport, Whipple 
became known as the leader of the attack on the Gaspe. Wallace sent him the following letter: 
"You, Abraham Whipple, on the 9th of June, 1772, burned his majesty's vessel, the Gaspe, and I 
will hang you at tlie yard-arm." To this Whipple replied : " To Sir James Wallace. Sir: Always 
catch a man before you hang him. — James Whipple." 




224 THE DEVOLUTION. [1761. 

These rebellious acts, so significant of the temper of the Americans, greatly 
perplexed the British ministry. Lord North' would gladly have conciliated 
them, but he was pledged by words and acts to the maintenance of the asserted 
principle, that Parliament had the undoubted right to tax the colonies without 
their consent. He labored hard to perceive some method by which conciliation 
and parliamentary supremacy might be made to harmonize, and early in 1773, 
a new thought upon taxation entered his brain. The East India Company, - 
having lost their valuable tea customers in America, by the operation of the 
non-importation associations, and having more than seventeen millions of pounds 
of the article in their warehouses in England, petitioned Parliament to take off 
the duty of three pence a pound, levied upon its importation into America. 
The company agreed to pay the government more than 
an cijual amount, in export duty, if the change-should be 
made. Here was an excellent opportunity for the gov- 
ernment to act justly and wisely, and to produce a per- 
fect reconciliation ; but the stupid ministry, fearing it 
might be considered a submission to "rebellious sub- 
jects," refused the olive branch of peace. Continuing 
to misapprehend the real question at issue. North intro- 
duced a bill into Parliament, allowing the company to 

LORD NOKTH. , . , , , . ,, . \ -.1 

export then" teas to America on then- own account, with- 
out paying an export duty. As this would make tea cheaper in America than 
in England, he concluded the Americans would not object to paying the three 
pence duty. This concession to a commercial monopoly, while spurning the 
appeals of a great principle, only created contempt and indignation throughout 
the colonies. 

Blind as the minister, the East India Company now regarded the American 
market as open for their tea, and soon after the passage of the bill [May 10, 
1773], several large ships, heavily laden with the article, were on their way 
across the Atlantic. Intelligence of these movements reached America before 
the arrival of any of the ships, and the people in most of the sea-board towns, 
where consignments of tea had been made, resolved that it should not even be 
landed. The ships which arrived at New York and Philadelphia, returned to 
England with their cargoes. At Charleston it was landed, but was not allowed 
to be sold; while at Boston, the attempts of the governor and his friends," who 

' Frederick, Earl of Guilford (Lord North), was a man of talent, pincerely attached to English 
liberty, and conscientious in the performanancc of liis duties. Lilfo many other statesmen of his 
time, he utterly misapprehended tlie cliaraeter of the American people, and could not i]civeive the 
justice of their claims, lie was primo minister during the whole of our War for Independence. 
He was afflicted with blindness during the last years of his life. Ho died in July, 1792, at the age 
of sixty years. 

" The English East India Company was formed and chartered in 1600, for the purpose of 
carrying on a trade by sea, between England and the countries lying east of the Cape of Good 
Hope [note 1, page 37]. It continued prosperous; and about the middle of the last century, the 
governor of its stations in India, under the pretense of obtaining security for tlieir trade, subdued 
small territories, and thus planted tlie foundation of that great British empire in tlie East, which 
now comprises the whole of Hiniiostan, from Cape Comorin to the Himalaya mountains, with a 
popul.ation of more than one hundred and twenty millions of people. 

' The pubhc mind in Massachusetts was greatly inflamed against Governor Hutchinson at this 




1775.] PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 22.3 

were consignees, to land the tea in defiance of the public feeling, resulted in the 

destruction of a large quantity of it. On a cold moonlight night [December 

16, 1773], at the close of the last of several spirited 

meetincs of the citizens held at Faneuil Hall,' a party 

of about sixty persons, some disguised as Indians, 

rushed on board two vessels in the harbor, laden with 

tea, tore open the hatches, and in the course of two 

hours, three hundred and forty-two chests containing 

the proscribed article, were broken open, and their 

contents cast into the water. This event produced a 

powerful sensation throughout the British realm, and 

f . °. FAisJSLIL UALL. 

led to very important results. 

While the American colonies^ and even Canada, Nova Scotia, and the 
British West Indies, sympathized with the Bostonians, and could not censure 
them, the exasperated government adopted retaliatory measures, notwithstand- 
ing payment for all damage to their proj)erty was promised to the East India 
Company. Parliament, by enactment []March 7, 1774], ordered the port of 
Boston to be closed against all commercial transactions whatever, and the re- 
moval of the custom-house, courts of justice, and other public offices, to Salem. 
The Salem people patriotically refused the proffered advantage at the expense 
of their neighbors ; and the inhabitants of Marblehead, fifteen miles distant, 
offered the free use of their harbor and wharves, to the merchants of Boston. 
Soon after the passage of the Boston Port Bill, as it was called, another act, 
which leveled a blow at the charter of Massachusetts, was made a law [March 
28, 1774]. It was equivalent to a total subversion of the charter, inasmuch 
as it deprived the people of many of the dearest privileges guarantied by that 
instrument." A third retaliatory act was passed on the 21st of April, -provid- 
ing for the trial, in England, of all persons charged in the colonies with mur- 
ders committed in support of government, giving, as Colonel Barrj said, 
"encouragement to military insolence already so insupportable." A fourth 
bill, providing for the quartering of troops in America, was also passed by 
large majorities in both Houses of Parliament ; and in anticipation of rebellion 
in America, a fifth act was passed, making groat concessions to the Roman 
Catholics in Canada, known as the Quebec Act. This excited the animosity of 



time, whose letters to a member of Parliament, recommending stringent measures toward the col- 
onies, had been procured in England, and sent to the speaker of the colonial Assembly, by Dr. 
Franklin. At about the same time. Parliament had passed a law, making the governor and judges 
of Massachusetts independent of the Assembly for their salaries, these being paid out of the reve- 
nues in the hands of the commissioners of customs. This removal of these officials beyond all de- 
pendenc3 upon tho people, constituted them fit instruments of the crown for oppressing the inhabit- 
ants, and in that aspect the colonists viewed the measure, and condemed it. 

' Because the Revolutionary meetings in Boston were held in Faneuil Hall, it was (and still is) 
called The Cradle of Liberty. It was built, and presented to the town, by Peter Faneuil, in 1742. 
The picture shows its form during the Revolution. The v.ane on the steeple, in the form of a grass- 
hopper (symbolical of devouring), yet [1867] holds its original place. 

" It empowered sheriffs appointed by the crown, to select juries, instead of leaving that power 
with the selectmen of the towns, wlio were chosen by the people. It also prohibited all town 
meetings and other gatherings. It provided for the appointment of the council, judges, justices of 
the peace, etc., )jy the crown or its representative. 

15 



226 THE REVOLUTION. [IICI. 

all Protestants. These measures created universal indignation toward the gov- 
ernment, and sympathy for the people of Boston. 

On the first of June, 1774, the Boston Port Bill went into operation. It 
was a heavy blow for the doomed town. Business was crushed, and great suf- 
fering ensued. The utter prostration of trade soon produced wide-spread dis- 
tress. The rich, deprived of their rents, became straitened ; and the poor, 
denied th« privilege of laboring, were reduced to beggary. All classes felt the 
scourge of the oppressor, but bore it with remarkable fortitude. They were 
conscious of being right, and everywhere, tokens of the liveliest sympathy were 
manifested. Flour, rice, cereal grains, fuel, and money, were sent to the suffer- 
ing people from the different colonies ; and the city of London, in its corporate 
capacity, subscribed one hundred and fifty thousand dollars for the poor of Boston. 
For the purpose of enforcing these oppressive laws. General Gage, the com- 
mander-in-chief of the British army in America,' was appointed governor of 
Massachusetts, and an additional military force was ordered to Boston. These 
coercive demonstrations greatly increased the public irritation, and diminished 
the hopes of reconciliation. Slavi.ih submission or armed resistance, was now 
the alternative presented to the American people. Committees of correspond- 
ence which had been formed in every colony in 1773,' had lieen busy in thr- 
interchange of sentiments and opinions, and throughout the entire community 
of Anglo-Americans there was evidently a general consonance of feeling, favor- 
able to united efforts in opposing the augmenting tyranny of Great Britain. 
Yet they hesitated, and resolved to deliberate in solemn 
council before they should appeal to " the last argument 
of kings."' , 

The patriots of Massachusetts stood not alone in 
their integrity. In all the colonies the Wuios' were 
as inflexible and bold, and as valiantly defied the power 
of royal governors, when unduly exercised. But those of Massachusetts, being 
the special objects of ministerial vengeance, suffered more, and required more 
boldness to act among bristling bayonets and shotted cannons, prepared ex- 
pressly for their bosoms. Yet they grew stronger every day under persecu- 
tion, and bolder as the frowns of British power became darker.' Even while 

' Page 220. 

- At a consultation of leadinfr members of the Virginia House of Assembly, in March, 1773, held 
in the old Raleigh tavern at 'Williamsburg, at which Patrick Henry, Thomas Jefferson, Richard 
Henry Lee, and otliers, were present, it was agreed to submit a resolution in the House the follow- 
ing day, appointing a committee of vigilance and correspondence, and recommending the same to 
the other colonies. The measure was carried, and these committees formed one of the most power- 
ful engines in canying on the work of the Revolution. Similar committees had already been formed 
in several towns in Massachusetts. 

' These words, in Latin, wore often placed upon cannon. Before the armory, at Richmond, 
Virginia, was destroyed, in April, ISGu, several old French cannons, made of brass, were there, < n 
two of which these words appeared. They also appear upon some French cannon at Wert Poinl. 

' Tlie terras, Whig and Tory, had long been used in England as titles of political parties. The 
former denoted the opposers of royalty ; the hitter indicated its supporters. These terms wcro 
introduced into America two or three years before the Revolution broke out, and became the dis- 
tinctive titles of the patriots and loiialiats. 

' Even the children seemed to lose their timidity, and became bolder. They nobly exhibited it 




SNAKE DEVICE 



1775.] 



PRELIMINARY EVENTS. 



227 



troops, to overawe them were parading the streets of Boston, sturdy representa- 
tives of the people assembled at Salem,' and sent forth an invitation to all the 
colonies to appoint delegates to meet in a general Congress at Philadelphia on 
the 5th of September following. It met with a hearty response from twelve of 




the thirteen colonies, and the Press and the Pulpit seconded the measures with 
great emphasis. Some newspapers bore a significant device. It was a snake 
cut into thirteen parts, each part bearing the initials of a colony upon it, as 
seen in the engraving." Under these were the signific;mt words, Unite or die. 
The delegates were all appointed before the close of August, and the FiusT 



on one occasion. They were in tho habit of building mounds of snow in winter, on Boston Com- 
mon. These tlie s;)ldier3 Ijattered down, so as to annoy the boys. This being repeated, a meeting 
of larger boys was held, and a deputation was sent to General Gage, to remonstrate. " We come, 
sir," said the tallest boy, "to demand satisfaction." "What!" exclaimed Gage; "have your 
fathers been teaching you rebellion, and sent you here to exhibit it?" " Nobody sent us here, sir," 
said the boy. while his eyes flashed with indignation. " Wo have never insulted nor injured your 
troops, but they have trodden down our snow-hills, and broken the ice on our skating-grounds. 
Wa complained ; and, calling us young rebels, told us to help o\irselves if we could. We told the 
captain of this, and he laughed at us. Yesterday our works were destroyed for the third time, and 
we will bear it no longer." (4age admired tlie spirit of the boys, promised them redress, and turn- 
ing to an officer, he said, "Tho very children here draw in a love of liberty with the air tlic; 
breathe " 

' At that meeting of the General Assembly of Massachusetts, the patriots matured a plan for a 
general Congress, provided for munitions of war to resist British power in their own province, and 
formed a gener.d non-importation league for the whole country. In the midst of their proceedings. 
General Gage sent his secretary to dissolve them, but tin doors of tho Assembly chamber wero 
locked, and the key was in Samuel Adams's pocket. Having finished their business, the Assembly 
ailjourned, and thus ended the last session of tliat body, under a royal governor. " Pago 22G. 




228 THE REVOLUTION. [1761. 

CoxTiNEXTAL CoxGRESs' assembled in Carpenter's Hall, Philadelphia, on the 
5th of September, 1774, the day named in the circular. All but Georgia were 
represented. Peyton Randolph, of Virginia, was appointed President, and 
Charles Thomson of Pennsylvania, Secretary.^ The regular business of the 
Congress commenced on the morning of the 7th, ^ after an impressive prayer for 
Divine guidance, uttered by the Rev. Jacob DuchtV of Philadelphia. They 
remained in session until the 26th of October, during which time they matured 
measures for future action, which met with the general approbation of the 
American people.^ They prepared and put forth sev- 
eral State papers," marked by such signal ability and 
wisdom, as to draw from the Earl of Chatham these 
words in the Plouse of Lords : "I must declare and 
avow, that in all my reading and study of history — 
(and it has been my flivorite study — I have read Thu- 
cydides, and have studied and admired the master 
States of the world) — that for solidity of reasoning, 
force of sagacity, and wisdom of conclusion, under 

CABPEXTER'S HALL. i T j.- D ■ 

such a comphcation ot circumstances, no nation or 

body of men can stand in preference to the general Congress at Philadelphia.' 

In all its proceedings Congress manifested decorum, firmness,' moderation, 

' This name was given to distinguish it from tho two colonial Congresses [pages 183 and 215] 
already liekl ; one at Albany in 1754, the other at New York in 1765. 

" TlionLson was secretary of Congress, perpetuall.y, from 1774, until the adoption of the Federal 
Constitution, and the organization of the new government, in 1789. Watson relates that Thomson 
had just come into Philadelphia, with his bride, and was alighting from his chaise, when a messen- 
ger from the delegates in Carpenter's Hall came to liim, and said they wanted him to come and 
take minutes of their proceedings, as he was an expert at such business. For his first year's serv- 
ice, he received no pay. So Congress informed his wife tliat they wished to compensate her for tho 
absence of her husband during that time, and wished her to name what kind of a piece of plate she 
would like to receive. She cliose an urn, and that silver vessel is yet in the family. Thomson was 
born in Ireland in 1130, came to America when eleven years of age, and died in 1824, at the ago 
of ninety-four years. 

' When the delegates had assembled on the 5th, no one seemed inclined to break the silence, 
and deep anxiety was depicted in every countenance. Soon a grave-looking man, in a suit of 
"minister's gray," and unpowdered wig, arose, and, with a sweet, musical voice, he uttered a few 
eloquent words, that electrified the whole audience. "Who i^ he?" was a question that went 
from lip to lip. A few who knew liim, answered, " It is Patrick Henry, of Virginia." There was 
no longer any hesitation. He who, nine years before, had cast the gauntlet of defiance at the feet 
of British power, now set in motion that august machinery of civil power, which assisted in work- 
ing out the independence of tho United States. 

' Duche was a minister of the Church of England, and afterward became a Tory. 

^ Tliey prepared a plan for a general commercial non-intercourse with Great Britain and her 
West India possessions, which was called Tlie American Association, and was recommended for 
adoption throughout the country. It consisted of fourteen articles. lu addition to the non-inter- 
course provisions, it was recommended to abandon the slave-trade, to improve tlie breed of sheep, 
to abstain from all extravagance in living and indulgence in horse-racing, etc., and the appointment 
of a committee in every to^vn to promote conformity to the requirements of the Association. It 
was signed by the fifty-two members present. 

" A Bill of Eights; an address to the people of Great Britain, written by John Jay; another to 
the several Anglo-American colonies, written by W'illiara Livingston ; another to the inliabitants of 
Quebec, and a petition to the king. In these, the grievances and the rights of the colonies were ably 
set forth. 

' He also said, in a letter to Stephen Sayre, on the 24th of December, 1774: "I have not 
words to express my satisfaction that the Congress has conducted this most arduous and delicate 
business, with such manly wisdom and calm resolution, as do the liighcst honor to their deliberation." 

° On the 8th of October, they unanimously resolved, " That this Congress approve tlie opposition 



iTJo.] FIRST TEAR OP THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 229 

and loyalty ; and when the delegates resolved to adjourn, to meet again at the 
same place on the 10th of" May following [1775], unless the desired redress of 
grievances should be obtained, they did so with an earnest hope that a reconcil- 
iation might speedily take place, and render another national council unneces- 
sary. But they were doomed to bitter disappointment. Great Britain was 
blind and stubborn still. 



CHAPTER II. 

FIRST TEAR OP THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1775.] 

Persuaded that war was inevitable, the colonists began to prepare for that 
event, during the summer and autumn of 1774. They practiced daily in mil- 
itary exercises ; the manufacture of arms and gunpowder was encouraged ; and 
throughout Massachusetts in particular, where the heel of the oppressor bore 
heaviest, the people were enrolled in companies. Fathers and sous, encouraged 
by the gentler sex, received lessons together in the art of war, and prepared to 
take arms at a moment's warning. From this circumstance, they were called 
minute-men. The Whig' journals grew bolder every hour. Epigrams, para- 
bles, sonnets, dialogues, and every form of literary expression, remarkable for 
point and terseness, filled their columns. We give a single specimen of some 
of the rhymes of the day : 

" THE QUARREL WITH AMEUIC.V FAIRLY STATED. 

" Rudely forced to drink tea, Jlassaehusctts in anger 
Spills the tea on Jolin Bull ; John Hills on to bang her ; 
Massachusetts, enraged, calls her neighbors to aid, 
And give Master John a severe bastinade. 
Now, good men of the law ! pra_v, who is in fault, 
The one who began or resents the assault?" 

The Massachusetts leaders, in the mean while, were laboring, with intense 
zeal, to place the province in a condition to rise in open and united rebellion, 
when necessity should demand. And all over the land, the provincial assem- 
blies, speakers at public gatherings, and from the pulpit, were boldly proclaim- 
ing the right of resistance. These demonstrations alarmed General Gage," and 
he commenced fortifying Boston Neck." He also seized and conveyed to 

of the inhabitants of Massachusetts Bay, to the execution of the late acts of Parliament, and if the 
same shall be attempted to be carried into execution by force, in such case all America ought to 
support them in their opposition." This resolution, in letter and spirit, was the embodiment of tho 
revolutionary sentiment. ' Note 4, page 22G. 

^ Thomas Gage was a native of England. He was governor of Montreal [page 203] in 1760, and 
commander-in-chief of the British army in America, in 1763. He was appointed governor of 
Massachusetts, in 1774; left America in 1775; and died in 1787. 

' The peninsula of Boston was originally connected with the main land by a-narrow isthmus 
called the Neck. It has been greatly widened by filling in the marginal morasses ; and over it now 
passes the fine avenue which connects the city with Roxbury, on the main. 



230 THE REVOLUTION. [1716. 

the city large quantities of ammunition found in the neighboring villages, and 
employed stringent measures for preventing intercourse between the patriots in 
the city and in the country. The exasperated people needed but the electric 
spark of even a slight offense to kindle their suppressed indignation into a 
blaze. They weic ready to sound the battle-cry, and evoke the sword of rebel- 
lion from its scabbard ; and they were even anxious to attack the soldiers in 
Boston, but they were restrained by prudent conselors.' 

A rumor went abroad on the third of September, that British ships were 
cannonading Boston. From the shores of Long Island Sound to the green 
hills of Berkshire, " To arms ! to arms !" was the universal shout. Instantly, 
on every side, men of all ages were seen cleansing and burnishing their weap- 
ons ; and within two days, full thirty thousand minute-men were under arms, 
and hastening toward that city. They were met by a contradiction of the 
rumor; but the event conveyed such a portentous lesson to Gage, that he 
pushed forward his military operations with as much vigor as the opposition of 
the people would allow." He thought it expedient to be more conciliatory ; 
and he summoned the colonial Assembly to meet at Salem on the 5th of Octo- 
ber. Then dreading their presence, he revoked the order. Ninety delegates 
met, however, and organized by the appointment of John Hancock" president. 
They then went to Cambridge, where they formed a Provincial Congress, inde- 
pendent of royal authority (the first in America), and labored earnestly in 
preparations for that armed resistance, now become a stern necessity. They 
made provisions for an army of twelve thousand men ; solicited other New En- 
gland colonies to augment it to twenty thousand ; and appointed Jedediah 
Preble and Artcmas Ward' men of experience in the French and Indian war,^ 
generals of all the troops that might be raised. 

The Americans were now fairly aroused to action. They had counted the 
cost of armed rebellion, and were fully resolved to meet it. The defiant 
position of the colonists arrested the attention of all Europe. When the Brit- 
ish Parliament assembled early in 1775, that body presented a scene of great 
excitement. Dr. Franklin and others," then in England, had given a wide cir- 
culation to the State papers put forth by the Continental Congress ;' and the 

' Many hundreds of armed men assembled at Cambridge, ^t Cliarlestown, the people took 
possession of the .arsenal, after Gage had carried ofl' the powder. At Portsmouth, N. H., they cap- 
tured the fort, and carried ofi' the ammunition. At Newport, R. I., the people seized the powder, 
and took possession of forty pieces of cannon at tlie entrance of the harbor. In New York, Phila- 
delphia, Annapolis, Williamsburg, Charleston, and Savannah, the people took active defensive 
measures, and the whole country was in a blaze of indignation. 

' Carpenters refused to work on the fortifications, and much of the materia) was destroyed by 
fire, at night, in spite of the vigilance of the guards. Gage sent to New York for timber and work- 
men ; but the people there would not permit cither to leave their port. 

° John Hancock was one of the most popular of the New England patriots, throughout the 
whole war. He was born in Braintree, Massachusetts, in 1737, was educated at Harvard College; 
became a counting-room clerk to his uncle, and inherited that gentleman's great wealtli. He 
entered public life early ; was a representative in the Continental Congress, and was its president 
when the Declaration of Independence was adopted. He was afterward governor of Massachusetts. 
Mr. Hancock died in October, 1793, at the age of lifty-six j-ears. 

' Note 5, page 238. " ' ' Page 179. 

" Dr. Franklin had then been agent in' England, for several of the colonies, for about ten yeaia 

' Note 6, page 228. 



FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



231 



English mind was already favorably influenced in favor of the Americans. 
Pitt came on crutches' from his retirement, to cast the weight of his mighty 
influence into the scale of justice, by action in the House of Lords. He pro- 
posed [January 7, 1775] conciliatory measures. They were rejected, as well 





i^'z^^^^ 



as others offered by Burke, Conway, and Hartly ; and in their stead, Parlia- 
ment, in March, struck another severe blow at the industry of New England, 
by prohibiting fishing on the banks of Newfoundland.' Already Lord North 
had moved, in the House of Commons [February, 1775], for an address to the 
king, affirming that Massachusetts was in a state of rebellion. The Ministers 
also endeavored to promote dissensions in America, by crippling the trade of 
New England and other colonies, but exempting New York, Delaware, and 
North Carolina. The bait of favor for these three colonies was indignantly 



' Pitt was greatly afflicted with the gout. Sometimes he was confined to his house for weeks 
by it; and he was sometimes seen on tlie floor of Parliament leaning upon crutche.s, and his legs 
swathed in flanneK In this condition he made two of his most eloquent speeches in favor of the 
Americans. 

' At that time, there were employed hy the Americans, in the British Newfoundland fisheries, 
four hundred ships, two thousand fisliing shallops, and twenty thousand men. On account of this 
blow to the fishing trade, a great nianv inlialiitants of Nantnoket and vicinity, chiefly Quakers, went 
to North Carolina, and in Orange and Oiiilpird counties, hec.mie pl.anters. Their descendants are 
yet numerous there. The principal meeting-house is at New Garden. 



2S2 T H K K K V v> I r T I X . pTTV 

spnnHxl — tho s\-howo of «)i$\mk>n s^isinally fiuUxl. Common ikuj^^ri! ami wan- 
hkw inu^rosts ilnnv tho ligamouts of fi-atornity olos»>r than ewr, AVhon tin 
U\Y# bttvldtxi. ainl tho tiowors bkxnntxl in the spring of iTT.'v all lioiv of iv«>o- 
cilMtiot\ had ranishtxi. It w»s evivkurt that 

U> vWtivn- tho LiboTtv Tnx\ planhxl by -fsuthful hands, Tho jxvplo of tho col- 
OJiios, thvMijith >x\Nsk in militarv n\<^Hin>>s, vroiv stnMis: in pnrjxx^o; juul. rolyinj 
ujxw tho jnsiiiv of their oan<<\ aini tlK> assistaiKV of tho Ia>t\1 Gixl Oumijx>tent, 
thoy rosv^lnxl tv> iloty tho tltXHs an»l armios of Groat Britain. 

Thoro Tr*s grv\»t nH>ral snblimity in tho rising of tho 0\<lv^nios agaii»st the 
paix^t ovHintry : fv>r it w^v? material woakm^ss arrawl ag:unst grotu nvitorial 
stivngth. Thoro vrvrv nnxro than thrxx^ tlKnisainl Eritisli tnx-'jvs in Rx<um. on th« 
first rf April, ITTo, Oonfklcnt in his jx^xwr. C»ag^> ft>h oertain that he ivuM 
ivpntss insnriwti»,>ns, awvl koop tho jxv>j>lot)iwt. Yet ho frit nnt>asy ovnK\»nung 
tho gathering of ammuniikvn and stv^neis,' by tho jwtrwtss at OoiKxml. si.\te»ni miles 
frv«n Bosuw, To^^wvl mkluight. on tho ISth [April], ho sev'retly disj^atched 
eight hujninxl nx^n. uink^r IkniMtantMvk^iK'l Smith ami M.ijor Piteaim, to 
tk<stn>y thoiw. So earofiiUy had ho arranged tho e:cpoilitk>n. tliat ho Ix^lievwl 
it tv> bo wHiivly nnkiHwn to tho j>atrk>ts. All his prvoautk^ns wvro vnin. Th« 
vigilant Pr. AVarrvn,* who \«s seorwly watohing all tho nwvmionts of Oagif, 
becainw aware v>f tho expe^iitk^i early in tho en^ning ; aixl when it iiH^x-od, 
Paul Ro\vn\' oiw of the nxxst aotiw of the S^>»s of LiWrty in R^twi. had 
UiKkxi at Chark^uwn. a:>l rnss ^vt hi? Tn»y tv> Conconl to arvmso tho inhabitants 
and minati^^aea. Soivt aftorwarvl. ohureh-belk, i»iisketSs ami ctutiKMvs spread 
the alaim OT«r Ao evHmtry ; ami nrhen, at lianni. «i tho Ithh of Ai\ril. 1775 — 
a dar raerooraWe in tho annals of our Rt^HiWie — Piteainu with tih> ad\-ane«d 
{vud. ivaehtxi Lexingtv«. a few miieis fnm CV«H\>r\i. ho frtimi s*>wnty dowr- 
Buned nKH\ vlraxrn »»p tv> 0|^^i? him, Pitedm nxW forwani ami shoimxi, 
" DisjXTso .' disfx-rso, yv>u njN>ls ? Doioi with yvnir arms, and disj^rs^ !" 
They iv^ttstxl otxxiknxv, ami Ik» onionxi his hkhi k> fin\ That tirvsKifui c«\ior 
was olx^yyxi. ami the FiRjT blood ov the Revoli-tiox flv>w^i ujxui tho tender 
gtass oj» the Oreen at Lexington, Eight eitiiens wore kilW, several m^iw 
voamlevi. aini tho n^naimkr wvro disjx^rs«Lxl, The last surviw* of that noble 
hand* dk'd in Manji. ISol. at the ago vif ahncet niuetT-six yvars. 

* Km^ » Il» T«ai; SKfM orieis kad t!««* sect t^r i)» ■i ri itij to die Knal fRwvraors. to 
w » i.i>! al ■■■■winri» Md sMxas om oflke Mank of tti» r««fK X" tlieT BaMtfr a^F- kostilr deactt- 



* A*M«w4 lakd ia tti» )s«d» <• Br<«^ Ha. See|a$eS3& 

* Sm«(« vae aa «ai^(««. aad f w ria >? to Oie tiae kad e iw a wj s«a» M tJ BUt il f symifa 
«rkfe «ct. H» eaimved a |««a» «f llw an^ tevtsowM «f BiKtoa. ia 1 1«& aal of tStf A«*a 
J fcuw B W . )> Itt*. As a iiiaai HasMr «r d># Sbeeak' «(der. b» «as i«rr aiiwi'an'al : m. Hto 
tt(i» «f IsaM' ^eaiSL tf X«>r Toit. las faini'rt svrnMis ii ik» cawse «f free&ai lave beiea ort- 
kckcA. IVir fi«*» fe ttl^MJi br aKa «f $i«M»r auKis. ta* «f aa stanSer palriNitnK. 

* AaMOaa Hmt^AMi. «te'|iii5«4 iW <» fcr A» m i k mlh wia . ca tte ania i M of tb» tawfai 
Tk» aii ii !« x^ito>MwialS*S.m>Bake^raeahgyTCms<<'a<p8L He dm kad a f«(fec« rM«.4tK- 
lMaef«k»«v«Ms«rdMlaMaa^ A psittait «f kiK. ds^ W aiipeaMl at dot laKv e pcb&kot a 
I«SSks^ KtanM AM jMi ^*r AHMaM. pa^ SU. nd. i. 



1775.] FIEST TEAR OF THE WAB FOB 15DE?EyDESCK. 283 

CoTifi'krit of full Buccess. the Britiah now pr»^«!e'l forwanl to Concord, ari/1 
dc8troy<>l the Bf^resj. Tli<;jr were b^My aiuwye'J by the rnirmtom'.'n wi tlieir 
way, who fircl af<ori them from behind walb;, trees*, awl buildingB, Having a*woiii- 
pluihcl their puqKj«<;. awl kilicl several m^rt-e \iaXn'fin in a skirmiKh tliere. tlie 
royal trwp ha-^itily retreat/^1 f^ Ijexington. Tlie cou/jtry wa« w^w thwwiglily 
aroa.'Sfc'l, awl minut/j-men were gathering by (i<y>re». >'f/thing but tlje Uutt:\j 
arrival of l>;rd Percy with reinforcements,' fsave<l tlje eight hun<lre<l men fr'>m 
total d/«trufrtion. The whole Ix/dy w>w retr<«ite'L All tlie way W;k to 
Banker' Fi Hill.' in Charkst'jwn, tlie trfx>ps were terribly aeeaiWl by tlie y«rtri- 
ots: and when, the follfiwing morning, they crosse*! over V* Bosrtwn, they ascer- 
taine'l their Irjs« t^j Ije, in kilWl awl woonded, two huwlr'^l awl w^venty-tliree. 
The lr>n of the Americans in killed, woauded, an/l mbiiing, wa.^. o;ie huwlred 
and tliree.* 

The initial blow fi-jr freedom had now beei etmck. It wa^t appalling to 
friend and foe. The news of thw tragedy fsprea/1 over tlje country like a blaae 
of ligljtning from a midnight ck^ii/l, awl li'.e the ntVftuhtut thuwler-peal, it 
aroai9e<l all hearts. From the hilL« awl valleyg of Xew Englawl. tlie patr^Xa 
went forth by hundre'Li, armeii anrl unarmed: and before the cl'j»e of the 
month [April ITTo], an army of twenty thou«and men were forming camjiKand 
piling fortification.* an/uwl Bost^^i. fn>m K/ixbnry to thi river Mystic, 'leter- 
miiied Uj wjnfine the fierw tiger of war. which ha<l tasterl their bloorl, n{x« that 
little ]>eniri.s;nla. The provincial Congress,* Kitting at Watertown, with Dr. 
Warren at its lu^ad, rrorketl day and night in con^^nance with the gatbering 
aimy. They appointe'l military offioer3, organize<l a oommiaaariat fer sopplies, 
Hsned bilLi of crclit for the payment of tror/ps (for which the province was 
ple'lgcl). to tbeamoant of three hawlred and sevf^ity-five dollars, awl deekred 
piay oj Genfn^l Gage to be an "inveterate enemy' f/f the |ie<jple. Ar*i ae 
the intelligence went from colony to coloriv, the f>eojile in eaf;h were eqnallj 
aroused. Arms aod ammanitioa were seize'l by the <S^/Rjr «/ LHI/ertt/. prorin- 
cial Congresses were formed, and before the close of sommer. the power of 
every royal governor, from 3Ia^acfaiiaett8 to Georgia, was utterly deistroyed. 
Everywhere the inhabitants armed in defense rf their Mheitin, ani took rigw- 
003 measures for future security. 

Some aggressive enterprises wa« nndertalcai by rtdnnteers. The most 
important of these was the seizore of the strong fortzeases of Tiocmlaoga* and 
Crown Pomt,* on Lake Champhin, dii^y by Comieetieiit aod Yenamt 

' TSaA Peter was a too of the Didce of SortfaomberiaiDL WIkh be was maoiciai^ oat of Bcs- 
too, bis baol arodc op the taie</TaiikEe Doodle, in deriaco. He bsw a tmjr at Bmtmrr nakiaK 
luaaelfrefTmerrr asbe paaed. Percr iajmred wlj be was ao Ben^. -To dank," sad the Ia{ 
"bw Ton wiD daoes br-aod-lij' to (%eiy ChanC Venj was oSeo ancfa wBueastA br ynrnMll- 
nata. and the woHs of the tnjr made biai anxidp Pefpr was a fioeal doKodau rjf tiie Earf 
P«rcr who was ribm ia tfae botde oT C%ay Okaas, aad be feit aS daj m ifBDgie lerest calfoaatr 
Bigfat be&n bim. * Paj^ 233. 

* Aiqwoprnte m i M ii MiHils bane been eretfad to flie memory of the rfain, at I<eiiogt<a^ Cooeord, 
md Ai;toiL Paris, the nmmsmOer of the miWia at Cooeorj, was fcom Aiitop, aati'to were mrjst 
a Us raetL Ibe ettimated raJoe </ tbe prajKity dectfofed br tbe inraden wai as tAhma- la 
CoDcofd, one tboasand Unee fanodred aad sevcntj-firie dollan; in leziDetMi, ei^ tiMmnad flirse 
handred and fire doOao; ia CamMdgs^ ax fltfuwand aad tea daOaa. * Pare i3». 

* Page IS?. • Page 2»», 



234 THE REVOLUTIOX. [1775. 

militia, under the command of Colonels Ethan Allen and Benedict Arnold. 
Ticonderoga and its garrison were taken jjossession of at da^vn, on the 10th of 
May, 1775;' and two days afterward, Colonel Seth Warner, of the expedition, 
with a few men, captured Crown Point. The spoils of victory taken at these 
iwo posts, consisting of almost one hundred and fifty pieces of cannon, and a 
large quantity of ammunition and stores, were of vast consequence to the Amer- 
icans. A few months later [March, 1776], some of these cannons were hurling 
death-shots into the midst of the British troops in Boston." 

Having repudiated royal authority, the people of Massachusetts were obe- 
dient to their chosen rulers, and eiBcient civil government was duly inaugur- 
ated. On the 19th of May [1775], the provincial Congress of ]\Iassachusetts 
clothed the Committee of Safety, sitting at Cambridge, with full powers to 
regulate the operations of the army. Artemas Ward was appointed commander- 
in-chief, Ricliai'd Gridley,' chief engineer, and Israel Putnam, John Sta^-k, and 
other veterans, who had served bravely in the French and Indian war, were 
appointed to important commands. The military genius developed in that old 
conflict, was now brought into requisition. Day 1^ day the position of the 
British army became more perilous. Fortunately for its safety, large reinforce- 
ments, under those three experienced commanders, Generals Howe, Clinton, 
and Burgoyne, arrived on the 25th of May. It was timely : and then the 
whole British force in Boston amounted to about twelve thousand men. besides 
several well-manned vessels of war, under Admiral Gi-aves. Gage now resolved 
to attack the Americans and penetrate the country. 

Preparatory to an invasion of the province. Gage issued a proclamation 
[June 10, 1775], declaring all Americans inarms to be rebels and traitors, and 
offerinc a free pardon to all who should return to their allegiance, except those 
arch-offendei-s, John Hancock and Samuel Atlams.* These he intended to 
seize and send to England to be hanged. The vigilant patriots, aware of Gage's 
hostile intentions, strengthened their intrenchments on Boston Neck,^ and on 
the evening of the 16th of June, Genei-al Ward sent Colonel Proscott' with a 
detachment of one thousand men, to take possession of, and fortify. Bunker's 
Hill, in Charlestown, which commanded an important part of Boston and the 
surrounding water. By mistake they ascended Breed's Hill, within cannon 
shot of the city, and laboring with pick and spade all that night, they had cast 
up a strong redoubt' of earth, on the summit of that eminence, before the Brit- 



' AJlen was in chief command. Havin"; taken possession of tUo fort and fjarrison by surprise, 
he ascended to the door of tlie commandant's apartment, and awoke Captain De La Place, by lieavy 
blows with the hilt of his sword. The astonished commander, followed bj' his wife, came to the 
door. He knew Allen, " What do you want?" he inquired. " I want you to surrender this fort," 
Allen answered, "By what authority do you demand it ?" .asked De La Place, "By the Great 
Jehovah and the Continental Congress !" said Allen, with the voice of a Stentor. The captain sub- 
mitted, and tlie fortress became a possession of the patriots, ' Page 247. 

' Note 1, page 138. ' Note 1. page 221, ' Note 3, page '229. 

° William Preseott was born at Groton, Massachusetts, in 172G, He was at Lonisburg [page 
137] in 1745, After the battle of Bunker's Hill, he served under Gates, until the surrender of 
Burgoyne, when he left the army. He died in 1795. 

' A redoubt is a small fortification generally composed of earth, and having very few features / 
of a regular fort, except its arrangement for the use of cannons and muskets. They are often tern- 



1775.] FIRST TEAR OF THE TTAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 235 

ish were aware of their presence. Gage and Lis officers were greatly astonished 
at the apparition of this military work, at the dawn of the 17th. 

The British generals were not only astonished, but alai-med, and at once 
perceived the necessity for driving the Americans from this commanding 
position, before they should plant a heavy battery there, for in that event, 
Boston must he evacuated before sunrise. The drums beat 
to arms, and soon the city was in a great tumult. The im- 
minent danger converted many Tories into professedly 
warm Whigs, for the days of British rule appeared to be 
closino'. Every eminence and roof in Boston 
swarmed with peopl 
[June 17, 1775], a 
heavy cannonade was 
opened upon the re- 
doubt, from a battery 
on Copp's Hill, in 
Boston, ' and from the 
shipping in the har- 
bor, but with vd'y 
little effect. Hour 
after hour the patriots 
toiled on in the corn- 
pletion of their work, 
and at noon-day, their 
task was finished, and they laid aside their implements of labor for knapsacks 
and muskets. General Howe, with General Pigot, and three thousand men, 
crossed the Charles River at the same time, to IMorton's Point, at the foot of 
the eastern slope of Breed's Hill, formed his troops into two columns, and 
marched slowly to attack the redoubt. Although the British commenced firing 
cannons soon after they began to ascend the hill, and the great guns of the 
ships, and the battery on Copp's Hill, poured an incessant storm upon the 
redoubt, the Americans kept perfect silence until they had approached within 
close musket shot. Hardly an American could be seen by the slowly approach- 
ing enemy, yet behind those rude mounds of earth, lay fifteen hundred deter- 
mined men," ready to pour deadly volleys of musket-balls upon the foe, when 
their commanders should order them. 




PLAN OF TINKERS IlILI LiTTI I 



MOMMLNT 



porary structures, cast up in the progress of a siege, or a protracted battle. The diagram A, on the 
map. sliows the form of the redoubt, a is tlie entrance. 

' Tliat portion of Copp's Hill, where the British battery was constructed, is a burial-ground, in 
which lie many of the earlier residents of that city. Among them, the Mather family, distinguished 
in tlie early history of the Commonwealth. See page 133. 

' During the forenoon, General Putnam had been busy in forwarding reinforcements for Pres- 
cott, and when the battle began, about five h\mdred had been added to the detachment. Yet he 
found it difBcult to urge many of the raw recruits forward; and after the war, he felt it necessary to 
arisj in tlie church of which he was a member, and in the presence of tlie congreg,ation, acknowl- 
edge the sin of swearing on that occasion. He partially justified himself by saying, "It was almost 
enough to make an angel swear, to see the cowards refuse to secure a victory so nearly won." 



236 THE nEVOLUTioN. [1775. 

It was now three o'clock in the afternoon. When the British column was 
within ten rods of the redoubt, Prescott shouted Fir- ! and instantly whole 
platoons of the assailants were prostrated by well-aimed bullets.' The survivors | 
fell back in great confusion, but were soon rallied for a second attack. They 
were again repulsed, with heavy loss, and while scattering in all directions, ; 
General Clinton arrived with a few followers, and joined Howe, as a volunteer. 
The fugitives were again rallied, and they rushed up to the redoubt in the face 
of a galling fire. For ten minutes the battle raged fearfully, and, in the mean ' 
while, Charlestown, at the foot of the eminence, having been fired by a carcass' 
from Copp's Hill,' sent up dense columns of smoke, which completely enveloped 
the belligerents. The firing in the redoubt soon grew Aveaker, for the ammu- 
nition of the Americans had become exhausted. It ceased altogether, and then ' 
the British scaled the bank and compelled the Americans to retreat, while they ; 
fought fiercely with clubbed muskets.' Overpowered, they fled across Charles- 
town Neck," gallantly covered by Putnam and a few brave men, and under that ^ 
commander, they took position on Prospect Hill, and fortified it. The British 1 
took possession of Bunker's Hill,° and erected a fortification there. There was J 
absolutely no victory in the case. Completely exhausted, both parties sought j 
rest, and hostilities ceased for a time. The Americans had lost, in killed, j 
wounded, and prisoners, about four hundred and fifty men. The loss of the ; 
British from like causes, was almost eleven hundred.' This was the first real 
hattle' of the Revolution, and lasted almost two hours. 

Terrible for the people of Boston and vicinity, were the events of that bright 
and cloudless, and truly beautiful June day. All the morning, as we have,! 
observed, and during the fierce conflict, roofs, steeples, and every high place, in ( 
and around the city, were filled with anxious spectators. Almost every family | 
had a representative among the combatants ; and in an agony of suspense, 1 
mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters, gazed upon the scene. Many a loved 



' Prescott ordered his men to aim at tlie waistbands of the British, and to pielc off their officers, i 
whose fine ciotties would distinguish tliem. It is said that men, at the first onset in battle, always ( 
fire too liish, hence the order to aim at the waistbands. 

^ A carcass is a hollow case, formed of ribs of iron covered with cloth or metal, with holes in it. 
Being filled with comljustibles and set on fire, it ie thrown from a mortar, like a bomb-shell, upon'! 
the roofs of buildings, and ignites tliem. A bomb-shell is a hollow ball with an orifice, tilled with,) 
powder (sometimes mixed with slugs of iron), which is ignited by a slow match when fired, explodes, 
and its fragments produce terrible destruction. ° See map on page 2H5. 

* Most of the American muskets were destitute of bayonets, and they used the large end as 
clubs. This is a last resort. 

* Charlestown, like Boston, is on a peninsula, almost surrounded by water and a marsh. The 
Neck was a narrow causeway, connecting it with the main. Charlestown was a flourishing rival of 
Boston, at the time of the battle. It was then completely destroyed. Six hundred buildings per- 
ished in the flames. Burgoyne, speaking of the battle and conflagration, said, it was the most awful 
and sublime sight he had ever witnessed. 

" As the battle took place on Breed's, and not on Bunker's Hill, the former name should 
have been given to it; but the name o{ Bunker's Hill has become too sacred in the records of patriot- 
ism to be changed. 

' The provincial Congress estimated the loss at about fifteen hundred ; General Gage reported 
one thousand and fifty-four. Of the Americans, only one hundred and fifteen were killed ; the 
remainder were wounded or made prisoners. 

* A battle is a conflict carried on by large bodies of troops, according to the rules of military 
tactics : a skirmish is a sudden and irregular fight between a few troops. 




1775.] FIRST TEAR OP THE WAR FOR IND E PEXD E NC E. 237 

one perished; and there the country lost one of its most promising children, 
and freedom a devoted champion. Dr. AVarren, -who 
had just been appointed major-general, had crossed 
Charlestown Neck in the midst of flying balls from the 
British shipping, and reached the redoubt on Breed's 
Hill, at the moment when the enemy scaled its banks. 
He was killed by a musket ball, while retreating. 
Buried where he fell, near the redoubt, the tall Bunker 
Hill monument of to-day, standing on that spot, com- 
memorates his death, as well as the patriotism of his 
countrymen. ^ ^ j„sj,i,ii warrex. 

The storm was not confined to the east. While 
these events wore occurring in New England, the Revolution was making rapid 
progress elsewhere. Even before the tragedy at Lexington and Concord, 
Patrick Henry' had again aroused his countrymen by his eloquence, and in the 
Virginia Assembly, convened at Richmond, on the 23d of March, 1775, he 
concluded a masterly speech with that noted sentiment, which became the war- 
cry of the patriots, " Give me Liberty, or give jie Death !"' When, 
twenty-six days later [April 20], Govei-nor Dunmore, by ministerial command," 
seized and conveyed on board a British vessel of war, a quantity of gunpowder 
belonging to the colony, that same inflexible patriot went at the head of armed 
citizens, and demanded and received from the royal representative, full restitu- 
tion. And before the battle of Bunker's Hill, the exasperated people had 
driven Dunmore* from his palace at Williamsburg [June], and he was a refugee, 
shorn of political power, on board a British man-of-war in the York River. 

Further south, still bolder steps had been taken. The people in the inte- 
rior of North Carolina, where the Regulator INIovement occurred four years 
earlier, asserted their dignity and their rights as freemen, in a way that aston- 
ished even the most sanguine and determined patriots elsewhere. A convention 
of delegates chosen by the people, assembled at Charlotte, in jNIecklenberg 
county, in May, 1775, and by a series of resolutions, they virtually declared 
their constituents absolved from all allegiance to the British crown," organized 
local government, and made provisions for military defense. In South Carolina 
and Georgia, also, arms and ammunition had been seized by the people, and 
all royal authority was repudiated. 

"While the whole country was excited by the rising rel)cllion, and on the 

' Jos3ph Warren was born in Roxbury, in 1740. He was at the head of his profession as a 
physician, when the events of the approaching revolution brouglit him into pulilic life. He was 
thirty-tive years of age when he died. His remains rest in St. Paul's church, in Boston. 

- Note 1, page 21i. ' Note 1, page 232. 

' Dunmore was strongly suspected of a desire to have the hostile Indians west of the Allegha- 
uies annihilate the Virginia troops sent against them in the summer of 1774 They suft'ered ter- 
rible loss in a battle at Point Pleasant on the Ohio, in October of that year, in consequence of the 
failure of promised aid from Dunmore. They subdued the Indians, however. 

' This "Declaration of Independence," as it is called, was made about tliirteen months previot^s 
to the general Declaration put forth by the Continental Congress, and is one of the glories of tlie 
people of North Carolina. It consisted of a series of twenty resolutions, and was read, from time to 
time, to other gatlierings of the people, ailer the convention at Charlotte. 



238 THE REVOLUTION. [1176. 

very day [May 10] ■when Allen and Arnold took Ticonderoga,' the Second 
Continental Congress convened at Philadelphia. Notwithstanding New- 
England was in a blaze of war, royal authority had virtually ceased in all the 
colonies, and the conflict for independence had actually begun,' that aucnist 
body held out to Great Britain a loyal, open hand of reconciliation. Congress I 
sent [July, 1775] a most loyal petition to the king, and conciliatory addresses 
to the people of Great Britain. At the same time they said firmly, " We have 
counted the cost of this contest, and find nothing so dreadful as voluntary 
slavery." They did not foolishly lose present advantages in waiting for a reply, 
but pressed forward in the work of public security. Having resolved on armed 
resistance, they voted to raise an army of twenty thousand men ; and two days 
before the battle of Bunker's Hill [June 15, 1775], they elected George 
Washington commander-in-chief of all the forces raised, or to be raised, for 
the defense of the colonies.^ That destined Father of his Country, was then 
forty-three years of age. They also adopted the incongruous mass of undis- 
ciplined troops at Boston,'' as a Continental Army, and appointed general 
officers^ to assist Washington in its organization and future operations. 

General Washington took command of the army at Cambridge, on the 3d 
of July, and with the efficient aid of General Gates, who was doubtless the best 
disciplined soldier then in the field, order was soon brought out of great con- 
fusion, and the Americans wore prepared to commence a regular siege of the 
British army in Boston." To the capture or expulsion of those troops, the 
efforts of Washington were mainly directed during the summer and autumn of 
1775. Fortifications were built, a thorough organization of the army was 
effected, and all that industry and skill could do, with such material, in perfect- 
ing arrangements for a strong and fatal blow, was accomplished. The army, 



' Page 2.M. " Page 232. 

' Washington was a delegate in Congress from Virginia, and his appointment was wholly unex- 
pected to him. When the time came to choose a commander-in-chief, John Adams arose, and after 
a brief speech, in which he delineated the qualities of the man whom he tliought best fitted for the 
important service, he expressed his intenton to propose a member from Virginia for the oflBce of 
generalissimo. AH present understood the allusion, and the next day, Thomas Johnson, of Mary- 
land, nominated Colonel Washington, and he was, by unanimous vote, elected commander-in-chie); 
At tlie same time Congress resolved that they would " maintain and assist him, and adhere to him, 
with their lives and fortunes, in the cause of American liberty." Wlien President Hancoclc 
announced to Washington his appointment, he modestly, and with great dignity, signified his accept- 
ance in the following terms: " Mr. President — Though I am truly sensible of the high honor dono 
me, in this appointment, yet I feel great distress, from a consciousness that my abilities and military 
experience may not be equal to the extensive and important trust. However, as the Congress 
desire it, I will enter upon the momentous duty, and exert every power I possess in their service, 
and for the support ol the glorious cause. I beg they will accept my most cordial thanks for this 
distinguished testimony of their approbation. But lest some unlucky event should happen, unfavor- 
able to ray reputation, I beg it may be remembered by everv gentleman in this room, that I, this 
day, declare with the utmost sincerity, I do not think myself equal to the command I am lionored 
with. As to pay, sir, I beg leave to assure the Congress that, as no pecuniary consideration could 
have tempted me to accept the arduous employment, at the expense of nij' domestic ease and liap- 
piness, I do not \\'ish to make any profit from it. I will keep an exact account of my e.xpensca. 
Those, I doubt not, they will discharge, and that is all I desire." * Page 2.32. 

' Artemas Ward, Cliarles Lee, Philip Schuyler, and Israel Putnam, were appointed major- 
generals; Horatio fiatcs, adjutant-genei'al ; and Seth Pnmeroy, Richard Montgomciy. David Wooster, 
William Heath, Josepli Spencer, John Thomas, John Sullivan, and Nathaniel Green (all New 
England men), brigadier-generals. ° Page 232. 



1775.] 



FIRST TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



239 



fourteen thousand strong at the close of the year, extended from Roxbury on 
the right, to Prospect Hill, two miles north-west of Breed's Hill, on the left. 
The right was commanded by General Ward, the left by General Lee. The 
centre, at Cambridge, was under the immediate control of the commander-in- 
chief. 




At the close of May, Congress sent an affectionate address to the people of 
Canada. They were cordially invited to join their Anglo-American' neighbors" 
in efforts to obtain redress of grievances, but having very little sympathy in 
language, religion, or social condition with them, they refused, and were neces- 
sarily considered positive supporters of the i-oyal cause. The capture of the 
two fortresses on Lake Champlain^ [May, 1775J, having opened the way to the 
St. Lawrence, a well-devised plan to take possession of that province and pre- 
vent its becoming a place of rendezvous and supply of invading armies from 
Great Britain, was matured by Congress and the commander-in-chief.' To 



' Note 1, pag:e 193. 

^ Tlie Congress of 1774, made an appeal To the inhabitants of Quebec, in which was clearly set 
forth the grievances of the colonists, and an invitation to fraternize with those already in union. 

' Page 234. 

* A committee of Congress, consisting of Dr. Franklin, Thomas Lynch, and Benjamin Harrison, 
went to Cambridge, in August, and there the plan of the campaign against Canada was arranged. 



240 THE REVOLUTION. [HIS. 

accomplish this, a body of New York and New England troops were placed 
under the command of Generals Schuyler' and Montgomery," and ordered to 
proceed by way of Lake Champlain to Montreal and Quebec. 

Had Congress listened to the earnest advice of Colonel Ethan Allen, to 
invade Canada immediately after the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point, 
the result of the expedition would doubtless have been very diiferent, for at that 
time the British forces in the province were few, and they had made no prepar- 
ations for hostilities. It was near the close of August before the invading army 
appeared before St. John on the Sorel, the first military post within the Cana- 
dian line. Deceived in regard to the strength of the garrison and the dispo- 
sition of the Canadians and the neighboring Indians, Schuyler fell back 
to Isle Au.x Noi.x,' and after making preparations to fortify it, he hastened to 
Ticonderoga to urge forward more troops. Sickness compelled him to return 
to Albany, and the whole command devolved upon Montgomery, his second in 
command. That energetic officer did not remain long within his island intrench- 
ments, and toward the close of September, he laid siege to St. John. The gar- 
rison maintained an obstinate resistance for more than a month, and IMontgomery 
twice resolved to abandon it. During the siege, small detachments of brave 
men went out upon daring enterprises'. One, of eighty men, under Colonel 
Ethan Allen," pushed across the St. Lawrence, and attacked Montreal [Sep- 
tember 25, 1775], then garrisoned by quite a strong force under General 
Prescott.' This was done at the suggestion of Colonel John Brown, who was 
to cross the river with his party, a little above, and co-operate with Allen. He 
failed to do so, and disaster ensued. Allen and his party were defeated, and 
he was made prisoner and, with several of his men, was sent to England in irons. 
Another expedition under Colonel Bedell, of New Hampshire, was more suc- 
cessful. They captured the strong fort (but feeble garrison) at Chambly 
[October 30], a few miles north of St. John ; and at about the same time, Sir 
Guy Carleton, governor of Canada, with a reinforcement for the garrison of St. 
John, was repulsed [November 1] by a party under Colonel Warner, at 
Longueil, nearly opposite Montreal. These events alarmed Preston, tlie com- 
mander of St. John, and he surrendered that post to Montgomery, on the 3d of 
November. 

When the victory was complete, the Americans pressed on toward jMont- 

' Philip Schuyler was bom at Albany, New York, in 1733, and was one of the wisest and best 
men of his time. He was a captain under Sir William Johnson [page 190] in 1755, and wa.s active 
in the public service, chiefly in civil affairs, from that time until the Revolution. Durinp: that 
struggle, he was very promiaent, and after the war, was almost continually engaged in public life, 
until his death, which occurred in 1804. 

' Richard Montgomery was born in Ireland, in 1737. He was with Wolfe, at Quebec [page 
201], and afterward married a sister of Chancellor Livingston, and settled in the State of New York. 
He gave promise of great military ability, wlien death ended his career. See portrait on page 242. 

' Note 8, pan ■ 197. 

' Ethan Allen was bom in Litchfield county, Connecticut. He went to Vermont at an early 
age, and in 1770 w.is one of the bold leaders there in the opposition of the settlers to the territorial 
ciiiims of New York. He was never engaged in active military services aftor his capture. He died 
in Vermont in February, 1789, and his remains lie in a cemetery two miles from Burlington, near 
thjWinooski. 'Pago 271. 



1775.] FIRST TEAR OF THE TTAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 241 

real. Governor Carleton, conscious of bis weakness, immetliatcly retreated on 
board one of tbe vessels of a small fleet lying in tbe river, and escaped to Que- 
bec; and on tbe following day [November 13], Montgomery entered tbe city 
in triumpb. He treated tbe people bumanely, gained tbeir respect, and witb 
the woolen clotbing found among tbe spoils, be commenced preparing bis sol- 
diers for tbe rigors of a Canadian winter. Tbere was no time to be lost, by 
delays. Although all tbeir important posts in Canada were in possession of tbe 
patriots, yet, Montgomery truly said, in a letter to Congress, " till Quebec is 
taken, Canada is unconquered." Impressed with this idea, he determined to 
push forward to tbe capital, notwithstanding the inclemency of the weather and 
the desertion of bis troops. Winter frosts were binding the waters, and blind- 
ing snow was mantling the whole country. 

The spectacle presented by this little army, in tbe midst of discouragements 
of every kind, was one of great moral grandeur. Yet it was not alone at that 
perilous hour ; for while this expedition, so feeble in number and supplies, was 
on its way to achieve a great purpose, another, consisting of a thousand men, 
under Colonel Benedict Arnold,' had left Cambridge [Sept., 1775], and was 
making its way through tbe deep wilderness l)y the Kennebec and Chaudiere' 
Rivers, to join Montgomery before the walls of Quebec. That expedition was 
one of tbe most wonderful on record. For thirty-two days they traversed a 
gloomy wilderness, without meeting a human being. Frost and snow were 
upon the ground, and ice was upon the surface of tbe marshes and tbe streams, 
which they were compelled to traverse and ford, sometimes arm-pit deep in 
water and mud. Yet they murmured not ; and oven women followed in their 
train.' After enduring incredible toils and hardships, exposed to intense cold 
and biting hunger, they arrived at Point L'vi,' opposite Quebec, on tbe 9th of 
November. Four days afterward [Nov. 13], and at about the same time when 
Montgomery entered Montreal, the intrepid Arnold, with only seven hundred 
and fifty half-naked men, not more than four hundred muskets, and no artil- 
lery, crossed the St. Lawrence to "Wolfe's Cove,^ ascended to the Plains of 
Abraham,' and boldly demanded a surrender of tbe city and garrison within the 
massive walls. Soon tbe icy winds, and intelligence of an intended sortie' from 
the garrison, drove Arnold from his bleak encampment, and be ascended the 
St. Lawrence to Point an TremUes, twenty miles above Quebec, and there 



' Page 234. ' Pronounced Sho-de-aire. 

' Judge Henry, of Pennsylvania, then a young man, accompanied tlie expedition. He wrote 
an account of the siege of Quebec, and in it he mention.s tlie wives of Sergeant Grier and of a pri- 
vate soldier, who accompanied them. "Entering the ponds," ho says, "and breaking the ice here 
and there with the butts of our guns, and our feet, we were soon waist-deep in mud and water. As 
is generally tlie case with youths, it came to my mind that a better path might be found than that 
of the more elderly guide. Attempting this, the water in a trice cooling my arm-pits, made me 
gladly return in the file. Now, Mrs. Grier had got before me. My miud was humbled, yet aston- 
ished, at the exertions of this good woman." Like the soldiers, she waded tlu'ough the deep waters 
and the mud. 

' Page 201. Several men who were afterward prominent' .ictors in the Revolution, accompanied 
Arnold in this expedition. Among them, also, was Aaron Burr, then a youth of twenty, who was 
afterward Vice-President of the United States. ' Page 202. ° Page 202. 

' This is a French term, significant of a sudden sally of troops from a besieged city or fortress, 
to attack the besiegers. See page 434. 

]G 



242 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1115. 



awaited the arrival of Montgomery. These brave generals met on the 1st of 
December [1775J, and woolen clothes which Montgomery brought from Mont- 
real, were placed on the shivering limbs of Arnolds troops. The united forces, 
about nine hundred strong, then marched to Quebec. 

It was on the evening of the 5th of December when the Americans reached 
Quebec, and the ne.xt morning early, Montgomery sent a letter to Carleton. by 
a flag,' demanding an immediate surrender. The flag was fired upon, and the 
invaders were defied. With a few light cannons and some mortars, and ex- 
posed to almost daily snow-storms in the open fields, the Americans besieged 
the city for three weeks. Success appearing only in assault, that measure waa 
agreed upon, and before dawn, on the morning of the last 
day of the year [Dec. 31, 1775], while snow was falling 
thickly, the attempt was made. JNIontgomery had formed 
his little army into four columns, to assail the city at differ- 
ent points. One of these, under Arnold, was to attack the 
lower town, and march along the St. Charles to join another 
division, under Montgomery, who was to approach by way 
of Cape Diamond," and the two were to attempt a forced pass- 
age into the city, through Prescott Gate.^ At the same 
time, the other two columns, under Majors Livingston and 
Brown, were to make a feigned attack upon the upper town, from the Plains 
of Abraham. In accordance with this plan, Montgomery descended AVolfe's 
Ravine, and marched carefully along the ice-strewn beach, toward a pallisade 
and battery at Cape Diamond. At the head of his men, in the face of the 
driving snow, he had passed the pallisade unopposed, 
when a single discharge of a cannon from the battery, 
loaded with grape-shot,' killed him instantly, and slew 
several of his ofiicers, among whom were his two aids, 
McPherson and Cheeseman. His followers instantly re- 
treated. In the mean while, Arnold had Ijeen severely 
wounded, while attacking a barrier on the St. Charles, ^ 
and the command of liis division devolved upon Captain 
]\Iorgan,° whose expert riflemen, with Lamb's artillery, 
forced their way into the lower town. After a contest 
of several hours, the Americans, under Morgan, were obliged to surrender them- 




WALLS OF QUEBEC. 




GENERAL MONTGOMERY. 



' Messengers are sent from army to army with a white flag, indicating a desire for a peaceful 
interview. These flags, by common consent, are respected, and it is considered an outrage to tiro 
on tlie bearer of one. The Americans were regarded as rebels, and undeserving the usual courtesy. 

'' The high rocky promontory on which the citadel standa 

3 Prescott Gate is on the St. La'WTence side of the town, and there bars Mountain-street in its 
sinuous way from the water up into the walled city. The above diagram sliows tlie plan of the i;ity 
walls, and relative positions of the several gates mentioned. A is the St. Charles River, B the St. 
Lawrence, a 'Wolfe and Montcalm's monument [page 202], 6 the place where Montgomery Icll, c 
the place where Arnold was wounded. 

' These are small balls confined in a cluster, and then discharged at once from a cannon. They 
scatter, and do great execution. 

' This was at the foot of the precipice, below the present grand battery, near St. Paul's-street 

° .Vfterward tlie famous General Morgan, whose rifle corps became so renowned, and who gained , 
the victory at The Coivpens, in tlic winter of 1781. See page 331. 



1175.]' FIRST YEAR OF THE "WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 243 

selves prisoners of war. The whole loss of the Americans, under Montgomery 
and Arnold, in this assault, was about one hundred and sixty. The British loss 
was only about twenty killed and wounded. 

Colonel Arnold, with the remainder of the troops, retired to Sillery, where 
he firmed a camp, and passed a rigorous Canadian winter. He was relieved from 
chief command by General Wooster,' on the 1st of April, who came down from 
Montreal with reinforcements, when another ineffectual attempt was made to 
capture Quebec. When, a month afterward, General Thomas took the chief 
command [May, 1776], Carleton was receiving strong reinforcements from 
EniTland, and the patriots were compelled to abandon all hope of conquering 
Canada. They were obliged to retreat so hastily before the overwhelming 
forces of Carleton, that they left their stores and sick behind them.'- Abandon- 
ing one post after another, the Americans were driven entirely out of Canada by 
the middle of June. 

The Virginians were rolling on the car of the Eevolution, with a firm and 
steady hand, while the patriots were suffering defeats and disappointments at 
the North. We have already alluded to the fact, that the people of Williams- 
burg, then the capital of Virginia, had driven Lord Dunmore, the royal gov- 
ernor, away from his palace, to take refuge on board a ship of war.^ He was 
the first royal representative who " abdicated government," and he was greatly 
exasperated because he was compelled to do so in a very humiliating manner. 
From that vessel he sent letters, messages, and addresses to the Virginia House 
of Burgesses,* and received the same in return. Each exhibited much spirit. 
Finally, in the autumn, the governor proceeded to Norfolk, with the fleet, and 
collecting a force of Tories and negroes, commenced depredations in lower Vir- 
ginia. With the aid of some British vessels, he attacked Hampton, near Old 
Point Comfort,' on the 24th of October, and was repulsed. He then declared 
open war. The Virginia militia flew to arms, and in a severe battle, fought on 
the 9th of December, at the Great Bridge, near the Dismal Swamp, twelve 
miles from Norfolk, Dunmore was defeated, and compelled to seek safety with 
the British shipping in Norfolk harbor. In that battle, the regiment of men, 
chiefly from Culpepper county, raised by Patrick Henry, and at the head of 
whom he demanded payment for the powder removed from Williamsburg, ■= did 
very important service.' 

' Page 270. 

° General Thomas was seized with the small-pox, which had been raging some time in the 
American camp, and died at Chambly on the 30th of May. He was a native of Plymouth, Mass.. 
and was one of the first ei^ht brigadiers appointed by Congress [note ."i, page 238]. Carleton 
treated the prisoners and sick witli great humanit_v. He afterward, on the death of his father, be- 
came Lord Dorchester. He died in 1808, aged eighty-three rears. 

' Page 237. * Page 71. ' Page 64 . " Piige 237. 

' This regiment h.ad adopted a flag with the significant device of a coiled 
rattle-snake, seen in the engraving. This device was upon many flags in the 
army and navy of the Revolution. The expression, " Don't tread on mc," 
liad a double signification. It might be said in a supplicating tone, ^' Don't 
tread on me;" or menacingly, "Don't tread on me." The soldiers were 
dressed in green hunting-shirts, with Henry's words, Lieertt ok De.\th 
[page 237], in large white letters, on their bosoms. They had bucks' tails 
in their hats, and in their belts tomahawks and scalping-knives. Their culpepper FL.4.Q. 
fierce appearance alarmed the people, as they marched through the country. 




244 THE REVOLUTION". [1776. 

Five days after the battle at the Great Bridge, the Virginians, under 
Colonel Woodford, entered Norfolk in triumph [Dec. 14, 1775], and the next 
morning they were joined by Colonel Robert Howe,' with a North Carolina 
regiment, when the latter assumed the general command. Dunmore was greatly 
exasperated by these reverses, and, in revenge, he caused Norfolk to be burned 
early on the morning of the 1st of January, 1776. The conflagration raged 
for fifty hours, and while the wretched people were witnessing the destruction 
of their property, the modern Nero caused a cannonade to be kept up.' When 
the destruction was complete, he proceeded to play the part of a marauder along 
the defenseless coast of Virginia. For a time he made his head quarters upon 
Gwyn's island, in Chesapeake Bay, near the mouth of the Piankatank River, 
from which he was driven, with his fleet, by a brigade of Virginia troops under 
General Andrew Lewis.' After committing other depredations, he went to the 
West Indies, carrying with him about a thousand negroes which he had col- 
lected during his marauding campaign, where he sold them, and in the follow- 
ing autumn returned to England. These atrocities kindled an intense flame 
of hatred to royal rule throughout the whole South, and a desire for political 
independence of Great Britain budded spontaneously in a thousand heai^ts 
where, a few months before, the plant of true loyalty was blooming. 



CHAPTER III. 

SECOND TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1776.] 

There was great anxiety in the public mind throughout the colonies at the - 
opening of the year 1776. The events of the few preceding months appeared ( 
unpropitious for the republican cause, and many good and true men were dis- 
posed to pause and consider, before going another step in the path of rebellion. 
But the bolder leaders in the senate and in the camp were undismayed ; and 
the hopeful mind of Washington, in the midst of the most appalling discourage- • 
ments, faltered not for a moment. He found himself strong enough to be the , 
effectual jailor of the British army in Boston, and now he was almost prepared ■ 
to commence those blows which finally drove tliat army and its Tory abettors to * 
the distant shores of Nova Scotia.'' He had partially re-organized the conti- 

' Page 292. 

^ When Dunmore destroyed Norfolk, its population was six thousand ; and so rapidly was it 
increasing in business and wealth, that in two years, from 1773 to 1775, the rents in the city in-' 
creased from forty thousand to fifty thousand dollars a year. The actual loss by the cannonade and- 
conflagration was estimated at fifteen hundred thousand dollars. The personal suffering was incon- ■ 
ceivable. 

' General Lewis was a native of Virginia, and was in the battle when Braddock was killed. 
He was the commander of the Virginia troops in the battle at Point Pleasant [note 4, page 237], ' 
in the summer of 1774. He left the army, on account of illness, in 1780, and died not long after- ^ 
ward, while absent from home. ' Note 2, page 80. 



1776.] 



SECOND TEAR OF THE "n^AR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



245 




nental forces under his command ; and on the first of January, 1776, he unfurled 

the Union Flag, for the first time, over the American camp 

at Cambridge.' His army had then dwindled to less than 

ten thousand effective men, and these were scantily fed and 

clothed, and imperfectly disciplined. But the camp was well 

supplied with provisions, and about ten thousand minute-men," 

chiefly in Massachusetts, were held in reserve, ready to march 

when called upon. 

During the summer and autumn of 1775, the Continental Congress had put 
forth all its energies in preparations for a severe struggle with British power, 
now evidently near at hand. Articles of war were agreed to on the 30th of 
June ; a declaration of the causes for taking up arms was issued on the 6th of 



L"N-IOX FLAG. 




Six ■mi€%Ti§. 

■"rHlSBiTItnUilciK, 

SIX SPiVISH MILLED 
DOLLARS, or t>\E 
Value lki.m.j inCoLD 
orJlLVER at,.Td.<to 

GRESS pMMai Phi 
' lideipha f<lov-z-i^7G- 



nmmmi^. 




A BILL OF (.'REDIT, OK CONTINE.VTAL MONEY. 

July; and before the close of the year, bills of credit, known as "continental 
money," representing the value of six millions of Spanish dollars, had been 
issued.^ A naval establishment had also been commenced y and at the openino- 

' The hoisting of tliat ensign was hailed by General Howe, the British commander in Boston, with 
great joy, for he regarded it as a tolcen tliat a gracious speech of the king on American afEiirs, lately 
communicated to Parhament, was well received by the army, and that submission would speedily 
follow. That flag was composed of thirteen stripes, alternate red and white, symbolizing the thir- 
teen revolted colonies. In one corner was the device of the British Union Flag, namely, the cross of 
St. George, composed of a horizontal and perpendicular bar, and the cross of St. Andrew (represent- 
ing Scotland), which is in the form of x . It was the appearance of that symbol of the British 
union that misled Howe. This flag is represented in the above little sketch. On the 14th of June, 
1777, Congress ordered •'thirteen stars, white, in a blue field," to be put in the place of tlio British 
union device. Such is the design of our flag at the present day. A star has been added for every 
new State admitted into the Union, while the original number of stripes is retained. 

" Page 229. 

' The resolution of the Continental Congress, providing for the emission of bills, was adopted on 
the 22d of June, 1775. The bills were printed and issued soon afi;er, and other emissions were 
authorized, from time to time, during about four years. At the beginning of 1780, Congress had 
issued two hundred millions of dollars in paper money. After the second year, these bills began to 
depreciate; and in 1780, forty paper dollars were worth only one in specie. At the close of 1781, 
they were worthless. They liad performed a temporary good, but were finally productive of great 
public evil, and much individual suffering. Some of these bills are yet in existence, and are con- 
sidered great' curiosities. They were rudely engraved, and printed on thick paper, which caused 
the British to call it " the paste-board money of the rebels." ' Ncte 1, page 307. 



246 THE REVOLUTION. [1116. 

of 1776, many expert privateersmen' were hovering along our coasts, to the 
great terror and annoyance of British merchant vessels. 

There had been, up to this time, a strange apathy concerning American 
affairs, in the British Parliament, owing, chiefly, to the confidence reposed in 
the puissance of the imperial government, and a want of knowledge relative to 
the real strength of the colonies. Events had now opened the eyes of British 
statesmen to a truer appreciation of the relative position of the contestants, and 
the importance of vigorous action ; and at the close of 1775, Parliament had 
made extensive arrangements for crushing the rebellion. An act was passed 
[Nov., 1775], which declared the revolted colonists to be rebels; forbade all 
intercourse with them ; authorized the seizure and destruction or confiscation 
of all American vessels ; and placed the colonies under martial law.' An ag- 
gregate land and naval force of fifty-five thousand men was voted for the 
American service, and more than a million of dollars were appropriated for their 
pay and sustenance. In addition to these, seventeen thousand troops were hired 
by the British government from the Landgrave of Hesse-Cassel, and other 
petty German rulers,^ to come hither to butcher loyal subjects who had peti- 
tioned for their rights for ten long years, and now, even with arms in their 
hands, were praying for justice, and begging for reconciliation. This last act 
filled the cup of government iniquity to the brim. It was denounced in Par- 
liament by the true friends of England, as "disgraceful to the British name," 
and it extinguished the last hope of reconciliation. The sword was now drawn, 
and the scabbard was thrown away. 

Intelligence of the proceedings in Parliament reached America in January, 
177*3, and Congress perceived the necessity of putting forth immediate and effi- 
cient efforts for the defense of the extensive sea-coast of the colonies. Washing- 
ton was also urged to attack the British in Boston, immediately; and, by great 
efforts, the regular army was augmented to about fourteen thousand men to- 
ward the close of February. In the mean while, the provincial Congress of 
Massachusetts organized the militia of the province anew, and ten regiments, 
making about tln-ee thousand men, arrived in camp early in February. The 
entire army now numbered about seventeen thousand effective men, while the 
British force did not exceed five thousand fit for duty. Reinforcements were 
daily expected from Halifax, New York, and Ireland, and the present seemed 
a proper moment to strike. Bills of credit,^ representing four millions of dol- 
lars more, were issued ; Congress promised energetic co-operation ; and on the 

' Private individuals, having a license from government to arm and equip a vessel, and with it 
to depredate upon the commerce of a nation with which that people are then at war, are called 
privateersmen, and their vessels are known as privateers. During the Revolution, a vast number 
of English vessels were captured by American privateersmen. It is, after all, only legalized piracy, 
and enlightened nations begin to view it so. '' Note 8, page 170. 

' The Landgrave (or petty prince) of Ilesse-Casscl, having furnished the most considerable por- 
tion of these troops, they were called by tlie general name of Hessians. Ignorant, brutal, and 
bloodthirsty, they were hated by the patriots, and despised even by the regular English army. They 
were always employed in posts of greatest danger, or in expeditions least creditable. These troops 
cost the British government almost eight linndred tliousand dollars, besides the necessity, according 
to the contract, of defending the little principalities thus stripped, against their foes. 

* rage 245. 



1776.] SECOND TEAR OF THE "WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 247 

Ist of March, Washington felt strong enough to attempt a dislodgment of the 
enemy from the crushed city.' 

On the evening of the 2d of March [1776 J, a heavy cannonade was opened 
upon Boston, from all the American batteries, and was continued, with brief 
intermissions, until the 4th. On the evening of that day. General Thomas,- 
with twelve hundred men with intrenching tools, and a guard of eight hundred, 
proceeded secretly to a high hill, near Dorchester, on the south side of Boston, 
and before morning, they cast up a line of strong intrenchments, and planted 
heavy cannons there, Avhich completely commanded the city and harbor. It 
was the anniversary of the memorable Boston Massacre,^ and many patriots felt 
the blood coursing more swiftly through their veins, as the recollection of that 
event gave birth to vengeful feelings. It had nerved their arms while toiling 
all that long night, and they felt a great satisfaction in knowing that they had 
prepared works which not only greatly astonished and alarmed the British, luit 
which would be instrumental in achieving a great victory. The enemy felt the 
danger, and tried to avert it. 

Perceiving the imminent peril of both fleet and army, General Howe pre- 
pared an expedition to drive the Americans from their vantage-ground on Dor- 
chester heights. A storm suddenly arose, and made the harbor impassable.' 
The delay allowed the patriots time to make their works almost impregnalalc, 
and the British were soon compelled to surrender as prisoners of war, or to 
evacuate the city immediately, to avoid destruction. As prisoners, they would 
have been excessively burdensome to the colonies ; so, having formally agreed 
to allow them to depart without injury, Washington had the inexpressible 
pleasure of saying, in a letter written to the President of Congress, on Sunday, 
the 17th of March, "that this morning the ministerial troops evacuated the 
town of Boston, without destroying it, and that we are now in full possession.'' 
Seven thousand soldiers, four thousand seamen, and fifteen hundred families of 
loyalists,' sailed for Halifax on that day. 

The gates on Boston Neck were now unbaiTed ; and General Ward, with 
five thousand of the troops at Roxbury, entered the city, with drums beating, 
atnd banners waving, greeted on every side with demonstrations of joy by the 
redeemed people. General Putnam soon afterward [March 18] entered with 
another division, and, in command of the whole, he took possession of the city 
and all the forts, in the name of the Tldrteen United Co'onies. 



" Page 226. ' Page 243. = Pago 221. 

' A similar event occurred to frustrate the designs of the British at Torktown, several years 
afterward. See page 341. 

' It must be remembered tliat the Americans were by no means unanimous in their opposition 
to Great Britain. From the beginning there were many wlio supported the crown ; and as the 
colonists became more and more rebellio\is, these increased. Some because tliey believed their 
brethren to be wrong; others through timidity; and a greater number because the\' thought it 
their interest to adhere to the king. The loyalists, or Tories, were the worst and most efficient en- 
emies of the "Whigs [note 4, page 226] during the whole war. Tliose who left Boston at tliis time, 
were afraid to encounter the exasperated patriots, when they should return to their desolated homes 
in the city, from wliieh they had been driven by military persecution. The clmrches had been 
stripped of tlieir pidpits and pews, for fuel, fine shade trees had been burned, and many houses had 
been piUaged and damaged by the soldiery. 



248 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1776. 




GENERAL LEE 



Washington had been informed, early in January, 
that General Sir Henry Clinton had sailed from Bos- 
ton, with a considerable body of troops, on a secret ex- 
pedition. Apprehending that the city of New York 
was his destination, he immediately dispatched General 
Charles Lee to Connecticut to raise troops, and to pro- 
ceed to that city to watch and oppose Clinton wherever 
he might attempt to land. Six weeks before the evacu- 
ation of Boston [March 17, 1776], Lee had encamped 
near New York with twelve hundred militia. Already 
the Sons of Libertif had been busy, and overt acts of 
rebellion had been committed by them. They had seized the cannons at Fort 
George," and driven Tryon,^ the royal governor, on board the Asia, a British 
armed vessel in the harbor. In March, Clinton arrived at Sandy Hook, just 
outside New York harbor, and on the same day, the watchful Lee' providen- 
tially entered the city. The movement, although without a knowledge of Clin- 
ton's position, was timely, for it kept him at bay. Foiled in his attempt upon 
New York, that commander sailed southward, where we shall meet him pres- 
ently. 

The destination of Howe, when bo loft Boston, was also unknown to Wash- 
ington. Supposing he, too, would proceed to New York, he put the main body 
of his army in motion toward that city, as soon as he had placed Boston in a 
state of security. He arrived in New York about the middle of April [April 
14], and pi'oceeded at once to fortify the town and vicinity, and also the passes 
of the Hudson Highlands, fifty miles above. In the mean while. General Lee, 
who had been appointed to command the American forces in the South, had i 
left his troops in the charge of General Lord Stirling* [March 7], and waa , 
hastening toward the Carolinas to watch the movements of Clinton, arouse the 
Whigs, and gather an army there. 

In the spring of 1776, a considerable fleet, under Admiral Sir Peter Parker, 
was sent from England, to operate against the sea-coast towns of the southern 
colonies. Parker was joined by Clinton, at Cape Fear, in May, when the latter 
took the chief command of all the land forces. The fleet arrived ofl" Charleston 
bar on the 4th of June, and on the same day, Clinton, with several hundred ■ 
men, landed on Long Island, which lies eastward of Sullivan's Island. Apprised 
of these hostile designs, and elated by a victory obtained by North Carolina ' 
militia, under Colonel Caswell, over fifteen hundred loyalists'^ [February 27, 

' Note 1, page 215. 

'' This fort stood at the foot of Broadway, on a portion of the site of the present "Battery." 

= Page 223. ' 

* Charles Lee was born in TVales in 1731. lie was a brave officer in the British army during 

the French and Indian War. He settled in Virginia in 1773, and was one of the first brigadiers of . 

the Continental army appointed by Congress. His ambition and perversity of temper, finally caused ' 

his ruin. He died in PhUadelphia in 1782. See page 288. ^ Page 254. 

° These were chiefly Scotch Highlanders, and were led by Donald McDonald, an influential 
Scotchman then residing at Cross Creek, now FayetteviUe. The husband of Flora McDonald, so 
celebrated in connection with the flight of the young Pretender from Scotland, at the close of the 
rebellion in 1745, was in the battle. Flora was then living at Cross Creek. 




1176.] SECOND TEAR OF THE 'WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 249 

1776], on Moore's Creek, in the present Hanover county, the southern patriots 
had cheerfully responded to the call of Governor Rutledge, and about six thou- 
sand armed men had collected in and near Charleston, 
when the enemy appeared." The city and eligible 
posts near it, had been fortified, and quite a strong 
fort, composed of palmetto logs and sand, and armed 
with twenty-six mounted cannons, had been erected 
upon Sullivan's Island, to command the channel 
leading to the town. This fort was garrisoned by 
about five hundred men, chiefly militia, under Colo- 
nel William Moultrie.'' 

A combined attack, by land and water, upon general moultrie. 

Sullivan's Island, was commenced by the British, on 

the morning of the 28th of June, 1776. While the fleet was pouring a terrible 
storm of iron balls upon Fort Sullivan, Clinton endeavored, but in vain, to 
force a passage across a narrow creek which divided the two islands, in order to 
attack the yet unfinished fortress in the rear. But Colonel Thompson, with a 
small battery on the east end of Sullivan's Island, repelled every forward 
movement of Clinton, while the cannons of the fort were spreading havoc among 
the British vessels.' The conflict raged for almost ten hours, and only ceased 
when night fell upon the scene. Then the British fleet, almost shattered into frag- 
ments, withdrew, and abandoned the enterprise.' The slaughter of the British 
had been frightful. Two hundred and twenty-five had been killed or wounded, 
while only two of the garrison were killed, and twenty-two were wounded.* The 
British departed for New York three days afterward" [June 31, 1776], and for 
more than two years, the din of war was not heard below the Roanoke. This 
victory had a most inspiriting effect upon the patriots throughout the land. 

' General Armstrong of Pennsylvania [page 193], had arrived in South Carolina in April, and 
took the general command. Lee arrived on the samo day when the British, under Clinton, landed 
on Long Island. 

'' Born in South Carolina, in 1730. He was in the Cherokee war [page 204], in 1761. He was 
an active officer until made prisoner, in 1780, when for two years lie was not allowed to bear amis. 
He died in 1805. General Moultrie wrote a very interesting memoir of the war in the South. 

' At one time, every man but Admiral Parker was swept from the deck of his vessel. Among 
those who were badly wounded, was Lord "William Campbell, the royal governor of South Carolina, 
who afterward died of his wounds. 

' The Acteon, a large vessel, grounded on a shoal between Fort Sullivan and tlio city, where 
she was burned by the Americans. 

'' The strength of tlie fort consisted in the capacity of the spongy palmetto logs, upon which carv 
non-balls would make very little impression. It appeared to be a very insecure defense, and Lee 
advised Moultrie to abandon it when the British approached. But that brave officer would not 
desert it, and was rewarded with victory. The ladies of Charleston presented his regiment with a 
pair of elegant colors,- and the "slaughter pen," as Lee ironically called Fort Sullivan, was named 
Fort Moultrie. During the action, the staff, bearing a large flag, was cut down by a cannon-ball 
from the fleet. Tlie colors fell outside the fort. A sergeant named .Jasper, leaped down from one 
of the bastions, and in the midst of the iron hail that was pouring from the fort, coolly picked up 
the flag, ascended to the bastion, and calling for a sponge-staff, tied the colors to it, stuck it in the 
sand, and then took liis place among his companions in the fort. A few days afterward, Governor 
Rutledge took his own sword from his side, and presented it to the brave Jasper ; he also offered 
him a lieutenant's commission, which tlie young man modestly declined, because lie could neither 
read nor write, saying, " I am not fit to keep officers' company — I am but a sergeant." 

' Page 252. 




250 THE REVOLUTION. [1776. 

Important events in the progress of the war were now thickening. Re- 
bellion had become revolution. While the stirring events at the South, just 
mentioned, were transpiring, and while Wash- 
1 ington was augmenting and strengthening the 

f continental army in New York, and British 

troops and German hirelings' wer-^ approach- 
ing by thousands, the Continental Congress, 
now in permanent session in the State House 
at Philadcli>hia, had a question of vast im- 
portance under consideration. A few men, look- 
sTATE HOUSE. lug bcyoud the storm-clouds of the present, 

beheld bright visions of glory for their country, 
when the people, now declared to be rebels," and out of the protection of the 
British king, should organize themselves into a sovereign nation. " The light- 
ning of the Crusades was in the people's hearts, and it needed but a single 
electric touch, to make it blaze forth upon the world," says James, in writing 
of an earlier disruption of political systems." So it was now, in the American 
colonies. T'.io noble figure of an independent nation stood forth with a beauty 
that almost demanded worship. The grand idea began to flash through the 
popular mind at the close of 1775; and when, early in 1776, it was tangibly 
.spoken by Thomas Paine, in a pamphlet entitled Common Sense' (said to have 
been suggested by Dr. Rush),^ and whose vigorous thoughts were borne by the 
press to every community, a desire for independence filled the hearts of the 
people. In less than eighty days after the evacuation of Boston [March 17, 
1776], almost every provincial Assembly had spoken in favor of independence ; 
and on the 7th of June, in the midst of the doubt, and dread, and hesitation, which 
for twenty days had brooded over the Continental Congress, Richard Henry Lee,' 

' Page 246. " Page 24G. ' History of the Crusades, by G. P. E. James. 

* The chief topic of this remarkaUo pamplUet, was the right and expediency of colonial inde- 
pendence. Paine also wrote a series of equally powerful papers, called The Crisis. The first num- 
ber was written in Fort Lee, on the Hudson, in December, 117 (j, and published while Washington 
was on the banks of the Delaware. See page 192. These had a powerful effect in stimulating the 
people to efforts for independence. They were highlj' valued by the commander-in-chief, and he pro- 
moted their circulation. AVriting to a friend soon after the appearance of Comnion Sense, Washington 
said, " By private letters %vhieh I have lately received from Virginia, I find that Conimon Sense is 
working a powerful change there in the minds of many men." 

' Benjamin Rush was one of the most eminent men of his time, as a physician, a man of science, 
and an active patriot during the whole Revolution. He was born twelve miles from Philadelphia, 
in 174.5. He was educated at Princeton, completed his scientific studies in Edinburp, and after 
,his return, he soon rose to the highest eminence in his profession. He was the recipient of many 
honors, and as a member of the Continental Congress, in 177G, he advocated and signed the Declar- 
ation of Independence. His labors during the prevalence of yellow fever in Philadelphia, in 1793, 
gave him the imperishable crown of a trae philanthropist. He founded the Philadelphia Dispensary 
in nSG; and ho was also one of the principal founders of Dickinson College, at Carlisle, Pennsyl- 
vania. He was president of the American Society for the abolition of slavery ; of the Philadelphia 
Medical Society ; vice-president of the Philadelpliia Bible Society; and one of tlie vice-presidents 
of the American Pliilosophieal Society. He died in April, 1813, at the age of almost si.xty-eight 
years. A portrait of Dr. Rush may be found on the next page. 

° Richard Henry Lee was born in Westmoreland county, Virginia, in 1 732. He was educated 
in England, and was in public life most of the time after reaching his majority. He was one of the 
earliest opposers of the Stamp Act; was a member of the fir.st Continental Congres.s, and sipied that 
Declaration of Independence which he so nobly advocated. He wa.s afterward a member of the 
United States Senate; and soon after his retirement to private Ufe, in 1794, he died, when in the 



1776.] 



SECOND TEAR OF THE "WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



251 



of Virginia, arose in his place, and with his clear, musical voice, read aloud 
the Resolution, " That these united colonies are, and, of right, ought to be, 
free and independent States ; that they are absolved from all allegiance to the 
British crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of 
Great Britain, is, and ought to be totally dissolved."' ' 




This was an exceedingly bold step, and the resolution did not meet with 
general favor in Congress, at first. Many yet hoped, even against hope, for 
reconciliation, and thought it premature, and there were some timid ones who 
trembled while standing so ne;ir the borders of high treason. After debating 
the subject for three days, the further consideration of it was postponed until 
the first of July. A committee' was appointed [.Juno 11], however, to draw 



sixty-third j'ear of his age. A characteristic anecdots is told of his son, wlio was at school, in 
England, at the time the Declaration of Independence was promulgated. One day a gentleman 
asked his tutor, "What boy is this?" "He is the son of Richard Henry Lee, of America," tlio 
tutor replied. The gentleman put his hand on the boy's head, and said, " We shall yet see your 
father's head upon Tower Hill." Tlie boy instantly ans\yered, " You may have it when you can get 
it." That boy i\-as the late Ludwell Lee, Esq. 

On the inth of Maj', Congress had, by resolution, recommended the establishment of independ- 
ent State governments in all the colonies. This, however, was not sufficiently national to suit tho 
bolder and wiser members of that body, and the people at large. Lee's "resolution more fully- 
expressed the popular will. 

" Thomas Jefferson, of Virginia; John Adams, of Massachusetts ; Benjamin Franklin, of Penn- 
sylvania; Roger Slierman, of Connecticut; and Robert R. Livingston, of New York. Mr. Lee was 
summoned liome to the bedside of a sick wife, on the day before the appointment of tUo committee, 
or lie would doubtless have been its chairman. 



252 THE REVOLUTION. [1776. 

up a declaration in accordance with the resolution, and were instructed to report ( 
on the same day when the latter should be called up. Thomas Jefferson of 
Virginia, the youngest member of the committee, was chosen its chairman, and 
to him was assigned the task of preparing the Declaration. Adams and Frank- 
lin made a few alterations in his draft, and it was submitted to Congress at the 
same hour when Mr. Lee's resolution was taken up for consideration. On the 
following day [July 2], the resolution was adopted by a large majority. The 
Declaration was debated almost two days longer ; and finally, at about mid-day, 
on the 4th of July, 1776, the representatives of thirteen colonies unanimously -J 
declared them free and independent States, under the nanae of The United 
States of America. Only John Hancock, the president of Congress, signed 
it on that day, and thus it first went forth to the world. It was ordered to be 
written on parchment, and on the 2d of August following, the names of all but ; 
two of the fifty-si.\ signers, ' were placed upon it. These two were added after- 
ward. It had then been read to the army f at public meetings ; from a hun- 
dred pulpits, and in all legislative halls in the land, and everywhere awakened i 
the warmest responses of approval. 

Pursuant to instructions. General Howe proceeded toward New York, to 
meet General Clinton and Parker's fleet. He left Halifax on the 11th of June, 
[1776], and arrived at Sandy Hook" on the 29th. On the 2d of July he took 
possession of Staten Island, where he was joined by Sir Henry Clinton [July 
11], from the South,* and his brother, Admiral Lord Howe [July 12], with a 
fleet and a large land force, from England. Before the first of August, other 
vessels arrived with a part of the Hessian troops,^ and on that day. almost thirty 
thousand soldiers, many of them tried veterans, stood ready to fall upon the 
republican army of seventeen thousand men," mostly militia, which lay 
intrenched in New York and vicinity, less than a dozen miles distant.' The 

■ This document, containing the autographs of those venerated fathers of our republic, if care- 
fully preserved in a glass case, in the rooms of the National Institute at "Washington citj'. Not one 
of :ill that band of patriots now survives. Charles Carrol was the last to leave us. He departed in 
1832, at the age of ninety years. See Supplement. It is worthy of remembrance that not one of all 
those signers of the Declaration of Independence, died with a tarnished reputation. The memory 
of all. is sweet. 

° Washington caused it to be read at the head of each brigade of the army, then in New York 
city, on the 9th of July. That night, citizens and soldiers pulled down the leaden equestrian statue 
of George III., whicli stood in the Bowling Green, and it was soou afterward converted into bullets 
for the use of the Continental army. The statue w.ns gilded. The head of the horse was toward 
tl'.e Hudson River. The Rev. Zachariah Greene, who died at Hempstead, Long Island, in June, 
1858, at the age of 99 years, heard the Declaration read to the soldiers. He was in the army. 

° Sandy Hook is a low ridge of sand, extending several miles down the New Jersey shore, from 
the entrance to Raritan or Amboy Bay. Between it and the shore, the water is navigable ; and 
near the mouth of Shrewsburv River, the ridge is broken by an inlet. ' Page 249. 

' Page 246. 

' There were about twenty-seven thousand men enrolled, but not more than seventeen thousand 
men were fit for duty. A great many were sick, and a Large number were without arms. 

' Many of the ships passed through the Narrows, and anchored in New York Bay. . Howe's 
flag-ship, the Eagk, lay near Governor's Island. Wliile in that position, a bold soldier went in a 
submarine vessel, with a machine for blowing up a ship, and endeavored to fasten it to the bottom 
of the Eagle, but fiiiled. He was discovered, and barely escaped. An explosion of the machine 
took place near the Eaijlf, and the commander was so alarmed, tliat she was hastily moved further j 
down the Bay. This machme was constructed by David Bushnell, of Connecticut, and was called a 
torpedo. See Note 2, page 285. 



177b I SECOND TEAR OP THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 253 

grand object in view was the seizure of New York and tlie country along 
the Hudson, so as to keep open a communication with Canada, separate the 
patriots of New England from those of the other States, and to overrun the most 
populous portion of the revolted colonies. This was the militaiy plan, arranged 
bj ministers. They had also prepared instructions to their commanding generals, 
to be pacific, if the Americans appeared disposed to submit. Lord Howe' and 
his brother, the general, were commissioned to " grant pardon to all who deserved 
mercy," and to treat for peace, but only on terms of absolute submission on the 
part of the colonies, to the will of the king and parliament. After making a 
foolish display of arrogance and weakness, in addressing General Washington 
as a private gentleman," and being assured that the Americans had been guilty 
of no offense requiring a "pardon" at their hands, they prepared to strike an 
immediate and effective blow. The British army was accordingly put in motion 
on the morning of the 22d of August [1776], and during that day, ten 
thousand effective men, and forty pieces of cannon, were landed on the west- 
era end of Long Island, between the present Fort Hamilton and Gravesend 
village. 

Already detachments of Americans under General 
Sullivan, occupied a fortified camp at Brooklyn, 
opposite New York, and guarded seven passes on a 
range of hills which extend from the Narrows to the 
village of Jamaica.' When intelligence of the lauding 
of the invading army reached Washington, he sent 
General Putnam,* with large reinforcements, to take 
the chief command on Long Island, and to prepare to 
meet the enemy. The American troops on the island 
now [August 26], numbered about five thousand. general putnam. 

The British moved in three divisions. The left, 

under General Grant, marched along the shore toward Gowanus ; the right, 
under Clinton and Cornwallis, toward the interior of the island ; and the cen- 
ter, composed chiefly of Hessians,' under De Heister, marched up the Flatbush 
road, south of the hills. 

Clinton moved under cover of night, and before dawn on the morning of 

' Richard, Earl Howe, wa.s brother of the young Lord Howe [page 197], killed at Ticouderoga. 
He was bom in 1725, and died in 1799. 

' The letters of Lord Howe to the American commander-in-chief^ were addressed, " George 
Washington, Esq." As that did not express the pubhc character of the chief; and as he would not 
confer with the enemies of his country in a private capacity, Washington refused to receive the 
letters. Howe was instructed not to acknowledge the authority of Congress in any way, and as 
Washington had received his commission from that body, to address him as " general," would have 
been a recognition of its authority. He meant no disrespect to Washington. Congress, by resolu- 
tion, cicpressed its approbation of Washington's dignified course. 

' General Nathaniel Green had been placed in command of this division, but having been pros- 
trated by bilious fever, about a week before the landing of the British at the Narrows, Sullivan was 
placed at the head of the troops. 

' Israel Putnam was born in Salem, Massachusetts, in 1718. He was a very useful officer 
during the French and Indian war, and was in active service in tlie continental army, until 1779, 
when bodilv infirmity compelled him to retire. He died in 1790, at the age of seventy-two years. 

' Page 246. 




254 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1176. 




BATTLE OF LONG ISLAND. 



the 27th, he had gained possession of the Jamaica 
pass, near the present East New York. At the 
same time, Grant was pressing forward along the 
shore of New York Bay, and at day-break, he 
encountered Lord Stirling,' where the monuments 
of Greenwood cemetery now dot the hills. De 
Heister advanced from Flatbush at the same hour, 
and attacked Sullivan, who, having no suspicions 
of the movements of Clinton, was watching the 
Flatbush Pass., A bloody conflict ensued, and while it was progressing, 
Clinton descended from the wooded hills, by the way of Bedford, to gain Sul- 
livan's rear. As soon as the latter perceived his peril, he ordered a retreat 
to the American lines at Brooklyn. It was too late : Clinton drove him back 
upon the Hessian bayonets, and after fighting desperately, hand to hand, with 
the foe in front and rear, and losing a greater portion of his men, Sullivan was 
compelled to surrender. 

As usual, misfortunes did not come single. While these disasters were 
occurring on the left, Cornwallis descended the port-road to Gowanus, and 
attacked Stirling. They fought desperately, until Stirling was made prisoner." 
Many of his troops were drowned while endeavoring to escape across the Gow- 
anus Creek, as the tide was rising ; and a large number were captured. At 
noon the victory for the British was complete. About five hundred Americans 
were killed or wounded, and eleven hundred were made prisoners. These were 
soon sufiering dreadful horrors in prisons and prison-ships, at New York." 
The British loss in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was three hundred and si.xty- 
seven. 

It was with tlio deepest anguish that Washington had viewed, from New 
York, the destruction of his troops, yet he dared not weaken his power in the 
city, by sending reinforcements to aid them. He crossed over on the following 
morning [August 28], with Mifflin,* who had come down from the upper end 
of York island with a thousand troops, and was gratified to find the enemy 
encamped in front of Putnam's linos, and delaying an attack until the British 
fleet should co-operate with him. This delay allowed Washington time to form 
and execute a plan for the salvation of the remainder of the army, now too 
weak to resist an assault with any hope of success. Under cover of a heavy 
fog, which fell upon the hostile camps at midnight of the 29th, and continued 
until the morning of the 30th, he silently withdrew them from the camp,' and. 



' 'VViUiam Alexander, Lord Stirling, was a descendant of the Scotch earl of Stirling, mentioned 
in note 2, page 80. He was born in tlie city of New Yorlc, in 1726. He became attaclied to the 
patriot cause, and was an active officer durini;' the war. He died in 1783, aged fifty-seven years. 

'' Stirling was sent immediately on board of the Eafile, Lord Howe's flag-ship. 

' jVmong the prisoners was General Nathaniel WoodhuU [Note 1, page 19»], late pre.sident of 
the provincial Congress of New York. He was taken prisoner on the30tli, and after being severely 
wounded at the time, he was so neglected, tliat his injuries proved fatal in the course of a lew days. 
His age was fifty-three. See Onderdonk's Rivolulinnary lacidenVi of Long Island. ' Page 352. 

' During the niglit, a woman living near the present Fulton Ferry, where tlie Americans 
embarked, having become offended at some of the patriots, sent her negro servant to inform the 




Retreat of the Americans from Long Island. 



me.] SECOND TEAR OF THE Vf XR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 257 

unpercei\'ed l)y the British, they all crossed over to New York in safety, carry- 
int' every thing with them but their heavy cannons. When the fog rolled away, 
and the sunlight burst upon Brooklyn and New York, the last boat-load of 
patriots had reached the city shore. Mifflin, with his Pennsylvania battalion, 
and the remains of two broken Maryland regiments, formed the covering party. 
Washington and his staff, who had been in the saddle all night, remained until 
the last company had embarked. Surely, if " the stars in their courses fought 
acainst Sisera," in the time of Deborah,' the wings of the Cherubim of Mercy 
and Hope were over the Americans on this occasion. Howe, who felt sure of 
his prey, was greatly mortified, and prepared to make an immediate attack 
upon New York, before the Americans should become reinforced, or should 
escape from it." 

Unfortunately for the cause of freedom, at that time, the troops under 
Washington lacked that unity of feeling and moral stamina, so necessary for 
the accomplishment of success in any struggle. Had patriotism prevailed in 
every heart in the American army, it might have maintained its position in the 
city, and kept the British at bay. But there were a great many of merely 
selfish men in the camp. Sectional differences^ weakened the bond of union, and 
immorality of every kind prevailed.'' There was also a general spirit of insub- 
ordination, and the disasters on Long Island disheartened the timid. Hundreds 
deserted the cause, and went home. Never, during the long struggle of after 
years, was the hopeful mind of Washington more clouded by doubts, than 
during the month of September, 1776. In the midst of the gloom and perplex- 
ity, he called a council of war [Sept. 12th], and it was determined to send the 
military stores to Dobbs' Ferry, a secure place twenty-two miles up the Hud- 
son, and to retreat to and fortify Harlem Heights,' near the upper end of York 

British of the movement. The negro fell into the hands of the Hessians. They could not imder- 
stand a word of his language, and detained him until so late in the morning that his information was 
of no avail. ' Judges, chapter v., verse 20. 

' He ordered several vessels of war to sail around Long Island, and come down the Sound to 
Flushing Bay, so as to cover the intended landing of the troops upon the main [page 258], in 
Westchester county. In tiie mean while, Howe made an overture for peace, supposing the late dis- 
aster would dispose the Americans to listen eagerly to almost any proposition for reconciliation. 
He parolled General Sullivan, and by him sent a verbal communication to Congress, suggesting a 
committee for conference. It was appointed, and consisted of Dr Franklin, John Adams, and 
Edward Rutledge. On the 11th of September, they met Lord Howe at the house of Captain Billop, 
ou Staten Island, opposite Perth Amboy. The committee would treat only for independence, and 
tlie conference had no practical result, except to widen the breach. When Howe spoke patron- 
izingly o{ protection for the Americans, Dr. Franklin told him courteously, that the Americans were 
not in need of British protection, for they were fuUy able to protect themselves. 

' The army, which at first consisted chiefly of New England people, had been reinforced by 
others from New York, New Jersey, Penpsjdvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, all of them 
jealous of their respective claims to precedence, and materially differing in their social habits. 

' Cotemporary writers give a sad picture of the army at this time. Among many of the sub- 
ordinate officers, greed usurped the place of patriotism. Officers were elected on condition that they 
should throw their pay and rations into a joint stock for the benefit of a company ; surgeons sold 
recommendations for furloughs, for able-bodied men, at sixpence each ; and a captain was cashiered 
fl)r stealing blankets from his soldiers. Men went out in squads to plunder from friend and foe, to 
the disgrace of the army. Its appointments, too, were in a wretched condition. The surgeons' 
department lacked instruments. According to a general return of fifteen regiments, there were not 
more tlian sufficient instruments for one Ijattalion. [See Washington's Letter to Congress, Sept. 
24, 1776.] 

' These extend from the plain on which the village of Harlem stands, about seven and a half 
17 



258 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1776. 



Island.' This was speedily accomplished; and when, on the 15th, a strong 
detachment of the British army crossed the East River from Long Island, and 
landed three miles above the town, at Kipps' Bay (now foot of Thirty-fourth- 
street, East River), without much opposition," the greater portion of the Amer- 
icans were busy in fortifying their new camp on Harlem Heights. 

The invading Britons formed a line almost across the island to Bloomingdale, 
within two miles of the American intreuchments, just beyond the present Man- 
hattanville, while the main army on Long Island was stationed at different 
points from Brooklyn to Flushing.' On the 16th, detachments of the belliger- 
ents met on Harlem plains, and a severe skirmish ensued. The Americans 
were victorious, but their triumph cost the lives of two brave olBcers — Colonel 
Knowlton of Connecticut, and Major Leitch of Virginia. Yet the eifect of the 
\ictory was inspiriting ; and so faithfully did the patriots ply muscle and im- 
plement, that before Howe could make ready to attack them, they had con- 
structed double lines of intreuchments, and were prepared to defy him. At , 
once perceiving the inutility of attacking the Americans in front, he ne.xt en- 
deavored to gain their rear. Leaving quite a strong force to keep possession , 
of the city' [Sept. 20], he sent three armed vessels up the Hudson to cut off 
the communications of the Americans with New Jersey, while the great bulk 
of his army (now reinforced by an arrival of fre.sh troops from England)' made j 
their way [Oct. 12] to a point in Westchester county," beyond the Harlem 
River. When Washington perceived the designs of his en- 
emy, he placed a garrison of almost three thousand men, ' 

under Colonel Magaw, in Fort Washington,' and withdrew i 

. . . . I 

the remainder of his army' to a position on the Bronx River, ] 

in Westchester county, to oppose Howe, or retreat in safety i 

to the Hudson Highlands, if necessary. He established his li 

head-quarters at White Plains village, and there, on the 28th 




FORT W.ISIIINGTON. 



milea from the City Hall, New York to Two Hundred and Sixth-street, near King's Bridge, at the |l 
upper end of the island. ' Also called Manhattan. See note 1, page 48. i 

' Some Connecticut troops, frightened by the number and martial appearance of the British, 'J 
fled at their approach. Washington, then at Harlem, heard the cannonade, leaped into his saddle, |: 
and approached Kipp's Bay in time to meet the flying fugitives. Mortified by this e.xhiljitiou of i 
cowardice before tlie enemy, the commander-in-chief tried to rally them, and in that eflbrt, he was ii 
80 unmindful of himselfj that he came near l.ieiug captured. 

' Wishing to ascertain the exact condition of the British army, Washington engaged Captain l . 
Nathan Hale, of Kuowlton's regiment, to secretly visit their camps on Long Island, and make ', 
observations. He was caught, taken to Howe's head-quarters, Turtle Bay, New Tork, and exe- 
cuted as a spy by the brutal pro\K)st-marshal, Cunningham. He was not allowed to liave a Bible -i 
nor clergyman during his last hours, nor to send letters to his friends. His fate and Andre's [page 
.326] have been compared. For particulars of this affair, see Onderdonk's Hn'olutionary Incident j 
of Long Island, etc., and Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of the Ferohdion. 

* At one o'clock on the morning of the 2 1st, a fire broke out in a small groggery near the foot | 
of Broad-street, and before it was extinguished, about five Inmdred buildings were destroyed. The 
British charged the fire upon the Americans. Although such incendiarism had been contemplated i > 
when the Americans found themselves compelled to evacuate the city, this was purely accidental. I 

' The whole British army now numbered abou: 35,000 men. 

" Throg's Neck, sixteen miles from the city. 

' Fort Washington was erected early in 1776, upon the highest ground on Tork Island, ten \ , 
miles from tlie city, between One Hundred and Eighty-first-street and One Hundred and Eighty- '■ 
sixtli-streets, and overlooking both tlie Hudson and Harlem Rivers. There were a few traces ol 
its embankments yet visible so late as 1856. 

° Nominally, nineteen thousand men, but actually eCTective. not more than half l-hat number. 




■WAS]s:nM(B3'®RT Air isn^^'s is^tTc 



177G.] SECOND TEAR OF THE WAR FOR IN DE PE NDE XCE. 259 

of October, a severe engagement took place.' The Americans were driven from 
their position, and three days afterward [Nov. 1, 1776], formed a strong camp 
on the hilk of North Castle, five miles further north. The British general 
was afraid to pursue them ; and after strengthening the post at Peekskill, at 
the lower entrance to the Highlands, and securing the vantage-ground at North 
Castle,'' Washington crossed the Hudson [Nov. 12] with the main body of hh 
army, and joined General Greene at Fort Lee, on the Jersey shore, about two 
miles south of Fort Washington. This movement was made on account of an 
apparent preparation by the British to invade New Jersey and march upon 
Philadelphia, where the Congress was in session.' 

General Knyphausan and a large body of Hessians' had arrived at New 
York, and joined the British army at Westchester, previous to the engagement 
at White Plains. After Washington had crossed the Hudson, these German 
troops and a part of the English army, five thousand strong, proceeded to attack 
Fort Washington. They were successful, but at a cost to the victors of full one 
thousand brave men.' More than two thousand Americans were made prison- 
ers of war [Nov. 16], and like their fellow-captives on Long Island," they were 
crowded into loathsome prisons and prison-ships.' Two days afterward [Nov. 
18], Lord Cornwallis, with six thousand men, crossed the Hudson at Dobbs' 
Ferry, and took possession of Fort Lee, which the Americans had a'wndoned 
on his approach, leaving all the baggage and military stores behind them. 
During the siege. General Washington, with Putnam, Greene, and Mercer, 
ascended the heights, and from the abandoned mansion of Roger Morris," sur- 
veyed the scene of operations. Within fifteen minutes after they had left that 
mansion, Colonel Stirling, of the British army, who had just repulsed an 

' The combatants lost about an equal number of men — not more than three hundred each in 
killed, wounded, and prisoners. 

^ General Heath was left in command in the Highlands, and General Lee at North Castle. 

^ Page 250. That body afterward adjourned to Baltimore, in Marj'land. See page 2G'2. 

* Page 246. 

' The loss of the Americans, in killed and wounded, did not exceed one hundred. 

" Page 254. 

' Nothing could exceed the horrors of these 
crowded prisons, as described by an eye-witness. 
The sugur-hoases of New York being large, were 
used for the purpose, and therein scores sufi'ered and 
died. But the most terrible scenes occurred on 
board several old hulks, which were anchored in the 
waters around New York, and used for prisoners. Of 
them the Jersey was the most notorious for the suf- 
ferings it contained, and the brutality of its officers. 
From these vessels, anchored near the present Navy the jeeset pbison-suip. 

Yard, at Brooklyn, almost eleven thousand victims 

were carried ashore during the war, and buried in shallow graves in the sand. Their remains were 
gathered in 180S, and put in a vault situated near the termination of Front-street and Hudson- 
avenue, Brooklyn. See Onderdonk's Revolutionary Incidents of Long Island. Lossing's Field Bool:, 
supplement. 

° That mansion, elegant even now [1SG7], is standing on the high bank of the Harlem River, 
at One Hundred and Sixty-ninth-street. Roger Morris was Washington's companion-in-arms on 
tlie field where Braddock was defeated, and he had married Mary Philhpse, a young lady wliose 
charms had captivated the heart of AVashington when he was a young Virginia colonel. It wus 
the property of Madame Jumel (widow of Aaron Burr, who was Vice-President of the L'nited 
States, under Jefferson), at the time of her death in 18G5. 




260 THE REVOLUTION. [1776. 

American party, came with his victorious troops, and took possession of it. It 
was a narrow escape for those chief commanders. 

A melancholy and a brilliant chapter in the history of the war for Inde- 
pendence, was now opened. For three weeks Washington, with his shattered 
and daily diminishing army, was flying before an overwhelming force of Brit- 
ons. Scarcely three thousand troops now remained in the American army. 
Newark, New Brunswick, Princeton, and Trenton, successively fell into the 
power of Cornwalhs. So close were the British vanguards upon the rear of the 
Americans, sometimes, that each could hear the music of the other. Day after 
day, the militia left the army as their terms of enlistment expired, for late 
reverses had sadly dispirited them, and many of the regulars' deserted. Loyalists 
were swarming all over the country through which they passed," and when, on 
the 7th of December, Washington reached the frozen banks of the Delaware, at 
Trenton, he had less than three thousand men, most of them wretchedly clad, 
half famished, and without tents to shelter them from the biting winter air. 
On the 8th that remnant of an army crossed the Delaware in Iwats, just as one 
division of Cornwallis's pursuing army marched into Trenton with all the pomp 
of victors, and sat down, almost in despair, upon the Pennsylvania shore. 

Washington had hoped to make a stand at New Brunswick, but was disap- 
pointed. The services of the Jersey and Maryland brigades expired on the day 
when he left that place, and neither of them would remain any longer in the 
army. During his flight, Washington had sent repeated messages to General 
Lee,' urging him to leave North Castle,'' and reinforce him. That officer, am- 
bitious as he was impetuous and brave, hoping to strike a blow against the 
British that might give himself personal renown, was so tardy in his obedience, 
that he did not enter New Jersey until the Americans had crossed the Dela- 
ware. He had repeatedly, but in vain, importuned General Heath, who was 
left in command at Peekskill, to let him have a detachment of one or two thou- 
sand men, with which to operate. His tardiness in obedience, cost him his 
liberty. Soon after entering New Jersey, he was made a prisoner [December 



' Note G, page 185. 

° General Howe had sent out proclamations through the country, offering pardon and protection 
to all who might ask for mercy. Perceiving the disasters to tlie American anus during the summer 
and autumn, great numbers took advantage of tliese promises, and signed petitions. They soon 
found tliat protection did not follow pardun, for tlie Hessian troops, in their marcli througli New 
Jersey, committed great excesses, without inquiring whether their victims were Whifjs or Tories. 
Note 4, page 226. Among tlie prominent men who espoused the repubhean cause, and now aban- 
doned it, was Tucker, president of the New Jersey Convention, which liad sanctioned tlie Declara- 
tion of Independence, and Joseph Galloway, a member of the first Continental Congress. These, 
and other prominent recusants, received some liard hits in tlie public prints. A writer in the Perm- 
■sylvania Journal, of February 5, 1777, thus castigated Galloway: 

" Gall' way has fled, and join'd the venal Howe. 
To prove his baseness, see him cringe and bow ; 
A traitor to his country and its laws, 
A friend to tyrants and their cursed cause. 
Unhappy wretch I thy interest must be sold 
For Continental, not for polish' d fjnld. 
To sink the money thou thyself cried down, 
And stabb'd thy country to support the crown.'' 

' Note 4, page 1S5. • Page 259. 



1776.] SECOND TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 261 

13, 1776], and his command devolved upon General Sullivan.' At about the 
same time intelligence reached the chief that a British squadron, under Sir 
Peter Parker (who, as we have seen [page 24:7], was defeated at Charleston), 
had sailed into Narraganset Bay [December 8th], taken possession of Rhode 
Island, and blockaded the little American fleet, under Commodore Hopkins," 
then lying near Providence. This intelligence, and a knowledge of the failure 
of operations on Lake Champlain,' coupled with the sad condition of the main 
army of patriots, made the future appear gloomy indeed.' 

It was fortunate for the patriot cause that General Howe was excessively 
cautious and indolent. Instead of allowing Cornwallis to construct boats,'' cross 
the Delaware at once, overwhelm the patriots, and push on to Philadelphia, as 
he might have done, he ordered him to await the freezing of the waters, so as 
to cross on the ice. He was also directed to place four thousand German troops 
in cantonments along the Jersey shoi-e of the river, from Trenton to Burling- 
ton, and to occupy Princeton and New Brunswick with strong British detach- 
ments. Both Congress and Washington profited by this delay. Measures for 
re-organizing the army, already planned, were put in operation. A loan of five 
millions of dollars, in hard money, with which to pay the troops, was author- 
ized. By the offer of liberal bounties," and the influence of a stii'ring appeal 
put forth by Congress, recruits immediately flocked to Washington's standard 
at Newtown.' Almost simultaneously, Lee's detachment under Sullivan, and 
another from Ticonderoga," joined him; and on the 24th of December he found 
himself in command of almost five thousand effective troops, many of them fresh 
and hopeful." And the increased pay of officers, the proffered bounties to the 

' Both Sullivan and Stirling, who were made prisoners on Long Island [page 254], had lieen 
exchanged, and were now again with the army. Lee was captured at Baskingridge, where Lord 
Stirling resided, and remained a prisoner until May, 1778, when ho was exclianged for General 
Prescott, who was captured on Rliode Island. See page 271. " Note 1, page 307. 

' General Gates was appointed to the command of the army at the north, after the death of 
General Thomas [note 2, page 243]; and during tlio summer and autumn of 1776, Colonel Arnold 
became a sort of commodore, and commanded Hotillas of small vessels in warfare with others pre- 
pared by General Carleton (the British commander in Canada), on Lake Champlain. He had two 
severe engagements (11th and 13th of October), in which he lost about ninety men; the British 
about forty. These operations were disastrous, yet they resulted iu preventing the British forces in ' 
Canada uniting with those in New York, and were thus of vast importance. 

' Although the Americans had generally suii'ered defeats, they had been q\ute successful in 
making captives. The number of Americans taken by tlie British, up to the close of 1776, was 
four thousand, eight hundred and fifty-four; the number of British taken by the Americans, was 
two thousand, eight hundred and sixty. In addition to men, the Americans had lost twelve brass 
cannons and mortars, and two hundred and thirty-five made of iron ; twenty-three thousand, nine 
hundred and seventy-nine empty .shells, and seventeen thousand, ono hundred and twenty-two 
filled ; two thousand sis hundred and eighty-four double-headed shot ; a large quantity of grape- 
shot; two thousand eight hundred muskets: four hundred thousand cartridges ; sixteen Iwrrels of 
powder ; five hundred intrenching tools ; two hundred barrows and other instruments, and a largp 
quantity of provisions and stores. 

' The Americans took every boat they could find at Trenton, and cautiously moved them out 
of the river after they had crossed. 

° Each soldier was to have a bounty of twenty dollars, besides an allotment of land at the close 
of the war. A conmion soldier was to have one imndred acres, and a colonel five hundred. Tliese 
were given to those only who enlisted to serve " during the war." 

' A small village north of Bristol, about two miles fi-om the Delaware. ° Page 234. 

° According to the adjutant's return to 'Washington on the 22d of December, the American 
army numbered ten thousand one hundred and six men, of whom five thousand three hundred and 
nmety-nine were sick, on command elsewhere, or on furlough, leaving an effective force of four 
thousand seven hundred and seven. 



262 THE REVOLUTION. [1716. 

soldiers, and the great personal influence of the commander-in-chief, had the 
eifect to retain in the service, for a fcwweeks at least, more than one half of the 
old soldiers. 

There were about fifteen hundred Hessians.' and a troop of British light 
horse, at Trenton, and these Washington determined to surprise. The British 
commanders looked with such contempt upon the American troops — the mere 
ghost of an army — and were so certain of an easy victory beyond the Delaware, 
where, rumor affirmed, the people were almost unanimous in favor of the 
king, that vigilance was neglected. So confident were they that the contest 
would be ended by taking possession of Philadelphia, that Cornwallis actually 
returned to New York, to prepare to sail for England ! And when Rail, the 
commander of the Hessians at Trenton, applied to General Grant for a rein- 
forcement, that officer said to the messenger, " Tell the colonel he is very safe. 
I will undertake to keep the peace in New Jersey, with a corporal's guard." 
How they mistook the character of Washington ! During all the gloom of the 
past month, hope had beamed brightly upon the heart of the commander-in- 
chief. Although Congress had adjourned to Baltimore' [December 12, 1776], 
and the public mind was filled with despondency, his reliance upon Providence 
in a cause so just, was never shaken ; and his great soul conceived, and his 
ready hand planned a bold stroke for deliverance. The Christmas holiday was 
at hand — a day when Germans, especially, indulge in convivial pleasures. Not 
doubting the Hessians would pass the day in sports and drinking, he resolved 
to profit by their condition, by falling suddenly upon them while they were in 
deep slumber after a day and night of carousal. His plan was to cross the 
Delaware in three divisions, one a few miles above Trenton, another a few miles 
below, and a third at Bristol to attack Count Donop' at Burlington. Small 
parties were also to attack the British posts at Mount Holly, Black Horse, and 
Bordentown, at the same time. 

On the evening of Christmas day [1776], Washington gathered twenty- 
four hundred men, with some heavy artillery, at McConkey's Ferry, 
.eight or nine miles above Trenton.' They expected to cross, reach Trenton 
at midnight, and take the Hessians by surprise. But the river was filled 
with floating ice, and sleet and snow were falling fast. The passage was 
made in flat-boats ; and so difficult was the navigation, that it was almost four 
o'clock in the morning [December 26] when the troops were mustered on 
the Jersey shore. They were arranged in two divisions, commanded respec- 
tively by Greene and Sullivan, and approached Trenton by separate roads. 
The enterprise was eminently successful. Colonel Rail, the Hessian com- i 
mander, was yet indulging in wine at the end of a night spent in card- 



' Page 246. 

^ Alarmed at the approach of the British, Congress tliought it prudent to acljoum to Baltimore. 
A committee to represent tliat body was left in Philadelphia, to co-operate with the army. Congress 
assembled at Baltimore on the 20th. ' Page 275. 

* Taylor.sville is the name of the little village at that place. The river there, now spanned by 
a covered bridge, is about six hundred feet in width, and has a considerable current 




1776.] SECOND YEAR OF THE 'WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 263 

playing, when the Americans approached, a little after sunrise;' and while 

endeavoring to rally his affrighted troops, he fell, mortally wounded, in the 

streets of Trenton. Between forty and fifty of 

the Hessians were killed and fatally wounded, 

and more than a thousand were made prisoners, 

together with arms, ammunition, and stores. 

Five hundred British cavalry barely escaped, 

and fled to Bordentown. Generals Ewing and 

Cadwalader, who commanded the other two 

... 1-1 li.A.TTLE AT TRENTON. 

divisions, destined to attack the enemy below 

Trenton, were unable to cross the river on account of the ice, to co-operate with 
Washington. With a strong enemy so near as Burlington and Princeton, the com- 
mander-in-chief thought it imprudent to remain on the Jersey shore, so with his 
prisoners and booty he re-crossed the Delaware on the evening after his victory. 

This was indeed a victory in more aspects than that of a skillful military 
operation. The Germans under Dunop, on the river below, thoroughly 
alarmed, fled into the interior. The Tories and pliant WTiigs" were abashed ; 
t^ friends of liberty, rising from the depths of despondency, stood erect in the 
pride and strength of their principles ; the prestige of the Hessian name, lately 
so terrible, was broken, and the faltering militia, anxious for bounties and 
honors, flocked to the victorious standard of Washington. Fourteen hundred 
soldiers, chiefly of the eastern militia, whose terms of enlistment would expire 
with the year, agreed to remain six weeks longer, on a promise to each of a 
bounty of ten dollars. The military chest was not in a condition to permit him 
to fulfill his promise, and he wrote to Robert Morris, the eminent financier of 
the Revolution, for aid, and it was given. Fifty thousand dollars, in hard 
money, were sent to the banks of the Delaware, in time to allow Washington 
to fulfill his engagement.' 

The victory was also productive of more vigilant efforts on the part of the 

' Rail spent the night at the house of a loyalist, named Hunt. Just at dawn, a messenger, sent 
by a Tory ou the line of march of the patriots, eaine in hot haste to tlie colonel. Excited l)y wine, 
and intent upon his game, that officer tlirust the note mto his pocket. Like tlie Athenian polemarch, 
who, when he received dispatches relative to a conspiracy, refused to open them, saying, " Busi- 
ness to-morrow," Rail did not look at the message, but continued his amusement until the roll of 
the American drum, and tlie crack of his rifle, fell upon his dull ears, and called him to duty. 

" Note 4, page 22C. 

' Then it was tliat Robert Morris not only evinced his faith in the success of the patriot cause, 
and liis own love of country, but he tested the strength of his credit and mercantile honor. The 
sum was large, and the requirement seemed almost impossible to meet. Government credit was 
low, but confidence in Robert Morris was unbounded. On leaving his office, musing upon how he 
should obtain the money, he met a wealthy Quaker, and said, "I want money for the use of the 
army." "Robert, what security canst thou give?" asked the Quaker. "My note and my honor," 
promptly replied Morris. "Thou shalt have it," as promptly responded the lender, who offered him 
a considerable sum, and the next morning it was on its way to the camp of Washington. Robert 
Morris was a native of England, where he was born in 1733. He came to America in 1744, and 
became a merchant's clerk in Philadelphia. By the force of industry, energy, and a good character, 
he arose to the station of one of the first merchants of his time. He was a signer of the Declaration 
of Independence, and was active as a public financier, throughout the war. Toward its close 
[1781], he was instrumental in establishing a national bank. Atter the war, he was a state legis- 
lator, and Washington wished him to be his first Secretary of the Treasury, but he declined it. By 
land speculations he lost his fortune, and died in comparative poverty, in May, 1806, when a little 
more than seventy years of age. See his porti-ait on next page. 



264 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1776. 



invaders. Believing the rebellion to be at an end, and the American army 
hopelessly annihilated, when Washington, with his shivering, half-starved 
troops, fled across the Delaware, Cornwallis, as we have observed, had returned 
to New York to embark for England. The contempt of the British for the 




" rebels," was changed to respect and fear, and when intelligence of the affair 
at Trenton reached Howe, he ordered Cornwallis back with reinforcements, to 
gain the advantage lost. Congress, in the mean while, pei'ceiving the necessity 
of giving more power to the commander-in-chief, wisely clothed him [December 
27] with all the puissance of a military dictator, for six months, and gave him 
absolute control of all the operations of war, for that period.' This act was 
accomplished before that body could possibly have heard of the victory at Tren- 
ton, for they were then in session in Baltimore. 

Inspirited by his success at Trenton, the panic of the enemy, and their 
retirement from the Delaware, Washington determined to recross that river, 
and act on the offensive. He ordered General Heath, who was with quite a 



' ■When Congress adjourned on the 12tli, to meet at Baltimore, almost equal powers were given 
to Washington, but they were not then defined. Now they were so. by resolution. They wrote to 
"ffasliington, when they forwarded the resolution, " Happy is it (or this country, that the general 
of their forces can be safely intrusted with unlimited power, and neither personal security, liberty, 
nor property, be in the least degree endangered thereljy." At tliat time, Congress had given Gen- 
eral Putnam almost unlimited command in Philadelphia. All munitions of war there, were placed 
under his control. He was also authorized to employ all private armed vessels in the Delaware, in 
the defense of Philadclpliia. See note 1, page 246. 



^^ ^/^M- 



1777.] THIRD TEAR OP THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 265 

large body of New England troops at Peekskill,' to move into New Jersey 
with his main force ; and the new militia levies were directed to annoy the flank 
and rear of the British detachments, and make frequent attacks upon their 
outposts. In the mean while, he again crossed the Delaware [December 30th], 
with his whole army, and took post at Trenton, while the British and German 
troops were concentrating at Princeton, only ten miles distant. Such was the 
position and the condition of the two armies at the close of the second year of 
the War for Independence — the memorable year when this great Republic of 
the West was born. 



CHAPTER IV. 

THIRD TEAR OF THE WAR FOR IXDEPF.XDEXCE. [1777.] 

The strange apathy of nations, like individuals, in times of gi'eat danger, or 
when dearest interests depend upon the utmost vigilance and care, is a remark- 
able phase in human character, and the records thereof appear as monstrous 
anomalies upon the pages of history. Such was the case with the executive 
and legislative power of the British nation during the momentous year of 1776, 
when the eye of ordinary forecast could not fail to perceive that the integrity 
of the realm was in imminent danger, and that the American colonies, the fair- 
est jewels in the British crown, were likely to be lost forever. Such an apathy, 
strange and profound, seemed to pervade the councils of the British Govern- 
ment, even while the public mind of England was filled with the subject of the 
American rebellion. Notwithstanding an army had been driven from one city' 
[March, 1776], a fleet expelled from another' [.June], their colonies declared 
independent' [July 4], and almost thirty thousand of their choice troops and 
fierce hirelings had been defied and combatted^ [August], Parliament did not 
assemble until the last day of October, to deliberate on these important mat- 
ters. Then the king, in his speech, congratulated them upon the success of the 
royal troops in America, and assured them (but without the shadow of good 
reason for the laelief ) that most of the continental powers entertained friendly 
feelings toward Great Britain. During a dull session of six weeks, new sup- 
plies for the American service were voted, while every conciliatory proposition 
was rejected ; and when Parliament adjourned, in December, to keep the 
Christmas holidays, the members appeared to feel that their votes had crushed 
the rebellion, and that, on their re-assembling in January, they would be in- 
vited to join in a Te Deumb at St. Paul's, because of submission and peace in 

' On the east bank of the Hudson, at the entrance to the Highlands, forty-five miles from the 
city of New Tork. See page 270. 

^ Page 247. = P.age 249. ' Page 251. ' Page 253. 

° The T<: Deum Laudamus ( We praise thee, God) is always chanted in churches in England, 
and on the continent, after a great victory, great deliverance, etc. There is something revoltmg in 




266 THE RETOLtTTION. [1111. 

America. At that very moment, Washington was planning his brilliant 
achievement on the banks of the Delaware.' 

In contrast with this apathy of the British Government, was the vigilance 
and activity of the Continental Congi-ess. Their perpetual session was one of 
perpetual labor. Early in the year [March. 1776], the 
Secret Committee of that body had appointed Silas Deane,' 
a delegate from Connecticut, to proceed to France, as their 
agent, with general powers to solicit the co-operation of 
other governments. Even these remote colonists knew 
that the claims of the king of England to the friendship 
of the continental powers, was fallacious, and that France, 
Spain, and Holland, the Prince of Orange, and even Cath- 
i5ii arine of Russia, and Pope Clement the Fourteenth (Gan- 

ganelli), all of whom feared and hated England, instead of being friendly to 
her, were anxious for a pretense to strike her fiercely, and humble her pride, 
because of her potency in arms, her commerce, her diplomacy, an(J her strong 
Protestantism. All of these spoke kindly to the American agent, and Deane 
was successful in his emljassy. He talked confidently, and by skillful manage- 
ment, during the summer of 1776, he obtained fifteen thousand muskets from 
the French arsenals, and abundant promises of men and money. And when the 
Declaration of Independence had been made [July 4], Congress appointed a reg- 
ular embassy' [Sept. 22, 1776], to the court of France, and finally sent agents 
to other foreign courts.'' They also planned, and finally executed measures for 
strengthening the bond of union between the several colonies, already made 
powerfully cohesive by common dangers and common hopes. Articles of Con- 
federation, which formed the organic laws of the nation until the adoption of 

this to the true Cliristian mind and heart. TVar, except strictly defensive as a List extremity, is 
always a monstrous injustice ; and for its success in soddening God's fair earth with human blood, 
men "in epaulettes, their hands literally dripping with gore, wiil go into the templo dedicated to the 
Prince of Peace, and there sing a Te Deumf ' Page 261. 

" SUas Deane was born at Groton, in Connecticut, and was educated at Tale College. He was 
elected to the first Congress [page 22S] in 1774, and after being some time abroad, as agent for the 
Secret Committee, he was reealled, on account of alleged bad conduct. He published a defuse of 
his character in 1778, but he failed to reinstate himself in the public opinion. He went to England 
toward the close of 1784, where ho died in extreme poverty, in 1789. 

' The embassy consisted of Dr. Franklin, Silas Deane, and Arthur Lee. Franklin and Lee 
joined Deane at Paris, at the middle of December, 1776. Lee had then been in Europe for some 
time, as a sort of private agent of the Secret Committee. He made an arrangement with tlie French 
king to send a large amount of arms, ammunition, and .specie, to the colonists, but in such a way 
that it would appear as a commercial transaction. The agent on the part of the French was 
Beaumarchais, who assumed the commercial title of Roderique Hortales & Co., and Lee took the 
name of Mary Johnson. This arrangement with the fiilse and avaricious Beaumarchais, was a source 
of great annoyance and actu.il loss to Congress in after years. 'R'hat was a gratuity on the part of 
the French government, in the name of Hortales & Co., Beaumarchais afterward presented a claim 
for, and actually received from Congress four hundred thousand dollars. Benjamin Franklin was 
bom in Boston, in 1706. He was a printer; worked at his trade in London ; became eminent in 
his business in Philadelphia; olitained a high position as a philosopher and statesman; was agent 
in England for several colonies ; was chief embas.sador for the United States in Europe during the 
Revolution, and filled various official stafious in tlie scientific and political world. He was one of 
the most remarkable men that ever lived ; and, next to Washington, is the best known and most 
revered of all Americans. He died in 1790, at the age of more than eighty-four years Arthur 
Lee was a brother of Richard Henry Lee [page 250], and was bom in Virginia, in 17-*u. lie was 
a fine scholar, and elegant writer. He died in 1782. * Holland, Spain, and Prussia. 



nil.] 



THIRD TEAR OP THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



267 



the Federal Constitution, were, after more than two years' consideration, ap- 
proved by Congress, and produced vastly beneficial results during the remain- 
der of the struggle.' 





^'^z^e^/€-^^^'^ 



Such, in brief, were the chief operations of the civil power of the revolted 
colonies. Let us now turn to the military operations at the opening of a new 

' In July, ms, Dr. Franklin submitted a plan of union to Congress. On the 11th of June, 
1776, a committee was appointed to draw up a plan. Their report wSs laid aside, and not called 
up until April, 1777. From the 2d of October until the 15th of November following, the suljject 
was regularly debated t^'o or three times a week, when thirteen Articles of Confederation were 
adopted. The substance was that the tliirteen confederated States should be known as the United 
States of America; that aU engage in a reciprocal treaty of alliance and friendship, for mutual ad- 
vantage, each to assist the other when help shoidd be needed ; that each State should have the 
right to regulate its own internal affairs; that no State should separately send or receive emljassies, 
begin any negotiations, contract engagements or alliances, or conclude treaties with any foreign 
power, without the consent of the general Congress ; that no public oflEcer should be allowed to 
accept any presents, emoliiments, office, or title, from any foreign power, and that neither Con- 
.gress nor State governments should possess the power to confer any title of nobility ; that none 
of the States should have tlie right to form alliances among themselves, without the consent of 
Congress ; that they should not have the power to levy duties contrary to the enactments of Con- 
gress ; that no State should keep up a standing army or ships of war, in time of peace, beyond 
the amount stipulated by Congress ; that when any of the States should raise troops for the com- 
mon defense, all the officers of the rank of colonel and under, should be appointed by the Legis- 
lature of the State, and the superior officers by Congress ; that all expenses of the war should be 
paid out of tlie public treasury : that Congress alone should have the power to coin money ; and 
that Canada might at any time be admitted into the confederacy when she felt disposed. The last 
clauses were explanatory of the power of certain governmental operations, and contained detaUs 
of the same. Such was the form of government wliioh existed for several years. See Supplement. 



268 THE REVOLUTION. [1777. 

year. Congress, we have observed," delegated all military power to Washing- 
ton, and he used it with energy and discretion. We left him at Trenton, pre- 
pared to act offensively or defensively, as circumstances should require. There 
he was joined by some troops under Generals Mifflin and Cadwalader, who 
came from Bordentown and Crosswicks, on the night of the 1st of January. 
Yet with these, his effective force did not exceed five thousand men. Toward 
the evening of the 2d of Januaiy, 1777, Cornwallis, with a strong force, ap- 
proached from Princeton, and after some skirmishing, the two armies encamped 
on either side of a small stream which runs through the town, within pistol- 
shot of each other. Washington commenced intrenching his camp, and Corn- 
wallis, expecting reinforcements in the morning, felt sure of his prey, and 
deferred an attack for the night. 

The situation of Washington and his little army was now perilous in the 
extreme. A conflict with such an overwhelming force as was gathering, 
appeared hopeless, and the Delaware becoming more obstructed by ice every 
hour, rendered a retreat across it, in the event of a surprise, almost impossible. 
A retreat down the stream was equally perilous. An escape under cover of the 
night, was the only chance of safety, but the ground was too soft to allow the 
patriots to drag their heavy cannons with them ; and could they withdraw unob- 
served by the British sentinels, whose hourly cry could be heard from the 
camp ? This was a question of deep moment, and there was no time for long 
deliberation. A higher will than man's determined the matter. The Protector 
of the righteous put forth his hand. While a council of war was in session, 
toward midnight, the wind changed, and the ground was soon so hard frozen, 
that there could be no difficulty in conveying away the cannons. Instantly all 
was in activity in the American camp, while Cornwallis and his army were 
soundly sleeping — perhaps dreaming of the expected sure victory in the morn- 
ing. Leaving a few to keep watch and feed the camp-fires, to allay suspicion, 
Washington silently withdrew, with all his army, artillery, and baggage ; and 
at dawn [January 3, 1777], he was in sight of Princeton, prepared to fall upon 
Cornwallis's reserve there/" The British general had scarcely recovered from 
his surprise and mortification, on seeing the deserted camp of the Americans, 
when the distant booming of cannons, borne upon the keen winter air, fell 
ominously upon his ears. Although it was mid-winter, he thought it was the 
rumbling of distant thunder. The quick ear of General Erskine decided other- 
wise, and he e.xclaimed, "To arms, general! Washington has out-geueraled 
us. Let us fly to the i-escue at Princeton !" Erskine was right, for, at that 
moment, Washington and the British reserve were combating. 

Owing to the extreme roughness of the roads, Washington did not reach 
Princeton as early as he expected, and instead of surprising the British, and 
then pushing forward to capture or destroy the enemy's stores at New Bruns- 
wick, he found a portion of the troops already on their march to join Corn- 



' Pas^o 2G4. ,_ 

" A brigade, under Lieutenant-colonel Mawhood, consisting of three regiments ftnd three troops 
of dragoons, were quartered there. 



1717.] 



THIRD TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



269 




IJATTLB AT PRINCETON". 



■wallis at Trenton. A severe encounter occurred, when the American militia 
giving way, the British, with a victorious shout, rushed forward, expecting to 

I jproduce a general rout. At that moment Washington 

I I advanced with a select corps, brought order out of con- 
Ill fusion, and leading on his troops with waving sword and 
i cheering voice, turned the tide of battle and achieved a 
I victory. The brave General Mercer,' while fighting at 

the head of his men, was killed, and many other be- 

j loved officers were lost on that snowy battle-field.'' Nor 

j was the conflict of that morning yet ended. When Corn- 

jwalhs perceived the desertion of the American camp, 

ii and heard the firing at Princeton, he hastened with a 

' greater portion of his troops, to the aid of his reserve, 

I and to secure his stores at New Brunswick. The Ameri- 

I cans, who had not slept, nor scarcely tasted food for 
thirty-six hours, were compelled, just as the heat of the first battle was over, to 
contest with fresh troops, or fly with the speed of strong men. Washington 
chose the latter alternative, and when Cornwallis entered Princeton, not a 
'•rebel" was to be found.' History has no parallel to ofier to these events of 
a few days. Frederic the Great of Prussia, one of the most renowned com- 
manders of modern times, declared that the achievements of Washington and 
his little band of compatriots, between the 25th of December and the 4th of 
January following, were the most brilliant of any recorded in the annals of 
military performances. 

The Americans were too weak to attempt the capture of the British stores 
at New Brunswick, so, with his fatigued troops Washington retreated rapidly 
toward the hill country of East Jersey.* Allowing time only to refresh his 
little army at Pluckemin, he pressed forward to Morristown, and there estab- 
lished his winter quarters. But he did not sit down in idleness. After plant- 
ing small cantonments" at difierent points from Princeton to the Hudson 
Highlands, he sent out detachments to harass the thoroughly perplexed British. 
These expeditions were conducted with so much skill and spirit, that on the first 



' Mercer's horse had been shot under him, and ho was on foot at the head of his men, when a 
British soldier felled him with a clubbed musket [note 4, page 236]. At first, the British believed 
it to be Washington, and, with a shout, they cried, " Tlie rebel general is taken." Hugh Mercer 
was a native of Scotland. He was a surgeon on the field of CuUoden, and was practicing medicine 
in Frederieksbwg, Virginia, when the Revolution broke out. He was witli Washington in tho 
French and Indian War. lie was made commander of the flying camp in 1776, and at the time of 
his death was about fifty-six years of age. Tho picture of a house in the corner of the map of tlie 
battle at Princeton, is a representation of the house in which General Mercer died. It is yet [18G7] 
standing. 

" The chief of these were Colonels Haslett and Potter, Major Morris, and Captains Shippen, 
Fleming and Neal. The loss of the Americans in this engagement, was about thirty, including tho 
officers above named. 

^ We have mentioned, on page 210, the planetarium, at Princeton, constructed by David Ritten- 
house. This excited the admiration of Cornwallis, and he intended to carry it away with him. It 
is also said that Silas Deane [page 264] proposed to present this work of art to the French govern- 
ment, as a Ijonus for its good will. Cornwallis was kept too busy in providing for his own safety, 
while in Princeton, to allow him to rob the college of so great a treasure. * Page 160. 

' Permanent stations for small bodies of troops. 



270 THE REVOLUTION. [I777 

of March, 1777, not a British nor a Hessian soldier could be found in 
New Jersey, except at New Brunswick and Amboy.' Those dreaded bat- 
talions which, sixty days before, were all-powerful in New Jersey, and had 
frightened the Continental Congress from Philadelphia, were now hemmed in 
upon the Raritan, and able to act only on the defensive. Considering the 
attending circumstances, this was a great triumph for the Americans. It 
revived the martial spirit of the people, and the hopes of all good patriots ; and 
hundreds in New Jersey, who had been deceived by Howe's proclamation, and 
had suffered Hessian brutality, openly espoused the AVhig cause. Congress 
had returned to Philadelphia," and commenced its labors with renewed vigor. 

It was almost the first of June before the main body of the two armies com- 
menced the summer campaign. In the mean while, smaller detachments were 
in motion at various points. A strong armament was sent up the Hudson, in 
March, to destroy American stores at Peekskill, at the southern entrance to the 
Highlands. The Americans there, under the command of General McDouo-al, 
perceiving a defense of the property to be futile, set fire to the stores and 
retreated to the hills in the rear. The British returned to New York the same 
evening [March 23, 1777]. Almost a month afterward [April 13J, Corn- 
wallis went up the Raritan from New Brunswick, to surprise the Americans 
under General Lincoln, at Boundbrook. The latter escaped, with difficulty, 
after losing about sixty men and a part of his baggage. Toward the close of 
April [April 25], Governor Tryon,' at the head of two thousand British and 
Tories, went up Long Island Sound, landed at Compo [April 26], between 
Norwalk and Fairfield, marched to Danbury, destroyed a large quantity of 
stores belonging to the Americans, burned the town, and cruelly treated the 
inhabitants. Perceiving the militia to be gathering in great numbers, he 
retreated rapidly the next morning, by way of Ridgefield. Near that village, 
he had some severe skirmishing with the militia under Generals Wooster, 
Arnold,* and Silliman. Wooster was killed,' Arnold nanowly escaped, but 
Silliman, keeping the field, harassed the British all the way to the coast. At 
Compo, and while embarking, they were terribly galled by artillery under 
Lamb." Tryon lost almost three hundred men during this expedition, and 
killed or wounded about half that number of Americans. His atrocities on that 



' The Americans went out in small companies, made sudden attacks upon pickets, out-posts, 
and foraging parties, and in this way frightened the detachments of the enemy and drove them in 
to the main body on the Raritan. At Springfield, a few miles from Elizabethtown, they 
attacked a party of Hessians who were penetrating the country from Elizabethport [January 7, 
im], killed between forty and fifty of them, and drove the remainder in great confusion back to 
Staten Island. A larger foraging party was defeated near Somerset court house [January 20] by 
about five hundred New Jersey mihtia under General Dickinson ; and Newark, Elizabethtown and 
Woodbridge, were taken possession of by the patriots. ' Page 262. * Page 223. 

' Page 23-t. For his gallantry at Ridgefield, Congress ordered a horse, richly caparisoned, to 
be presented to him. 

" David "VTooster was born in Stratford, Connecticut, In 1110. He was at Louisburg in 1745 
[page 137], became a captain in the British army, and was in the French and Indian War. He was 
in Canada in the spring of 17 76 [page 243], and gave promise of being one of the mo.st efficient of 
the American ofBcers in the war for Independence. His loss, at such a critical period of the conflict, 
was much deplored. The State of Connecticut erected a monument to his memory, in 1854. 

° Page 240. 



1777.] THISD TEAE OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 271 

occasion were never forgotten nor forgiven. Tlie name of Ti-yon -will ever be 
held in detestation by all lovers of justice and Lumanity. He had already, 
while governor of North Carolina, been named by the Indians, The Great 
Wolf, and in his marauding expeditions during the earlier years of the war 
for Independence, his conduct confirmed the judgment of the Red Men. We 
shall meet him again. 

The Americans did not always act upon the defensive : they were some- 
times the aggressors. Toward the close of May [May 22, 1777], Colonel 
Meigs, with one hundred and seventy men, crossed Long Island Sound in whale- 
boats, from Guilford, Connecticut, and at two o'clock in the morning of the 23d 
of that month, attacked a British provision post at Sagg Harbor, near the 
eastern extremity of Long Island. They burned a dozen vessels, and the store- 
houses and contents, secured ninety prisoners, and reached Guilford at two 
o'clock the next day, without losing a man of their own party. For this exploit, 
Congress voted thanks to Colonel Meigs and his men, and a sword to the com- 
mander. A little later in the season, an equally liold exploit was performed 
on Rhode Island. On a dark night in July [July 10], Colonel William Bar- 
ton, with a company of picked men, crossed Narraganset Bay in whale-ljoats, 
in the midst of the British fleet, stole cautiously to the quarters of General 
Prescott,' the British commander on Rhode Island, seized him while in bed, 
and carried him in triumph across the bay to Warwick. There a carriage was 
in waiting for him, and at sunrise he was under a strong guard at Providence. 
From thence he was sent to the headquarters of Washington, at Middlebrook, 
on the Raritan,^ and was exchanged, in April, the next year, for General 
Charles Lee.^ For Colonel Barton's bravery, on that occasion. Congress voted 
him an elegant sword, and he was promoted to the rank and pay of a colonel 
in the continental army. 

The American commander-in-chief continued his head quarters at Morris- 
town until near the last of May. During the spring ho had inoculated a large 
portion of his troops for the small-pox ;* and when the leaves put forth, a fair 
degree of health prevailed in his camp, and his army had increased by recruits, 
to almost ten thousand men. He was prepared for action, offensive and defens- 
ive ; but the movements of the British perplexed him. Burgoyne was assem- 
bling an army at St. John, on the Sorel," and vicinity, preparatory to an 
invasion of New York, by way of Lake Champlain, to achieve that darling 
object of the British ministry, the occupation of the country on the Hudson." 



' Page 240. Prescott's quarters were at a house yet [1867] standing, a short distance above 
Newport, and about a mile from the bay. 

' Wliile on his way, his escort stopped at Lebanon, Connecticut, to dine. Prescott was a 
morose, haughty, and violent-tempered man. At the table, a dish of succotash (beans and corn) 
was brought to him. Not being accustomed to such food, he regarded it as an insult, and taking 
the dish from the hands of the liostess, he strewed its contents upon the floor. Her husband being 
informed of it, flogged the general severely, vnth. a horsewhip. 

^ Note 4, page 248 ; also page 288. 

* The common practice of vaccination at the present day was then unlcnown in this country. 
Indeed, the attention of Jenner, tlie fatlier of the practice, liad then just been turned to the subject. 
It was practiced here a year after the close of the war. ' Page 240. " Pace 283. 



272 THE REVOLTJTIOjST. [1777. 

But ■whether Howe was preparing to co-operate with Burgoyne, or to make 
another attempt to seize Philadelphia,' Washington could not determine. He 
prepared for both events by stationing Arnold with a strong detachment on the 
west side of the Delaware, concentrating a large force on the Hudson, and 
moving the main body of his army to j\Iiddleljrook, within ten miles of the 
British camp at New Brunswick. 

Washington was not kept in- suspense a great while. On the 12th of June 
[1777], Howe passed over from New York, where he made his head quarters 
during the winter, concentrated the main body of his army at New Brunswick, 
and tried to draw Washington into an engagement by a feigned movement [June 
14] toward the Delaware. The chief, perceiving the meaning of this movement, 
and aware of his comparative strength, wisely remained in his strong position 
at Middlebrook until Howe suddenly retreated [June 19], sent some of his 
troops over to Staten Island [June 22], and appeared to bo evacuating New 
Jersey. This movement perplexed AVashington. He was fairly deceived ; and 
ordering strong detachments in pursuit, he advanced several miles in the same 
direction, with his whole army. Howe suddenly changed front [June 25], and 
attempted to gain the rear of the Americans ; but, after Stirling's brigade had 
maintained a severe skirmish with a corps under Cornwalhs [June 26], the 
Americans regained their camp without much loss. Five days afterward [June 
30], the whole British army crossed over to Staten Island, and left New Jersey 
in the complete possession of the patriots. 

Washington now watched the movements of his enemy with great anxiety 
and the utmost vigilance. It was evident that some bold stroke was about to be 
attempted by the British. On the 12th of July, Burgoyne, who had been 
moving steadily up Lake Champlain, with a powerful army, consisting of about 
seven thousand British and German troops, and a large body of Canadians and 
Indians, took possession of Ci'own Point and Ticonderoga," and spread terror 
over the whole North. At the same time the British fleet at New York took 
such a position as induced the belief that it was about to pass up the Hudson 
and co-operate with the victorious invader. Finally, Howe left General Clinton 
in command at New York, and embarking on board the fleet with eighteen 
thousand troops [July 23], he sailed for the Delaware. When Washington 
comprehended this movement, he left a strong force on the Hudson, and with 
the main body of his troops pushed forward to Philadelphia. Tiiere he was 
saluted by a powerful ally, in the person of a stripling, less than twenty years 
of age. He was a wealthy French nobleman, who, several months before, while 
at a dinner with the Duke of Gloucester,^ first heard of the struggle of the 
Americans, their Declaration of Independence, and the preparations made to 
crush them. His young soul was fired with aspirations to give them his aid; 
and quitting the army, he hurried to Paris. Although he had just married 
a young and beautiful girl, and a bright career was opened for him in his own 

' rage 261. " Pasre 234. 

^ The duke was the brother of the kins of England, and at the time in question, was dining with 
6ome French officers, in the old town of Jleutz, in Germany. 



1777.] 



THIRD YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 




GENEI!.\L LA FAYETTE. 



30untry, he left all, and hastened to America in a vessel fitted out at his 

)wn expense. He offered his services to the Continental 

[[Jongress, and that body gave him the commission [July 

51] of a major-general. Three days afterward [Aug. 3] 

16 was introduced to "Washington at a public dinner ; and 

Tithin less than forty days he was gallantly fightini^ 

September 11], as a volunteer, for freedom in America, 

in the banks of the Brandy wine. That young general was 

he Marquis de La Fayette,' whose name is forever 

inked with that of Washington and Liberty. 

The British fleet, with the army under Sir William Howe,'' did not go up 
he Delaware, as was anticipated, but ascended Chesapeake Bay, and at its 
lead, near the village of Elkton, in Maryland, the land forces disembarked 
Aug. 25], and marched toward Philadelphia. Washington had advanced be- 
yond the Brandywine Creek, and took post a few miles from Wilmington. 
Iowa's superior force compelled him to fall back to the east side of the Brandy- 
wine ; and at Chad's Ford, several 
miles above Wilmington, ho made 
a stand for the defense of Phila- 
delphia. At that point, the Hes- 
ians under Knypliausen' attacked 
the left wing of the Americans 
[Sept. 11, 1777], commanded by 
Washington in person ; while Howe 
and Cornwallis, crossing the stream 
several miles above, fell upon the 
American right, under General 
Sullivan, near the Birmingham 
meeting-house.'' The contest raged 
fearfully during the whole day. 
kt night the shattered and defeated battalions of patriots retreated to 
jhester, and the following day [Sept. 12] to Philadelphia. Many brave men 
Tere killed or disabled on that sanguinary field. La Fayette was severely 
Tounded (' and the patriots lost full twelve hundred men, killed, wounded, and 




BATTLE AT THE BEANDYWINE. 



' He was born on the Gth of September, 1757. He married the daughter of the Duke de 
Toailles, a beautiful heiress, at the age of eighteen years. He first landed on the coast of South 
larolina^ in Winyaw Bay, near Georgetown, and made a land journey to Philadelphia. His appli- 
ation was not received at first, by the Coutinental Congress ; but when his true character and 
lesigns were known, they gave him a major-general's commission. He was afterward an active 
latriot in his own country in many perilous scenes. He visited America in 1824-5 [page 453], 
nd died in 1834, at tlis age of sevent.y-sevon years. The Baron de Kalb [page 316] and eleven 
ther French and Polish officers, came to America in La Fayette's vessel. 

' After the battle near Brooklyn [page 254], the king conferred the honor of knighthood upon 
leneral William Howe, the commander-in-cliicf of the British forces in America. 'I'lie ceremony 
ras performed by several of his officers, at his quarters in the Beekman House, Turtle Bav, East 
liver. = Page 259. 

' This was a substantial Quaker meeting-house, situated a few miles from Chad's Ford, on the 
oad from Jefferis's Ford (where Howe and CoruwaUis crossed) to Wilmington. 

^ A. bullet passed through his leg. He was conveyed to Bethlehem, in Pennsylvania, where 

13 



274 THE REVOLUTION. [1777. 

made prisoners. The British lost almost eight hundred. Washington failed 
of success more on account of false intelligence, by which he was kept in igno- 
rance of the approach of the British on his left, than by want of skill or force.' 

Washington did not remain idle in the Federal capital, but as soon as the 
troops were rested, he crossed the Schuylkill, and proceeded to confront Howe, 
who was making slow marches toward Philadelphia. They met [Sept. 16J 
twenty miles west of that city, and some skirmishing ensued ; but a heavy rain 
prevented a general battle, and the Americans withdrew toward Reading. 
General Wayne, in the mean while, was hanging upon the rear of the enemy 
with about fifteen hundred men. On the night of the 20th, he was surprised 
by a party of British and Hessians, under General Grey, near the Paoli Tav- 
ern, and lost about three hundred of his party." With the remainder he joined 
Washington, then near Valley Forge, and vigilantly watching the movements 
of Howe. As these indicated the intention of the British commander to attempt 
the seizure of a large quantity of ammunition and military stores which the 
Americans had collected at Reading, W'ashington abandoned Philadelphia, and 
took position at Pottsgrove, thirty-five miles distant, to protect those indispens- 
able materials for his army. Howe crossed the Schuylkill [Sept. 23. 1777], 
near Norristown, and marched to the Federal city^ [Sept. 26], without oppo- 
sition. Congress fled at his approach, first to Lancaster [Sept. 27]. and then to 
York, where it assembled on the SOth, and continued its session until the fol- 
lowing summer. The main body of the British army was encamped at Ger- 
mantown, four miles from Philadelphia, and Howe prepared to make the latter 
place his winter quarters.' 

Upon opposite sides of the Delaware, a few miles l:)elow Philadelphia, were 
two forts of considerable strength (Mifflin and Mercer), garrisoned by the 
Americans. AVhile the British army was marching from the Chesapeake' to 
Philadelphia, the fleet had sailed around to the Delaware, and had approached 
to the head of that bay. The forts commanded the river ; and chevaux-de- 
frise' just below them, completely obstructed it, so that the army in Philadel- 
phia could obtain no supplies from the fleet. The possession of these forts was 

the Moravi.in sisters nursed liini during liis confinement. Count Pulaski began Lis military career . 
in tUe American army, on the field of Brandywine, where lie conunanded a troop of horse, and ; 
after the battle he was appointed to the rank of Urigaxlier. He was slain at Savannah. See note 
3, page 350. 

' The building seen in the comer of the map, is a view of the head quarters of 'tt'ashington, yet j 
[1867] standing, a short distance from Chad's Ford. ' 

' The bodies of fifty-three Americans, found on the field the next morning, were ! 
interred in one broad grave ; and forty years afterward, the " Republican Artillerists" 
of Chester county, erected a neat marljle monument over them. It stands in tlio 
center of an iuclosure which contains the ground consecrated by the burial of these | 
patriots. „ 

^ riiiladelphia. New York, and "Washington, have been, respectively, federal,| 
cities, or cities where the Federal Congress of the United States asseniijed. 
■* Note 2, page 285. ' Page 273. 

° Chevaux-de-frise are obstructions placed in river channels to prevent the pass- 
age of vessels. They are generally made of a series of heavy timbers, ])ointed with 
iron, and secured at an angle in a strong frame filled mth .stones, as seen in the, 
engraving. Figure A shows the position under water; figure B shows how the tim-. 
licrs :ire arranged and the stones placed in them. 




1777.] THIRD TEAR OF THE WAR FOR IX D EPE >rp EXCE. 275 

important, and on the 22d of October, they were attached Ijy detachments sent 
by Howe. Fort fiercer was assailed by two thousand Hessian grenadiers under 
Count Donop.' They were repulsed by the garrison of less than five hundred 
men, under Lieutenant- Colonel Christopher Greene, of Rhode Island, after los- 
biiT their commander," and almost four hundred soldiers. The garrison of Fort 
Mifflin, under Lieutenant- Colonel Samuel Smith, also made a gallant defense. 
but after a series of assaults by land and water, it was abandoned [Nov. 16, 
1777]. Two days afterward, Fort JNIercer was also abandoned, and several 
British ships sailed up to Philadelphia.^ 

When Washington was informed of the weakened 
condition of the British arni)^, by the detachment of 
these forces to attack the Delaware forts, he i-esolved 
to assail the camp at Germantown. He had moved 
down the Schuylkill to Skippack Creek [Sept. 25], 
and from that point he marched, silently, on the cven- 
iiiiT of the od of October [1777], toward the camp 
of the enemy. He reached Chestnut Hill, beyond ^^ 
Germantown, at dawn the following mornina;, and the 

' , , n CATTLE AT GEBMAXTOWX. 

attack soon commenced near there. Alter a severe 

battle, which continued almost three hours, the patriots were repulsed, with a 
loss, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, about equal to that at Brandywine.^ 
The British lost only about si.x hundred. On the 10th, Howe broke up his 
encampment at Germantown, and three weeks afterward, he proceeded to place 
his whole army in winter quarters in Philadelphia. Washington retired to 
his camp on Skippack Creek ; and on the 2yth of November, he prepared to 
go into winter quarters at White Marsh, fourteen miles from Philadelphia. 

Let us now turn for a while from these scenes of conflict and disaster i'.i 
which the beloved commander-in-chief was personally engaged, to the consider- 
ation of important events which were transpiring on the waters and banks of 
Lake Champlain and the Hudson River. Burgoyne, with more than ten 
thousand men, invested Ticonderoga on the 2d of July. The fortress was gar- 
risoned by General St. Clair, with only about three thousand men. Upon 




' Page 263. 

' Donop was terribly wounded, and taken to the house of a Quaker near by, where he expired 
three days afterward. Ho was buried witliin the fort. A few years ago his bones were disinterred, 
and liis skull was taken possession of by a Xew Jersey physician. 

' In the defense of tliese forts, the Americans lost about three hundred men, and the enemy 
almost double that number. 

' Washington felt certain of victory at the beginning of the battle. Just as it commenced, a 
dense fog overspread the country ; and through the inexperience of his troops, great confusion, in 
their movements, was produced. A false rumor caused a panic among the Americans, just as 
the British were about to fall back, and a general retreat and loss of victory was the resvUt. In 
(Jermantown, a strong stone house is yet [1S67] standing, which belonged "to Judge Cliew. This 
a part of the enemy occupied, and fi-om the windows fired with deadly effect upon the Ameri- 
cans. Xo blame was attached to Wasliington for this defeat, when victory "seemed easy and certain. 
On the contrary, Congress, on the receipt of Washington's letter, describing the battle, passed a vote 
of thanks to him for his " wise and well-concerted attack upon the enemy's armv near German- 
town;" and "to the otlicers and soldiers of the army, lor their brave exertions on that occasion." A 
medal was also ordered to be struck, and presented to Washington. 




276 THE REVOLUTION. [1777. | 

I 

Mount Independence, on the opposite side of the lake, was a small fortifica- ^ 

tion and a \veak garrison.' These composed the entire ] 

force, except some feeble detachments of militia, to op- Ij 
pose the invaders. On the approach of Burgoyne, St. 

Clair' left his outworks, gathered his forces near the Ij 

fortress, and prepared for an assault ; but when, on the , 

evening of the 5th, he saw the scarlet uniforms of the 1 

British on the top of Mount Defiance, ° and a battery of 'j 

heavy guns planted there,* more than five hundred feet j 

above the fort, he knew resistance would be vain. That 'I 

GENEE.iL ST. CLAIR. . , ^ , . .. , , ...1 l 1 ,) 

evening he sent his ammunition and stores up the lake 
to Skenesborough,' and under cover of the darkness, silently crossed over to 
Mount Independence, and commenced a retreat to Fort Edward," the head- 
quarters of General Schuyler, who was then in command of the northern army. 

The retreating army would have been beyond the reach of pursuers by \ 
dawn, had not their exit been discovered. Contrary to express orders, a build- 
ing was fired on Mount Independence, and by its light their flight was discov- 
ered by the enemy, and a strong party, consisting of the brigade of General 
Fraser, and two Hessian corps under Riedesel, was immediately sent in pursuit. 
At dawn, the British flag was waving over Ticonderoga ; and a little after sun- 
rise [July 7, 1777], the rear division of the flying Americans, under Colonel 
Seth Warner,' were overtaken in Hubbardton, Vermont, and a severe engage- j 
ment followed. The patriots were defeated and dispersed, and the victors 'j 
returned to Ticonderoga.* Before sunset the same evening, a flotilla of British | 
vessels had overtaken and destroyed the Americans' stores which St. Clair had | 
sent up the lake, and also a large quantity at Skenesborough. The fragments - 
of St. Clair's army reached Fort Edward on the 12th, thoroughly dispirited. 
Disaster had followed disaster in quick succession. Within a week, the Amer- 
icans had lost almost two hundred pieces of artillery, and a large amount of 
provisions and military stores. 

' During tlie previous years, the Americans constructed a picketed fort, or stockade [note 2, 
page 183], on tliat eminence, built about tln-ee liundred huts or barracks, dug several wells, and ' 
placed batteries at different points. The remains of these are now [1867] everywhere visible on 1 
Mount Independence. That eminence received this name because the troops took possession of it ■ 
on the 4th of July, 1776. Page 250. ' 

^ Arthur St. Clair was a native of Scotland, and came to America with Admiral Boscawen, early t 
in Miiy, 1755. He served under Wolfe [page 201] ; and when the Revolution broke out, he en- ■ 
tered the American armv. Ho served during the war, and afterward commanded an expedition • 
against the Indians in Ohio, where he wiis unsuccessful. He died in 1818, at the age of eighty-four 
years. 

^ This is a hill about 750 feet in height, situated on the south-west side of the outlet of Lake : 
George, opposite Ticonderoga. 

' "with immense labor, Burgoyne opened a road up the northern slope of Mount Defiance, and . 
dragged heavy artUlerv to the summit. From that point, every ball miglit be hurled within the i 
fort^below without difficulty. The position of that road may yet [1867] be traced by the second >■ 
growth of trees on its line up the mountain. 

' Now Whitehall It was named after Philip Skene, who settled there in 1764. The narrow ■ 
part of Lake Champlain, from Ticonderoga to Whitehall, was formerly called Wood Creek (the name \ 
of the stream that enters the lake at Whitehall), and also South River. ° Page 188. ' Page 232. ■ 

' The Americans lost, in killed, wounded, and missing, a little more than three hundred; the 
British reported their loss at one hundred and eighty-three. • 



1777.] THIRD YEAR OF THE "WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 277 

The force under General Schuyler was very small, and even with this rein- 
forcement by the fugitives from the lake, he had only about four thousand effect- 
ive men — a number totally inadequate to combat with those of Burgoyne. He 
tiierefore sent a strong party toward Skenesborough to fell huge trees across 
the roads, and to destroy all the bridges, so as to obstruct the march of the 
invaders, while he slowly retreated down the Hudson valley to the' mouth of the 
Mohawk, and there established a fortified camp.' ' His call for aid was nobly 
responded to, for the whole country was thoroughly aroused to a sense of peril. 
Detachments were sent from the regular army to sti-engthen him ; and soon 
General Lincoln came with a large body of New England militia. When 
General Gates arrived, to take the chief command," he found an army of thir- 
teen thousand men, ready to meet the invader. 

The progress of Burgoyne was slow, and he did not reach Fort Edward 
until the 30th of July.° The obstructions ordered by Schuyler, and the de- 
struction of the bridges, were great hinderances.* His army was also worn down 
by fatigue, and his provisions were almost exhausted. To replenish his stoi-es, 
he sent five hundred Germans, Canadians, and Tories, and one hundred Indians, 
under Colonel Baume, to seize provisions and cattle which the Americans had 
collected at Bennington, thirty-five miles distant. Colonel John Stark had 
called out the New Hampshire militia : and near Hoosick, within five miles of 
Bennington, they met [Aug. 16J and defeated the marauders. And toward 
evening, when another German party, under Colonel Breyman, approached, 
they also were defeated by a continental force under Colonel Seth Warner.' 
Many of the enemy were killed, and a large number were made prisoners. Bur- 
goyne's entire loss, in this expedition, was almost a thousand men. The Amer- 
icans had one hundred killed, and as many wounded. This defeat was fatal to 
Burgoyne's future operations'' — this victory was a day-star of hope to the 

' Thaddeus Kosciuszko, a Polish refugee, who came with Lafay- 
ette [page 273], was now attached to Schuyler's army, as engineer. 
Undt-r iiis direction, the intrenchments at the mouth of the Mohawk 
River, were constructed ; also, those at Stillwater and Saratoga. The 
camp at the mouth of the Mohawk was upon islands just below the 
Great, or Cohoes' Falls. 

' General Scliuyler had superseded Gates in June, and had been 
skillfully confronting Burgoyne. But Gates, seeing a chance for gain- 
ing laurels, and having a strong party of friends in Congress, sought 
the chief command of the northern army. It was ungenerously taken 
from Schuyler at the moment when, by great exertions and through / 
great hardships, he had a force prepared to confront Burgoyne, with 
some prospect of success. 

' It was while Burgoyne was approaching that point, that Jane KOSCIUSZKO. 

il'Crea, the betrothed of a young Tory in the British army, was shot, 

while being conveyed by a party of Indians from Fort Edward to the British camp. Her death was 
untruly charged upon the Indians, and it was made the subject of the most bitter denunciations of the 
British ministers, for employing such cruel in-strumentalities. The place of her death is a short dis- 
tince from the village of Fort Edward. The pine-tree which marked the spot, decayed a few years 
since, and in 1853, it was cut down, and converted into canes and boxes for the curious. 

* Burgoyne was obliged to construct forty bridges on the way, and to remove the many trees 
which lay across the roads. To estimate the amoimt of fatigue which the troops must have endured 
during that hot niontli, it must be remembered that each soldier bore a weiglit of sixty pounds, in 
arms, nccoutrements, and supplies. ' Pages 234 and 240. 

" It dispirited his troops, who were worn down with the fatigue of the obstructed march from 
Skenesborough to Fort Edward. It also caused a delay of a month at that place, and in the mean 




278 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1171. 




Americans. Applause of the New Hampshire militia rang through the land 
and Stark was mailc a brigadier in the continental army. 

During Burgojne's approach, the Mohawk vallej had become a scene of 
great confusion and alarm. Colonel St. Leger and his 
savages, joined by the Mohawk Indians, under Brant ' 
and a body of Tories, under Johnson" and Butler, had 
arrived from Oswego, and invested Fort Stanwix, on 
the 3d of August [1777]. The garrison was com- 
manded by Colonel Gansevoort, and made a spirited 
defense. General Herkimer rallied the militia of his 
neighborhood ; and while marching to the assistance of 
Gansevoort, he fell into an Indian ambuscade [Aug. 6] 
at Oriskany.^ His party was totally defeated, after a 
bloody conflict, and himself was mortally wounded. On 
the same day, a corps of the garrison, under Colonel 
Willet. made a successful sortie,' and broke the power of the besiegers. 
Arnold, who had Ijeen sent by Schuyler to the relief of the fort, soon afterward 
approached, when the besiegers fled [Aug. 22], and quiet was restored to the 
Mohawk valley. 

The disastrous events at Bennington and Fort Stan- 
wix, and the straitened condition of his commissariat, 
greatly perplexed Burgoyne. To retreat, advance, or 
remain inactive, seemed equally perilous. With little 
hope of reaching Albany, where he had boasted he would 
eat his Christmas dinner, he crossed the Hudson and 
formed a fortified camp on the hills and plains of Sara- 
toga, now the site of Schuylerville. General Gates 
advanced to Bemis's Heights, about four miles north of 



JOSEPH ERANT. 




GENERAL GURUOYNE. 



while their provi,sions were rapidly diminishing. TVhile at Port Edward, Burgoj-ne received intel- 
ligence of the defeat of St. Leger at Fort Stanwix. 

' Joseph Brant was a Mohawk Indian, and a great favorite of Sir "William Johnson. He ad- 
hered to the British, and went to Canada alter the war, where he died in 1807, aged sixty-five 
years. 

' Sir William Johnson [page 190] (then dead) had been a sort of auto- 
crat among the Indians and Tories in the Moliawk valley. He Mattered 
tlie chiefs in various ways, and through tliem he obtained almost un- 
bounded influence over the triljcs, especially that of the Mohawks. He 
was in the habit of giving those cliiels who pleased him, a diploma, certi- 
fying their good character, and faitlifulness to his majesty. These con- 
tained a picture, representing a treaty council, of whicli the annexed 
engraving is a copy. His family were the worst enemies of the Ameri- 
cans during the war. in that region. His son, John, raised a regiment of 
Tories, called the Johnson Greens (those who joined St. Leger); and John 
Butler, a cruel leader, w.as at the head of another band, called Butler's Bnmjers. These co-operated 
with Brant, the great Mohawk sachem, and for years they made the Moliawk valley and vicinity 
truly a " dark and bloody ground." These men were the allies of St. Leger on the occasion in 
question. 

' The place of the battle is about half way between Utica and Rome. The latter village is upon 
?art Stanwix, built by Bradstreet and his troops in 1758 [page 197]. It was repaired 
and gai'U3cn°d in 1776, and its name was changed to Fort Schuyler. Another Fort Schuyler was 
built during the French and Indian War, where Utica now stands. 
' Note 7, page 241 . 




A TKE.VTT. 




BURGOYNE SUEBENDERING HIS SWOED TO GATES. 



1177.] 



THIRD TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



281 



Stillwater (and twenty-five from Albany), and also formed a fortified camp.' 
Bur^oyne perceived the necessity for immediate operations, and advancing toward 
the American camp, a severe but indecisive action 
ensued, on the 19th of September [1777J. Night 
terminated the conflict, and both parties claimed the 
victory.' Burgoyne fell back to his camp, where he 
resolved to await the arrival of expected detach- 
ments from General Clinton, who was to attack the 
posts on the Hudson Highlands, and force his way to 
Albany.' But after waiting a few days, and hearing 
nothing from Clinton, he prepared for another at- 
tempt upon the Americans, for the militia were flock- 
ing to Gates's camp, and Indian warriors of the Six 
Nations'" were gathering there. His own force, on 
the contrary, was hourly diminishing. As his star, which arose so brightly at 
Ticonderoga,^ began to decline upon the Hudson, the Canadians and his Indian 
allies deserted him in great numbers." He was compelled to fight or flee. 
Again he advanced ; and after a severe battle of several hours, on the 7th of 
October, and almost on the same ground oscUpied on the 19th of September, he 
was compelled to fall back to the heights of Saratoga, and leave the patriots in 
the possession of the field. Ten days afterward [October 17], finding only 
three days' provisions in his camp, hearing nothing of Clinton, and perceiving 
retreat impossible, he was compelled to surrender his whole army prisoners of 
war.' Of necessity, the forts upon Lake Champlain now fell into the hands of 
the patriots. 




BEMIS S HEIGHTS. 



' The remains of some of the intrenchments were yet visible in 1850, when the writer visited 
the locality. 

" The number of Americans engaged in this action, was about two tliousand five hundred ; that 
of the British was about three tliousand. The former lo.st, in killed, wounded, and missing, three 
hundred and nineteen; the British loss was rather less than five hundred. ' Page 'iS.?. 

' Page 25. ' Page 276. 

' The Indians had been disappointed in their expectations of blood and plunder ; and now was 
their hunting season, when provisions must be secured for winter us& The Canadians saw notliing 
but defeat in the future, and left the army in whole companies. 

' The whole number surrendered was five thousand seven hundred and ninety-one, of whom 
two thousand four hundred and twelve were Germans or Hessians [page 183], under the chief com- 
mand of the Baron Riedesel, whose wife accompanied him, and afterward wrote a very interesting 
account of her experience in America. Burgoyne did dine at Alban)', but as a prisoner, though a 
guest at the table of General Schuyler. Tliat noble patriot, though smarting under tlie injustice of 
Congress and the pride of Gat 33, did not abate his zeal for the good cause wlien he had surrendered 
his command into the hands of his successor, but, as a private citizen, gave his time, his labor, and 
his money freely, until he saw the invader humliled; and then, notwithstanding Burgorae, witliout 
the show of a just excuse, had destroyed Schuyler's fine mansion, his mills, and much other prop- 
erty, at Saratoga, he made the vanquished general a guest at his own table. When Burgoyne said, 
'■You are very kind to one who has done you so much injury," the generous patriot replied, "That 
was the fate of war ; let us say no more about it." Burgoyne's troops laid down their arms upon 
the plain in fi-ont of Schuylerville ; and the meeting of the conqueror and the conquered, for the 
latter to surrender his sword, was a very significant scene. The two came out of Gates's marquee 
together. Without exchanging a word, Burgoyne, according to previous arrangement, stepped 
hack, drew his sword, and, in the presence of the two armies, presented it to General Gates. The 
latter received it witti a courteous inclination of the head, and instantly returned it to the vanquished 
general. They then returned to the marquee together. The British filed off, and took up their line 
of march for Boston: and thus ended this important act in the great drama, upon the heights of 
Saratoga. Burgoyne's troops were marched to Cambridge, Massachusetts, with the view of sending 



282 THE REVOLUTION. [1177. 

Glorious, indeed, ivas this victory for tlie Americans. It gave them a fine 
train of brass artillery, five thousand muskets, and a vast amount of munitions 
of war. Its moral effect was of greater importance. All eyes had been 
an.xiously turned to the army of the North, and Congress and the people 
listened eagerly for every breath of rumor from Saratoga. IIow electric was 
the eficct when a shout of victory came from the camp of Gates !' It rolled 
over the land, and was echoed from furrows, workshops, marts of commerce, 
the halls of legislation, and from the shattered army of Washington at ^Vhite- 
marsh.° Toryism stood aljashed ; the bills of Congress rose twenty percent, in 
value f private capital came from its hiding-places for public employment ; the 
militia flocked to the standards of leaders, and the great patriot heart of Amer- 
ica beat with strong pulsations of hope. The effect in Europe was also favor- 
able to the Americans. The highest hopes of the British ministry rested on 
this expedition, and the generalship of Burgoyne justified their expectations. 
It was a most severe blow, and gave the opposition in Parliament the keenest 
weapons. Pitt, leaning upon his crutches,' poured forth eloquent denunciations 
[December, 1777] of the mode of warfare pursued — the employment of German 
hirelings' and brutal savages." "If I were an American, as I am an English- 
man," he exclaimed, " while a foreign troop was landed in my country, I never 
would lay down my arms — never, never, never !" In the Lower House,' 
Burke, Fox, and Barro were equally severe upon the government. When, on 
the 3d of December, the news of Burgoyne's defeat reached London, the latter 
arose in his place in the Commons," and with a serene and solemn countenance, 
asked Lord George Germain, the Secretary of War, what news he had received 
by his last expresses from Quebec, and to say, upon his word of honor, what 
had become of Burgoyne and his brave army. The haughty secretary was 
irritated Ijy the cool irony of thj question, but was compjlled to acknowledge 
that the unhappy intelligence of Burgoyne's surrender had reached him. He 
added, " The intelligence needs confirmation." That confirmation was not 
slow in reaching the ministry. 

Mightily did this victory weigh in favor of the Americans, at the French 



them to Europe, but Consre-^s thought it proper to retain them, and tliey were' marched to the 
interior of Virginia. Jolin Burgoyne was a natural son of Lord Bingley, and was quite eminent as 
a dramatic author. On his return to England, lie resumed his seat as a member of Parliament, and 
opposed the war. He died iu 1792. 

' General Gates was so elated with the victory, which had been prepared for him by Genenil 
Schuyler, and won chiefly by the valor of Arnold and Morgan [page 331], that he neglected the 
courtesy due to the commander-in-cliief, and instead of sending his dispatches to him, he sent his 
aid, Colonel Wilkinson, with a verbal message to Congress. That body also forgot its dignity in 
the hour of its joy. and the young officer was allowed to announce the victory himself, on the floor 
of Congress. In his subsequent dispatches, Gates did not even mention the names of Arnold and 
Morgan. History has vindicated their claims to the honor of the victory, and placed a just estimate 
upon the unsenerous conduct of their commander. Congress voted a gold medal to Gates. 

' Page 275. ' Note 3, page 245. • Note 1, page 231. ' Note 3, page 246. 

' A member justified the employment of the Indians, by saying that the British had a right to 
use the means "which God and nature had given them." Pitt scornfully repeated the passage, and 
said. "These abominable principles, and this most abominable avowal of them, demands most 
decisive indignation. I call upon that right reverend bench (pointing to the bishops), those holy 
ministers of the gospel, and pious pastors of the church — I conjure them to join in the holy work, 
and to vindicate the religion of tljeir God." ' Note 2, page 218. " Note 2, page 218. 



1777.] THIRD TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 283 

court. Unaided by any foreign power, the Americans had defeated and cap- 
tured a well-trained army of about six thousand men, led by experienced com- 
manders. " Surely such a people possess the elements of success, and will achieve 
it. We may now safely strike England a severe blow,' by acknowledging the 
independence, and forming an alliance with her revolted colonies,"' argued the 
French government. And so it did. Intelligence of the surrender of Bur- 
goyne reached Paris on the 4th of December, 1777. King Louis then cast off all 
disguise, and informed the American commissioners that the treaty of alliance 
and commerce, already negotiated, would be ratified, and " that it was decided 
to acknowledge the independence of the United States." Within a little more 
than a hundred days after Burgoyne laid down his arms at Saratoga, France 
had formed an alliance with the confederated States [Feb. 6, 1778], and pub- 
licly avowed it. The French king, in the mean while, wrote to his uncle, the 
king of Spain, urging his co-operation ; for, according to the family compact 
of the Bourbons, made in 1761, the king of Spain was to be consulted before 
such a treaty could be ratified. 

While these events were in progress at Saratoga, General Clinton was 
making hostile demonstrations upon the banks of the lower Hudson. Ho 
attempted the concerted co-operation with Burgoyne, but he was too late for 
success. He ascended the Hudson with a strong force, captured Forts Clinton 
and Montgomery, in the Highlands^ [October 0, 1777J, and sent a marauding 
expedition above these mountain barriers, to devastate the country [October 
13 j, and endeavor to draw off some of the patriot troops from Saratoga." These 
marauders burned Kingston, and penetrated as far as Livingston's Manor, in 
Columbia county. Informed of the surrender of Burgoyne, they hastily 
retreated, and Clinton and his army returned to New York. Some of Gates' 
troops now joined Washington at White Marsh,* and Howe made several 
attempts to entice the chief from his encampment, but w ithout success.' Finally 

' France rejoiced at the embarrassments of England, on account of Her revolted colonies, and 
from the beginning secretly favored the latter. She thought it inexpedient to aid the colonies 
openly, until there appeared some cliance for their success, yet arms and money were secretly pro- 
vided [note 3, page 266], for a long time previous to the alliance. Her motives were not the 
benevolent ones to aid the patriots, so much as a selfish desire to injure England for her own bene- 
fit. The French liing, in a letter to his uncle, of Spain, avowed the oiijects to be to " prevent the 
union of the colonies witli the mother country," and to " form a beneficial alUance with them." A 
Bourbon (the family of French kings) was never known to be an honest advocate of free principles. 

'' These forts were situated on opposite sides of a stream which forms the dividing line 
between Orange and Rockland counties. Fort Indpendenee, n^ar Peekskill, and Fort Constitution, 
opposite West Point, were abandoned on his approach. Fort Putnam, at West Point, was not yet 
erected. 

' Wliile the garrison of the two forts (who escaped) were re-gathering, back of New Windsor, a 
man from the Britisli army was arrested on suspicion of being a spy. He was seen to swallow 
something. An emetic brought it up, and it was discovered to be a hollow silver bullet, containing 
a dispatch from Clinton to Burgoyne, WTitten on thin paper. That bullet is yet in tlie family of 
t-reorge Clinton, who was the first republican governor of New York. The dispatch was as 
follows: " Nbrns y void [Here we are], and nothing between us and Gates. I sincerely hope this 
little success of ours will fiicilitate your operations. In answer to your letter of the 28th of Sep- 
tember, by C. C, I shall only say, I can not presume to order, or even advise, for reasons obvious. 
I heartily wish you success. Faithfully yours, H. Clinton." The prisoner was taken to Kingston, 
and there hanged as a spy. * Page 275. 

Howe marclied out to attack W.ishington on the 4th of December, expecting to take him by 
surprise. A Quaker lady of Philadelphia, at whose house some British officers were quartered, had 



284 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1778. 



Washington moved from that position [December 11], and went into winter 
quarters at Valley Forge, where he might easier aiFord protection to Congress 
at York, and his stores at Reading.' The events of that encampment at Valley 
Forge afford some of the gloomiest as well as some of the most brilliant scenes 
in the records of American patriotism. 



CHAPTER V. 

FOURTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1778.] 

If there is a spot on the face of our broad land wherein patriotism should 
delight to pile its highest and most venerated monument, it should be in the 
bosom of that rugged gorge on the bank of the Schuylkill, twenty miles north- 




west from Philadelphia, known as Valley Forge, where the American army 
was encamped during the terrible winter of ITTT-'TS.' In all the world's his- 



overheard them talking about this enterprise, g.ave Washintrton timely information, and lie was too 
well prepared for Howe, to fear his menaces. After some skirmishes, in wliich several .Vmericans 
were lost, Howe returned to Pliiladelphia. ' Page 274. 

" That was a winter of severe and protracted cold. The waters of New York Bay were ao 
firmly frozen, that the British took heavy cannons from the c!ty to Staten Island, on the ice. 



1718.] FOURTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



285 



tory, we have no record of purer devotion, holier sincerity, or more pious self- 
immolation, than was then and there exhibited in the camp of Washington. 
Many of the soldiers had marched thither from AVhitemarsh, bare-footed, and 
left bloody foot-prints in the snow on their dreary 
journey.' There, in the midst of frost and snow, half- 
clad and scantily fed, they shivered in rude huts, 
while the British army was indulging in comforts and 
luxuries within a large city." Yet that freezing and 
starving army did not despair ; nor did the com- 
mander-in-chief, who shared their privations and suf- 
fered injury at the hands of intriguing men,^ lose con- 
fidence in the patriotism of the people or his troops, 
or doubt the wisdom of Providence.* The winter wore 
away, and when the buds began to burst, a cheering 
ray of glad tidings came from Europe. The intelli- 
gence of the treaty of alliance with France,' was a 
hopeful assurance of success, and when the news 
spread through the camp, on the 1st of May [1778], 
shouts loud and long shook the forests which shrouded the hills around "\''alley 
Forge." 

Nor was that a solitary gleam of hope. Light also emanated from the 




ENCAMPMENT AT VALLEY FOBGK* 



' Gordon, the historian, says, that while at Wasliingrton's table in 1784, the chief informed him 
that bloody foot-prints were everywhere visible in the course of their march of nineteen miles, from 
Whitemarsh to Valley Forge. 

" The power of the IBritish army was much weakened by indulgence, during that winter. Prof- 
ligacy begat disease, crime, and insubordin.ation. The evil effects produced upon tlio army led Dr. 
Franklin to say, " Howe did not take Philadelphia — Philadelphia took Howe." General Howe took 
leave of the army in May, and the officers gave hiin a splendid farewell /ete, which was called a 
Mischianza, signifying a medley. For a full description, see Lossing's Field Book of the Revolution. 
During their occupation of the city, the enemy were annoyed by the patriots in various ways. In 
January, some Whigs at Bordentown, where Francis Hopkinson, one of the signers of the Declara- 
tion of Independence, resided, sent a number of kegs down the Delaware, which were filled with 
powder, and furnished with machinery, in such a manner, that on rubbing against any object in the 
stream, they would explode. Thesj were the torpedoes invented by Bushnoll of Connecticut, 
already mentioned on page 252. The British vessels, hauled into the docks to keep clear of the ice, 
escaped recaiving any injury from these missiles. One of them exploded near the city, and pro- 
duced intense alarm. Not a stick or a chip was seen floating, for twenty-four hours afterward, but 
it was fired at by the British. This circumstance afforded the theme for that remarkable poem from 
the pen of Hopkinson, entitled Tlie Batth of the Kegs. Hopkinson [see page 284] was a native of 
Philadelphia and married and settled in Bordentown, Now Jersey. He was an elegant writer, a 
great wit, a good musician, and a thorough-bred gentleman. He was a warm and active patriot 
became eminent as a jurist after the war, and died in 1791, at the age of forty-seven years. Hi." 
son, Joseph Hopkinson, was the author of our national song. Hail Columbia. 

^ During this season a scheme was formed among a few officers of the army, and members of 
Congress, for depriving Washington of his command, and giving it to Gates or Lee. Both of these 
ambitious men sought the honor, and the former was fidly identified with the clandestine move- 
ments toward that end. One of the chief actors in the plot, who was more the instrument of others 
than a voluntary and independent schemer, was General Conway, an Irishman, who belonged to the 
continental army. The plot was discovered and defeated, and Conway was led to make a moat 
humble apology to Washington, for his conduct. 

* On one occ;ision, Isa;ic Potts, whose house was Washington's head-quarters at Valley Forge, 
discovered the cliief in a retired place, pouring out his soul in pr,ayer to liis God. Potts went home 
to his wife, and said, with tears in his eyes, " If there is any one on this earth to whom the Lord 
will listen, it is George Washington " * Page 283. 

° On the 7th day of May the army fired salutes in honor of the event, and by direction of tlie 
chie^ they all shouted, '^ Huzza for the king of Framed' 



286 THE REVOLUTION. [1773. 

British throne and Parliament. The capture of Burgoyne, and the general 
failure of the campaign of 1777, had made the English people, and a powerful 
minority in Parliament, clamorous for peace and reconciliation. Lord North, 
the prime-minister,' was compelled to listen. To the astonishment of every 
hody, he proposed [Feb. 17] a repeal of all the acts of Parliament obno.\'ious to 
the Americans, which had been enacted since 1763 ; and in the course of his 
speech in favor of his conciliatory plan, he actually proposed to treat the Con- 
tinental Congress as a legal body." Two bills, expressing these conciliatory 
measures, were passed after much opposition,' and received the signature of the 
king, on the 11th of March. Commissioners* were appointed to proceed to 
America to negotiate for peace with Congress, and the British government 
seemed really an.xious to offer the olive branch, without qualification. But the 
Americans had been too often deceived to accept any thing confidingly from that 
source, and as soon as these bills reached Congress [April 15], and it was found 
that they made no mention of the independence of the colonies, that liody at 
once rejected them as deceptive. AYhen the commissioners came [June 4], 
Congress refused to negotiate with them until Great Britain should withdraw 
her fleets and armies, or unequivocally acknowledge the independence of the 
United States. After unsuccessfully appealing to the American people, and 
one of them endeavoring to bribe members of Congress,' the commissioners 
returned to England, and the war went on. 

The alliance with France gave the patriots greater confidence in their ulti- 
mate success. It was immediately productive of action. The first movement 
of the French government, in compliance with the requirements of that treaty, 
was to dispatch a squadron, consisting of twelve ships of the line, and four 
large frigates, under Count D'Estaing, to blockade the British fleet in the Del- 
aware. When, a month before ho sailed, the British ministry was ofl[icially 
informed [March 17, 1778] of the treaty, and it was considered equivalent to a 
declaration of war, a vessel was dispatched with a message to the British com- 
manders, ordering them to evacuate Philadelphia and the Delaware, and to con- 
centrate their forces at New York. Fortunately for Lord Howe, he had left 



• P.-ige 224. - Note 2, page 253. 

^ Pitt was favorable to these bills, but when a proposition was made to acknowledge the independ- 
ence of the colonies, and thus dismember the British empire, he opposed the measure with all his 
might He was in favor of reconcUiation, not of separation. It was during his speech on this sub- 
ject, th.at he was seized [A^pril 7] with the illness which terminated his life a month afterward. 
Pitt was born in November, 1708, and died on the 11th of May, 1778, when almost seventy years 
of age. 

' The Earl of Carlisle, George Johnstone, formerly governor of Florida, and 'William Eden, 
a brotlicr of Sir Robert Eden, the last royal governor of Maryland. Adam Ferguson, the cmment 
professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Edinburg, accompanied them as secretary. 

' Among those who were approached was Geneml Joseph Reed, a delegate from Pennsyl- 
vania. Mrs. Ferguson, wife of a relative to the secretary of the commissioners, then residing in 
Philadelphia, and who was intimate wilh Mr. Reed, wa-s employed to sound him. Mr. Reed had 
been suspected by some of his compatriots of rather ea-sy virtue as a republican, and tlie foct that 
he was approachable in this way, conlirmed their suspicions. Mrs. Ferguson was authorized to 
offer him high official station and a large sum of money, if he would use his influence in favor of 
peace, according to the submissive terms offered by the commissioners. Her mission became 
known, and General Reed alleged that he said to lier, " I am not worth purchasing; but such as I 
am, the king of England is not rich enough to do it." 




HIS.] FOURTn TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 287 

the Delaware a few days before the arrival of D'Estaing' [July 8, 1778], and 
found safety in the waters of Amboy or Raritan Bay, into which the heavy 
French vessels could not enter over the bar that stretches northward from 
Sandy Hook toward the Narrows. A little earlier than this, there had been a 
change in the command of the British army. Sir Henry Clinton,^ a more effi- 
cient officer than Howe, had succeeded him as general- 
in-chief, toward the close of May, and on the 18th of 
June, he withdrew his whole army from Philadelphia. 
With eleven thousand men, and an immense baggage 
and provision train, he started for New York, by the 
way of New Brunswick and Amboy. Washington, sus- 
pecting some important movement, was on the alert, and 
breaking up his encampment at A'^allcy Forge, he pur- 
sued Clinton with more than equal force. ^ By adroit 
movements, detachments of the American army so inter- 
cepted Clinton's march, as to compel him to change his course in the direction 
of Sandy Hook, while New Jersey militia continually harassed his flanks and 
rear.^ Finally, a general engagement took place [.June 28, 1778] on the 
plains of Monmouth, in the present village of Freehold, in New Jersey. 

The 28th of June, 1778, a day memorable in the annals of Freedom, was 
the Christian Sabbath. The slcy was cloudless over the plains of Monmouth,' 
when the morning dawned, and the sun came up with' all the fervor of the sum- 
mer solstice. It was the sultriest day of the year — one of t!;o warmest ever 
known. On that calm Sabbath morning, in the midst of paradisal beauty, 
twenty thousand men girded on the implements of hellish war, to maim and 
destroy each other — to sully the green grass and the fragrant flowers with 
human blood. Nature was smiling in her summer garments, and in earth and 
air there was fullness of love and harmony. Man, alone, was the discordant 
note in the universal melody. He, alone, the proud "lord of creation,'' dis- 
turbed the chaste worship of the hour, which ascended audibly from the groves, 
the streams, the meadows, and the woodlands. 

The two armies began to prepare for action at about one o'clock in the 
morning, and at day-break they were in motion. Before nine, detachments met 



' Silas Deane [page 266] returned to America in D'E.staing's flag-ship, and Gerard, the first 
Freneh minister to tlie United States, came in the same vessel. Congress was now in session in 
Philadelphia, having returned from York [page 274] on the 30th of June, twelve days after the 
British had left for New York. 

' Henry Clinton was a son of George Clinton, governor of tlio province of New York in 1T43, 
and a grandson of the Earl of Lincoln. After the war ha was made governor of Gibraltar [1795], 
and died tliere the same year. 

Arnold was yet quite lame from the effects of a severe wound in the leg, which he received in 
the battle on Bemis's Heights [page 278], and at his solicitation, Washington left him in command of 
a corps at Philadelphia, with tlio powers of a military governor. Washington crossed the Delawaro 
in pursuit of Clinton, with a little more than 12,000 men, 

Washington was anxious to attack Clinton when he was in the vicinity of Allentown, but Lee 
and otiiers overruled his opinions, in a council of war. Greene, La Fayette, and Warae agreed 
with the chief; and supported by tliese able officers, he resolved on a general engagement. 

' The battle of Monnio.ith was fought in the immediate vicinity of^ tlie present village of Free- 
hold, New Jersey, chiefly within the space of two miles nortli-west of the town. 



288 



THE EEVOLUTION. 



[1778. 




BATTLE AT MONMOUTH. 



in deadlj conflict, and from that hour until darlc, on that long summer day, the 

terrible contest raged. It was 
commenced by the advanced division 
of the American army, under Gen- 
eral Charles Lee.' His apparent 
want of skill or courage, and a mis- 
understanding of orders on the 
part of some of his ofiicers, pro- 
duced a general and tumultuous 
retreat of his division. The fugitives were met by the approaching main Iiody, 
under AVashington," and being speedily checked and restored to order by the 
chief, they were led to action, and the battle became general. Many fell under 
the excessive heat of the day, and when niglit came, both parties were glad to 
rest. The Americans slept on their arms' during the night, witli the intention 
of renewing tlie battle at dawn, but when liglit appeared, the Britisli camp was 
deserted. Clinton had silently withdrawn [June 29], and was far on his way 
toward Sandy Hook.' Washington did not follow, but marching to Xew 
Brunswick, and thence to the Hudson River, he proceeded to White Plains," 
•where he remained until late in autumn. Then he crossed into New Jersey, 
and made his winter quarters at Middlebrook, on the Raritan, where he was 



' Page 248. This command was first given to La Fayette, but when Lee, who had opposed the 
measure in council, siguilied his readiness to lead it, it was given to him, as he was the senior 
officer. 

" Washington was greatly irritated when he met the fugitives, and riding up to Lee, ho 
addressed him W'th much warmth of language, and directed him to assist in restoring order. Lee 
promptly obeyed, but the sting of AYashiugton's words rankled in his bosom, and on that day, after 
the battle, he addressed an olt'ensive letter to the chief Lee was arrested and tried by a court- 
martial, on the charges of disobedience of orders, misbehavior before the enemy, and disrespect to 
the commander-in-chief He was found guilty, and was suspended from conmiaiid for one year. 
He never entered the army again, and died in obscurity, in PhUadelpliia, in October, 1782. He 
was brave, but bad in liianners and morals, profane in language, and a contemner of religion. It is 
believed that he was willing to have Washington lose the battle of Monmouth, because he (Lee), 
was opposed to it, and at the same time was seeking to rise to the chief command upon the ruins 
of Washington's reputation. We have already alluded to the conspiracy toward that end, on page 
285. The hottest of the battle occurred a short distance from the Freehold Presbyterian Church 
yet [1807] standing. Near it is a board, with an inscription, showing the burial-spot of Colonel 
Monckton, of the British army, who was killed in the battle. 

° This expression is used respecting troops who sleep with all their accoutrements on, and 
their weapons by their side, ready for action in a moment. The British left about three hundred 
killed on the field of battle. Tliey also left a large number of the sick and wounded to the mercy 
of the Americans. The Americans lost in killed, wounded, and missing, two hundred and twenty- 
eight. Many of the missing afterward rejoined the army. They liad less than seventy killed. 

' In his dispatch to tlie Secretary of War, General Clinton said, "I took advantage of the vioOTi- 
ligM to rejoin General Knyphausen," &c. As, according to an almanac of that year, the moon was 
quite new, and set two hours before Clinton's march, this boast of leaving in the moonlight occa- 
sioned much merriment. Trumbull, in his JiPFingal, alluding to this, says, 



" Tie forms his camp with great parade. 
While evening Bpreads the world in shade, 
Then still, like some endanger'd spark, 
steals off on tiptoe in the dark ; 
Yet writes his king, in boasting tone. 
How grand he march'd by light of moon ! 



' Page 305. 



«ht, 



" Who sings how gods, that fearful 
Aided by miracle your tiight ; 
As once they used, in Homer's day. 
To help weak heroes run away ; 
Tells how the hours, at this aid trial. 
Went back, as erst oa Ahaz' dial. 
While British Joshua stayed the moon 
On Monmouth's plain for Ajalon. 
Heed not their sneers or gibes so arch, 
Because she set before your march." 




1778.] FOURTH TEAR OF THE AVAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 289 

encamped in the spring and summer of the previous year.' Clinton's shattered 
forces went on board the British fleet at Sandy Hook, and proceeded to New 
Yoi-k, where the head quarters of the royal army continued until the close of 
the war.^ And when D'Estaing appeared off Sandy Hook, the British fleet was 
safe in Raritan Bay. As we have already mentioned, 
the bar from Sandy Hook to Staten Island would not 
allow the heavy French vessels to pass, and D'Estaing 
therefore relinquished his design of attacking Howe's 
fleet, and on the solicitation of Washington, he proceeded 
to Newport, to assist the Americans in an attempt to 
drive the British from Rhode Island.^ General Sullivan 
had been sent to supersede General Spencer in command 
there ; and Washington also dispatched La Fayette, with 
two continental regiments (accompanied by General couxt d'estaisg. 
Greene, then quartermaster general), to aid in the expe- 
dition. John Hancock' came at the head of Massachusetts militia, and similar 
troops gathered at Tiverton, from Connecticut and Rhode Island.' On the 9th 
of August, [1778], the whole American force crossed from Tiverton to the north 
end of Rhode Island, and the British guards fled to the camp of General Pigot. 
at Newport. 

Several ships of war came from England at about this time, to reinforce the 
British fleet at New York, and a few days after D'Estaing sailed for Newport, 
a large squadron under Howe, proceeded to the relief of Pigot. It appeared 
off Rhode Island on the same day [Aug. 9] when the Americans landed on the 
northern end of it. D'Estaing, who was then within the harbor, went out to 
meet Howe, but before they came to an engagement, a terrible storm arose 
[Aug. 12], and scattered and disabled both fleets." The French squadron 
returned to Newport [August 20], and immediately sailed for Boston to be 
repaired. The Americans had then advanced almost to Newport, with every 
prospect of making a successful siege. They had been promised four thousand 
land troops from the French fleet. These were denied them ; and refusing to 
hsten to entreaties or remonstrances, D'Estaing sailed for Boston and abandoned 
the Americans.' The latter hastily withdrew to the north end of the island 

' Page 272. ' Page 350. ' Page 261. * Pa.ore 231. 

' The people of Rhode Island had suffered drpadfuUy from the brutality of the British troops. 
There had been some amelioration of their condition since the capture of Prescott [page 271], and 
under the rule of Pigot, the present commander. When success seemed possible, thousands of 
volunteers floclced to the standards of Sullivan and La Fayette. John Hancock was appointed a 
general of .some of these volunteers. But his term of service was short. Like Dr. Franl<liu [page 
133], Hancock was better fitted for a statesman than a soldier. 

Very old people on Rhode Island, who remembered this gale, spoke of it to the writer in 
1850, as "the great storm." So violent was the wind, that it Ijrought spray from the ocean a mile 
distant, and encrusted the windows ot the town with salt. 

' This conduct was warmly censured by the American commanders, because it had no valid 
excuse. It deprived them of a victory just within their grasp. Congress, however, afraid to offend 
tlie French, uttered not a word of blame. The matter was passed over, but not forgotten. Once 
again [page 305], the same admiral abandoned the Americans. D'Estaing was a native of 
Auvergne, France. He became involved in the French Revolution, in 1792. and in the spring of 
1793, he was guillotined. The guillotine was an instrument for cutting off the head, invented by 
U. Guillotine, who was eventually beheaded by it himself. 

19 



290 THE REVOLUTION. [1178. 

[August 28], pursued by the British, and a severe engagement took place 
[August 29j at Quaker Hill. Sullivan repulsed the British, and on the night 
of the 30th, withdrew his whole army to the main, near Bristol, in time to 
avoid an interception by Sir Henry Clinton, who had just arrived with four 
thousand troops, in light vessels.' The Americans lost in this expedition, thirty 
killed, and one hundred and seventy-two wounded and missing. The British 
loss was about two hundred and twenty. 

While these events were transpiring on the sea-board, a dreadful tragedy 
was enacted in the interior, when the Wyoming, Mohawk, Schoharie, and 
Cherry Valleys, were made the theaters of terriljlc scenes of blood and devasta- 
tion. Tories from distant Niagara, = and savages upon the head waters of the 
Susquehanna, gathered at Tioga early in June ; and at the beginning of July, 
eleven hundred of these white and dusky savages, under the general command 
of Colonel John Butler," entered [July 2, 1778] the lovely valley of Wyoming, 
in northern Pennsylvania. Most of the strong men were then away on distant 
duty, and families and homes found defenders only in aged men, tender youths, 
resolute women, and a few trained sohhers. These, about four hundred strong, 
under Colonel Ze!)ulon Butler,* marched up the valley [July 4], to drive back 
the invaders. But they were terrilily smitten by the foe, and a large portion 
of them were slain or made prisoners. A few escaped to Forty Fort, near 
AVilkesbarre, wherein families, for miles around, had sought safety. Uncertain 
of their fate — for the invaders were sweeping like a dark storm down the Sus- 
quehanna — the night of the battle-day was a terrible one for the people in the 
fort. But their agony of suspense was ended the following morning, when the 
leader of the invaders, contrary to the expectations of those who knew him, i 
agreed upon humane terms of surrender.' The gates of the fort were thrown ij 
open, and most of the families returned to their homes in fincied security. They | 
were doomed to terrible disappointment and woe. Brant, the great Indian j 

' When Clinton was assured of t'.ie sceurity of Rhode Island, ho detached General Grey on a j 
maranding expedition upon the southern shores of Massachusetts, and among the adjacent islands, 
and then returned to New York. Grey burned about seventy vessels in Buzzard's Bay, near New | 
Bedford, and in that vicinity destroyed property valued at more than three hundred and twenty- i 
three thousand dollars. He then went to Martha's A^ineyard [page 57], and carried away, for the 
army in New York, about three hundred oxen, and ten thousand sheep. On the first of October, 
Clinton sent a successful expedition to capture American stores at Little Egg Harbor, on the New 
Jersey coast. " Page 200. ' Note 2, page 278. 'j 

' Zebulon Butler was a native of Connecticut, and was born in 1731. He was in the French 
and Indian War, and was one of the earlier settlers in Wyoming. In 1778 he was appointed 
colonel, and was with Sullivan in his memorable expedition against the Senecaa [page 304] the fol- 
lowing year. Ho was in active service tlioughout the war, and died in Wyoming in 171)5, at the 
age of sixty-four years. 

' All our histories contain horrible statements of the fiend-like character of John Butler, and liis 
unmitigated wickedness on this occasion. Tliey also speak of the "monster Brant" [page 278] as 
the leader of the Indians, andtlie instigator of tlie crimes of wliich they were guilty. Both of these 
men were bad enough ; but recent investigations clearly demonstrate that Brant was not there at 
all ; and the treaty for surrender, which is still in existance, granted most humane terms to the be- 
sieged, instead of the terrible one reported in our liistories. 'Tlie fugitives who fled over the mount- 
ains, and made their way back to tlieir native Connecticut, crossed the Hudson, many of them at 
Poughkeepsie, where John Holt was publishing a weekly paper. Their fears had magnified events, 
and their tales of terror were published in H<ilt's journal, and tlms became records for future his- 
torians. Among other things, it was related tliat when the question was asked, on what terms the 
fort might be surrendered, Colonel John Butler, with more than savage cruelty, replied, T/ie Ilatehetl 
This is wholly untrue, and yet the story is repeated in all our histories. ' 



1778.] FOURTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 291 

leader, was not there to restrain his savage bands,' and their thirst for blood 
md plunder soon overcame all their allegiance to their white commander. Be- 
fore sunset they had scattered over the valley ; and when night fell upon the 
jcene, the blaze of more than twenty dwellings cast its lurid glare over the 
paradise of yesterday. The cries of the murdered went up from almost every 
bouse and field ; and when the moon arose, the terrified inhabitants were fleeing 
to the Wilkesbarre mountains, and the dark morasses of the Pocono beyond. In 
that vast wilderness between the valley and the Delaware, appropriately called 
the Shades of Death, many women and children, who escaped the hatchet, 
perished by hunger and fatigue. That " Wyoming Massacre," as it has been 
ippropriately called, stands out in bold relief as one of the darkest crimes per- 
petrated during the War for Independence. 

In the mean while. Brant' was leading or sending war parties through the 
country south of the Mohawk River ; and the Johnsons' and their Tory adher- 
ents were allies of the savages in the Mohawk valley. On the 11th and 12th 
Df November [1778], a party of Tories, under Walter N. Butler,* accompanied 
by Indians, under Brant, fell like lightning upon the settlement of Cherry Val- 
ley. Many of the people were killed, or carried into captivity ; and for months 
[10 eye was closed in security at night, within an area of a hundred miles and 
more, around this desolated village. Tryon county, as that region of New 
Vork was then called, was a " dark and bloody ground" for full four years, and 
the records of the woes of the people have filled volumes.^ Our space allows 
as to mention only the most prominent events of that period. 

And now, when the year 1778 — the fourth year of the war — drew to a 
:lose, the British army had accomplished very little more in the way of conquest, 
than at the end of the second year. The belligerent forces occupied almost the 
iame relative position which they did in the autumn of 177G, while the Amer- 
icans had gained strength by a knowledge of military tactics," naval operations, 

' The Indians were led by Gi-en-^rwa-tah (he who goes in the smoke), a celebrated Seneca 
;hief. ^ Page 278. = Note 2, page 278. 

' He was a son of Colonel John Butler, and one of the most brutal of the Tory leaders. In the 
ittack upon the defenseless people at Clierry Valley, on the 10th of November. 1778, he was the 
Host conspicuous for cruelty ; in fact, he was the head and front of all the villainy perpetrated 
;hc're. Thirty-two of the mhabitants, mostly womeu and children, and sixteen soldiers of the little 
garrison there, were killed. The whole settlement was then plun- 
iered, and every buildmg in the village was fired. Among the prie- 
Jners carried into captivity, were the wife and children of Colonel 
Campbell, who was then absent. One of the children (Judge James 
3. Campbell of Cherry Valley), then six years of age, still [1867J sur- 
vives, and during the summer of 1855, after an absence of seventy- 
five years, he visited the Indian village of Caughnawaga, twelve miles 
from Montreal, %vhere he resided some time with his captors. Walter 
Butler was shot by an Oneida Indian, in West Canada Creek, and his 
body was left to be eaten by wild beasts. 

' See Campbell's Annals of Tryon County, Simm's History of Scho- 
harie County, Stone's Life of Brant, etc. 

" Among the foreign officers who came to America in 1777, was 
the Baron Steuben, who joined the Continental army at Valley Forge 
[page 285]. He was a veteran from the armies of Frederic the b\kon biLUBES. 

Great of Prussia, and a skillful disciplinarian. He was made Inspector- 
General of the army ; and the vast advantages of his military instruction were seen on the field 
of Monmouth [page 287], and in subsequent conflicts. Steuben died at Steubenville, m the interior . 




:^. 



292 THE REVOLUTION. [1778. 

and the art of civil government ; and they had secured the alliance of France, 
the j^owerful European rival of Great Britain, and the sympathies of Spain and 
Holland. The British forces occupied the real position of prisoners, for they 
were hemmed in upon only two islands,' almost two hundred miles apart, and 
each about fourteen miles in length ; wdiile the Americans possessed every 
other stronghold of the country, and, unlike the invaders, were warring for the 
dearest rights of common humanity. 

The scene of the most active military operations now changed. In the 
autumn [Nov. 3, 1778], D'Estaing sailed for the West Indies, to attack the 
British possessions there. To defend these, it was necessary for the British 
fleet on our coast to proceed to those waters.' This movement would prevent 
any co-operation between the fleet and army in aggressive movements against 
the populous and now well-defended North ; they could only co-operate in act- 
ive operations against the sparsely-settled South. These considerations caused 
a change in the plans of the enemy ; and late in November [Nov. 27], Sir 
Henry Clinton dispatched Colonel Campbell, with about two thousand troops, 
to invade Georgia, then the weakest member of the Confederacy. They pro- 
ceeded by water, and landed at Savannah, the capital of the State, on the 
morning of the 29th of December. General Robert Howe' was there, with only 
about a thousand men, and these were dispirited by the failure of a recent expe- 
dition against Florida in which they had been engaged.* They defended the 
city nobly, however, until an overwhelming force, hy power and stratagem, com- 
pelled them to retire. They then fled, in confusion, up the Savannah River, 
and took shelter in the bosom of South Cai'olina. The capital of Georgia he- 
came the head-quarters of the British army at the South ; and the enemy re- 
tained it until near the close of the contest [1782], even when every foot of soil 
in the State, outside the intrenchments around the city, was possessed by the 
patriots. 



CHAPTER VI. 

j'lFTH YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1779.] 

Thickly mottled with clouds of evil forebodings for the Republican cause, 
was the political firmament at the dawn of the year 1779. The finances of the 

of New York, in 1795, and his remains rest beneath a slab in the town of Steuben, about seven 
miles north-west of Trenton Falls. ' Manhattan, or York Island, and Rhode Island. 

^ Admiral Hotham saQed for the Tfest Indies on the 3d of November ; and early in December, 
Admiral Byron, who had just succeeded Lord Howe in chief naval command, also sailed for that 
destination. ^ Page 244. 

' A great number of Tories were organized in Florida, and committed so many depredations upon 
the settlers on the Georgian frontiers, that Howe, during the summer of 1778, went thither to dis- 
perse them. He penetrated to the St. Marj-'s River, in June, where he awaited reinforcements, 
and supplies, by water. "Want of co-operation on the part of the governor of Georgia and the naval 
commander, produced much disunion ; and sickness soon reduced the number of efl'ective men so 
much, that the enterprise was abandoned. 



1779.] FIFTH YEAR OF THE "R'AR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 293 

country were in a most 'wretched condition. Already, one hundred millions of 
dollars of continental money' were afloat without the security of even good 
public credit ;' and their value was rapidly depreciating. While the amount 
of the issues was small, the credit of the bills was good; but when new emis- 
sions took place, and no adequate measures for redemption were exhibited, the 
people became suspicious of those frail representatives of money, and their valuo 
began to depreciate. This effect did not occur until eighteen months after 
the time of the first emission.'' Twenty millions of the continental bills were 
then in circulation, besides a large amount of local issues by the several States. 
It was perceived that depreciation was inevitable, and Congress proposed, as a 
substitute for further issues, a loan of five' millions, at an interest of four per 
cent. A lottery had been early authorized, and was now in operation, designed 
to raise a like sum, on loan, the prizes being payable in loan-ofiice certificates.* 
Although these ofiices were opened in all the States, and the interest raised to 
six per cent., the loans came in slowly. The treasury became almost exhausted, 
the loan-ofiices were overdrawn upon by the commissioners' drafts, and the issue 
of bills was reluctantly recommenced. 

The financial embarrassments were increased liy the circulation of an 
immense amount of counterfeits of the continental bills, by the British 
and the loyalists, which rapidly dejireciated the currency. They were 
sent out from New York, literally, by " cart-loads." ° Congress felt the neces- 
sity of making some extraordinary efforts for redeeming the genuine bills, so as 
to sustain their credit. The several States were taxed, and on the 2d of Janu- 
ary, 1779, it was, by Congress, " Kesolved, That the United States be called 
on to pay in their respective quotas of fifteen millions of dollars, for the year 
1779, and of six millions of dollars annually for eighteen years, from and after 
the year 1779, as a fund for sinking the emissions," kc. ; yet all was in vain; 
prices rose as the bills sank in value, and every kind of trade was embarrassed and 

' Page 245. 

" At this time, when Congress could not borrow a dollar upon its own credit, Robert Morris 
[page 264] found no difficulty in raising millions upon his own. For a long time he, alone, llirnished 
tde "hard money" us?d by tliat body. " Note 3, page 245. 

* On the first of November, 1776, the Continental Congress "Resolved, Tliat a sum of money 
be raised by way of lottery, for defraying the expenses of tlie next campaign, the lotteiy to be 
drawn in Philadelphia " A committee was appointed to arrange the same, and on the 18th, 
reported a sclieme. The drawer of more than the minimum prize in each class, was to receive 
either a treasury banlc note, payable in five years, vnth an aiinu;il interest at four per cent., or the 
preemption of such billets in tlie next succeeding class ; this was optional witli tlie adventurers. 
Those who should not call for their prizes within six weeks after tlie end of the drawing, wero 
considered adventurers in the next succeeding class. Seven managers were appointed, who were 
authorized to employ agents in different States to sell the tickets. The first drawing was decided to 
be made at Philadelphia, on the first of March, 1777; but purchasers were comparatively few and 
tardy, and the drawing was postponed from time to time. Various impediments continually presented 
tliemselves, and the plan, which promised such success at the beginning, appears to have been a 
failure. Many purchasers of tickets were losers; and this, like some otlier financial schemes of tlio 
Revolution, was productive of much hard feeling toward tlie Federal Government. 

It was no secret at the time, as appears by the following advertisement in Gaines' A'ew Tur'c 
Mercury : "Advertisement. Persons going into other colonies, may be suppUed with any number 
of counterfeited Congress notes, for the price of the paper per ream. They are so neatly and exactly 
executed, that there is no risk in getting them off, it being almost impossible to discover that they 
are not genuine. This has been proven by bills to a very lirgg amount, which hav3 alreadv been 
successfully circulated. Inquire of Q. E. D., at the Coffee-house, from 11 A. M., to 4 P.M., daring 
the present month." 



294 THE REVOLUTION. [1779. 

deranged. The federal government was thoroughly perplexed. Only about 
four millions of dollars had been obtained, by loan, from Europe, and present 
negotiations appeared futile. No French army was yet upon our soil, to aid 
us, nor had French coin yet gladdened the hearts of unpaid soldiers. A French 
fleet had indeed been upon our coasts,' but had now gone to fight battles for 
France in the West Indies, after mocking our hopes with broken promises of 
aid." Gloomy, indeed, appeared the firmament at the dawn of 1779, the fifth 
year of the War for Independence. 

In the autumn of 1777, a plan for invading Canada and the eastern British 
provinces, and for seizing the British posts on the western lakes, had been 
matured by Congress and the Board of War,^ but when it was submitted to 
Washington, his sagacious mind perceived its folly, and the influence of hia 
opinions, and the discovery, by true patriots, that it was a part of the secret 
plan, entered into by Gates and others, to deprive Washington of chief com- 
mand, caused an abandonment of the scheme. Others, more feasible, occu- 
pied the attention of the Federal Legislature ; and for several weeks the com- 
mander-in-chief co-operated with Congress [January, 1779], in person, in 
preparing a plan for the campaign of 1779. It was finally resolved to act on 
the defensive, except in retaliatory expeditions against the Indians and Tories 
in the interior.* This scheme promised the most beneficial results, for it would 
be safer and loss expensive, than offensive warfare. During the entire year, 
the principal military operations were carried on in the two extreme Gections of 
the confederacy. The chief efforts of the Americans were directed to the con- 
finement of the British army to the seaboard, and chastising the Indian tribes. 
The winter campaign opened by Lieutenant-colonel Campbell" [December 29, 
1778], continued until June, and resulted, as we have mentioned [page 292], 
in the complete subjugation of Georgia to British rule. 

When Campbell had garrisoned Savannah, and arranged for its defense, he 
prepared to march against Sunbury, twenty-eight miles further south, the only 
post of any consequence now left to the Americans on the Georgia seaboard. 
He treated the people leniently, and, by proclamation, invited them to join the 
British standard. These measures had their desired effect, 
and timid hundreds, seeing the State under the heel of 
British power, proclaimed their loyalty, and rallied be- 
neath the standard of King George. At the same time, 
Genei'al Prevost, who was in command of the British and 
Indians in east Florida, marched northward, captured 
Sunbury [January 9, 1779], and assumed the chief com- 
mand of the Biitish forces in the South. With this post 
GENERAL LINCOLN. fell the hopcs of the Republicans in east Georgia. In the 

' Page 289. " Page 289. 

^ On tlio 12th of June, 1776, Congress appointed a committee, to be styled the "Board of "War 
and Ordnance," to have the general supervision of mihtary affairs. John Adams was the chairman, 
and Rieh.ird Peters was secretary. Peters was the real " Secretary of War" under the old Confed- 
eration, until 1781, when he was succeeded by General Lincoln. General Gates was chairman in 
1778. * Page 291. ' Page 293 




1779.] FIFTH TEAR OP THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 295 

mean while, General Benjamin Lincoln, of Massachusetts, had been appointed 
[September, 1778], commander-in-chief of the southern army of patriots.' He 
made his head-({uarters at Purysburg [January 6], twenty-five miles above 
Savannah, and there commenced the formation of an army, composed of some con- 
tinental regiments, new recruits, and the broken forces of General Howe.' AVhilc 
Lincoln was collecting his army on the Carolina bank of the Savannah, Camp- 
bell marched up the Georgia side to Augusta, ■" for tho purpose of encouraging 
the Tories, opening a communication with the Creek Indians' in the West (among 
whom the British had active emissaries), and to awe the Whigs. At the same 
time a band of Tories, under Colonel Boyd, was desolating the Carolina fron- 
tiers, while on their march to join the royal troops. When within two days' 
march of Augusta, they were attacked'' [February 14, 1779] and utterly defeated 
by Colonel Pickens, at the head of the militia of Ninety-six." Boyd and 
seventy of his men were killed, and seventy-five were made prisoners.' Pick- 
ens lost thirty-eight of his men. 

This defeat of Boyd alarmed Campliell and encouraged Lincoln. The latter 
immediately sent General Ashe, of North Carolina, with about two thousand 
men," to drive Campbell from Augusta, and to confine the invaders to the low, 
sickly sections near the sea, hoping for aid from the deadly malaria of the 
swamps, when the heats of summer should prevail. The British fled [Februaiy 
13, 1779] at the approach of Ashe, and were pursued by him [February 16] 
as far as Brier Creek, about forty miles below Augusta, where he halted to 
establish a camp. There Ashe was surprised and defeated [March 3] by Gen- 
eral Prevost, who, with quite a large force, was marching up the Savannah to 
the relief of Campbell. Ashe lost almost his entire army by death, captivity, and 
dispersion. Some were killed, others perished in the morasses, and many were 
drowned in attempting to escape across tho Savannah." This blow deprived 
Lincoln of one fourth of his aimy, and led to the temporary re-establishment of 
royal government in Georgia.'" 

' Benjamin Lincoln was born in Hingham, Massachusetts, in 1733. He was a farmer, yet took 
an active part in pul)lic affairs. He joined the continental army in 1777, and rose rapidly to the 
station of major-general He commanded the militia against Shay's insurgents [See 5, page 353.] 
in 17S6. He was also a useful public officer in civil affairs, and died in 1810. ' Page 292. 

^ When Campbell departed for Augusta, Prevost sent Colonel Gardiner with some troops, to take 
possession of Port E,oyal Island, some sixty miles below Charleston, preparatory to a march upon 
that city. Gardiner was attacked by General Moultrie [page 249], with Charleston militia, on the 
morning of the 3d of February. Almost every British officer (except the commander), and many 
privates, were killed. Gardiner and a tew men escaped in boats, and Moultrie, whose loss was 
Irifiiiig, joined Lincoln at Purysburg. ' Page 30. 

' The place of the skirmish was upon Kettle Creek, in Oglethorpe county, Georgia. 

' Page 336. 

' Seventy of them were tried and found guilty of treason, and sentenced to be hung. Only five 
were executed. 

° Lincoln was joined by Generals Ashe and Rutherford, with North Carolina regiments, about 
the first of February, and his army now amounted to little more than three thousand men. John 
Ashe was born in England in 1721, and came to America when a child. He was engaged in the 
liagulator War [page 223], and was one of the most active of the North CaroUna patriots. He died 
of small-pox in 1781. 

" About one hundred and fifty were killed and drowned, eighty-nine were made prisoners, and 
a large number, who were dispersed, did not take up arms again for several months. 

•'" At the beginning of 1776, the bold Whigs of Savannali had made the royal governor, Sir 
James Wright, a prisoner in his own house ; and the provmcial Assembly, assuming governmental 



296 THE REVOLUTION. [mO. 

Prevost now prepared for an invasion of South Carolina. Toward the last 
of April, he crossed the Savannah [April 27J with two thousand regulars, and 
a large body of Tories and Creek Indians, and marched for Charleston. Lin- 
coln had recruited, and was now in the field with about five thousand men, 
preparing to recover lost Georgia, by entering the State at Augusta, and sweep- 
ing the counta-y to the sea. But when he discovered the progress of Prevost. 
and that even the danger of losing Savannah did not deter that active general 
from his attempts upon Charleston, Lincoln hastened to the relief of the men- 
aced city. The people on the line of his march hailed him as a deliverer, for 
Prevost had marked his progress by plunder, conflagration, and cruelty. For- 
tunately for the Republicans, the invader's march was so slow, that when he 
arrived [May 11] before the city, the people were prepared for resistance. 

Prevost, on the morning of the lltli of May, approached the American 
intrenchments thrown across Charleston Neck,' and demanded an immediate 
surrender of the city. He was answered by a prompt refusal, and the remain- 
der of the day was spent by both parties, in preparations for an assault. That 
night was a fearful one for the citizens, for they expected to be greeted at dawn 
with bursting bomb-shells," and red-hot cannon-balls. AYhen morning came 
[May 12, 1779], the scarlet uniforms of the enemy were seen across the waters 
upon John's Island, and not a hostile foot was upon the Charleston peninsula. 
The cause of this was soon made manifest. Prevost hrid been informed of the 
approach of Lincoln, and fearing his connection with Savannah might be cut 
off, he commenced a retreat toward that city, at midnight, by way of the islands 
along the coast. For more than a month some British detachments lingered 
upon John's Island. Then they were attacked at Stono Ferry, ten miles below 
Charleston [June 20] hj a party of Lincoln's army, but after a severe engage- 
ment, and the loss of almost three hundred men in killed and wounded, they 
repulsed the Americans whose loss was greater. Prevost soon afterward 
established a military post at Beaufort, on Port Royal Island,'' and then retreated 
to Savannah. The hot season produced a suspension of hostilities in the South, 
and that I'egion enjoyed comparative repose for several months. 

Sir Henry Clinton was not idle while these events were in progress at the 
South. Ho was sending out marauding expeditions from New York, to plunder 
and harass the people on the sea-coast. Governor Tryon' went from Kings- 
bridge" on the 25th of March [1779], with fifteen hundred British regulars and 

powers, made provisions for military defense [February, Iff C], issued bills of credit, &c. 'Wriglit , 
escaped and went to England. He returned in July, 1779, and resumed his ofBco as governor of 
the "colony." 

' Charleston, hke Boston [note 3, page 229], is situated upon a peninsul.i, the neck of which is ' 
made quite narrow by the Ashley and Cooper Rivers, and the marshes. Across this the Americans 
had hastily cast up embankments. They served a present purpose, and being strensjtiiened, were 
of great value to the Americans the following year. See page 310. 

' Hollow balls or shells of cast iron, filled with gunpowder, slugs. &c. In an orifice commuiii- , 
eating with the powder, is a slow match. This is ignited, and the shell is hurled from a mortar (a 
short cannon) into the midst of a town or an army. Wlien the powder ignites, the shell is bursltd 
into fragments, and these with the slugs make terrible havoc. They aro sometimes the size of a ^ 
man's head. ' Note 5, page 166. * Page 24S. ' 

' The passage across the Harlem River (or as it is sometimes there called, Spuyten Duyvil Creek), 
at the upper end of York or Manhattan Island! 



1779.] FIFTH TEAR OF THE "WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 297 

Hessians,' to destroy some salt-works at Horseneck, and attack an American 
detachment under General Putnam, at Greenwich, in Connecticut. The Amer- 
icans were dispersed [March 26], and Putnam barely escaped capture by some 
dragoons.' He rallied his troops at Stamford, pursued the British on their 
return toward New York the same evening, recaptured a quantity of plunder in 
their possession, and took thirty-eight of them prisoners. 

On the 9th of May, Sir George Collier entered Hampton Roads, ^ with a 
small fleet, bearing General Mathews, with land troops, destined to ravage the 
country in that vicinify. They spread desolation on both sides of the Elizabeth 
River, from the Roads to Norfolk and Portsmouth. After destroying a vast 
amount of property, they withdre^v ; and at the close of the month, the same 
vessels and the same troops were up the Hudson River, assisting Sir Henry 
Clinton in the capture of the fortress at Stony Point, and also the small fort on 
Verplanck's Point, opposite. Both of these posts fell into the power of the 
British, after a spirited resistance ; the first on the 31st of May, and the latter 
on the 1st of June. These achievements accomplished, Collier, witli a band 
of twenty-five hundred marauders, under Governor Tryon, sailed on the night 
of the 4th of July [1779J, for the shores of Connecticut, to plunder and destroy 
the towns on the coast. They plundered New Haven on the 5th, laid East 
Haven in ashes on the 6tli, destroyed Fairfield in the same "way on the 8th, and 
burned and plundered Nor^yalk on the 12th. Not content with this wanton 
destruction of property, the invaders insulted and cruelly abused the defense- 
less inhabitants. While Norwalk was burning, Tryon sat in a rocking-chair, 
upon an eminence near by, and viewed the scene with great complacency, and 
apparent pleasure — a puny imitation of Nero, who fiddled while Rome was 
blazing. ^ The Hessian mercenaries generally accompanied these expeditions, for, 
unlike the British soldiers, they were ever eager to apply the torch and abuse 
the inhabitants. They were the fit instruments for such a warfare. When 
Tryon (whom the English jwople abhorred for his wrong-doings in America), 
had completed the destruction of these jjleasant villages, he boasted of his ex- 

' Page 246. 

" On this occasion he performed tlie feat, so often related, of descending a steep hill on horse- 
back, making his way, as common history asserts, down a flight of stone steps, wliich had been 
constructed for tlio convenience of people who had to ascend this hill to a church on its summit. 
The whole matter is an exaggeration. An eye-witness of the event says that Putnam pursued a 
zig-zag course down the hill, and only descended four or five of the steps near the bottom. Tho 
feat was not at all extraordinary when we consider that a troop of dragoons, with loaded pistols, 
were at his heels. These, however, dared not follow the general In 1825, when a company of 
horsemen were escorting La Fayette — tho "Nation's Guest" — along the road at that place, some of 
them went down the same declivity on horseback. The stone steps are now [18G7] visible in some 
places, among the shrubbery and overlying sod. 

' Page 69. This is a body of water at the conjunction of the James and Elizabeth Rivers, and 
communicating with the sea. It is one of the most spacious harbors in the world. The village of 
Hampton lies upon its northern border. See page 243. 

* Alluding to these outrages of Tryon, and the burning of Kingston [page 2S3] by Vaughan, 
TrumbuU, in his iTFingal, says : 

" Behold, like whelps of British lion, 
Our warriors, Clinton, Vaughan, and Tryon, 
March forth, with patriotic joy, 
To ravish, plunder, and destroy. 
Great generals I Foremost in their nation — 
The journeymen of desolation I" 



298 



THE DEVOLUTION. 



[17-9. 

single house standing on the New England 




STOKY POIXT. 



treme clemencj in leaving 
coast. 

While these marauding forays were in progress, 
the Americans were not idle. They were preparing to 
strike the enemy heavy and unexpected blows. Only 
three days after the destruction of Norwalk [July 1-3 j, 
General Anthony Wayne was marching secretly to 
attempt the re-capture of Stony Point, on the Hud- 
son. The fort stood upon a rocky promontory, sur- 
rounded by water and a marsh, and was very strong 
in its position. So secretly was the whole movement 
conducted, that the British garrison were unsuspicious 
of danger. At midnight, the little army of patriots 

crossed the morass in the rear, and attacked the fort 
with ball and bayonet, at two separate points, in the 
face of a heavy cannonade from the aroused garrison. 
At two o'clock in the morning [July 16, 1779], Wayne, 
though so badly wounded in the head by a glancing 
blow of a Ijullet, as to fall senseless, wrote to AVashing- 
ton, " The fort and garrison, with Colonel Johnson, are 
ours. Our officers and men behaved like men who arc 
determined to be fi'ee."' This was considered one of 
the most brilliant events of the war.' The British lost, 
in killed, wounded, and prisoners, about six hundred 
men ; the loss of the Americans was fifteen killed, and eighty-three wounded. 
The spoils were a large amount of military stores. The post was abandoned by 
the Americans, for, at that time, troops sufficient to garrison it could not be 
spared.^ 

The capture of Stony Point was followed by another brilliant achievement, 
a month later [August 19], when Major Henry Lee,' at three o'clock in the 
morning, surprised a British garrison at Paulus' Hook (now Jersey City),' op- 
posite New York, killed thirty soldiers, and took one hundred and sixty pris- 




GENERAL WAYtlE. 



" Wayne was highly complimented by all General Charles Lee [page 248], who was not on 
the most friendly terms with Wayne, wrote to him, saying, "I do most seriously declare that your 
assault of Stony Point is not only the most brilliant, in my opinion,' throughout the whole course of 
the war, on either side, but that it is the most brilliant 1 am acquainted with in history. The as- 
sault of Schiveidnitz, by Marshal Laudon, I think inferior to it." Dr. Rush wrote, saying, "Our 
streets rang for many days witli nothing but the name of General Wayne. You arc remembered 
constantly next to our good and great Wa.shington, over our claret and Madeira. You have estab- 
lished the national character of our country ; you have taught our enemies tliat bravery, humanity, 
and magnanimity are the national virtues of the Americans." Congress gave him tlianks, and a 
gold medal ; and silver medals were awarded to Colonels Stewart and De Fleury, for their gallantry 
on the occasion. Anthony Wayne was born in Pennsylvania in 1745. He was a professional sur- 
veyor, then a provincial legislator, and became a soldier in 1775. He was very active during the 
whole war; and was efficient in subduing the Indians in the Ohio country, in 1795 [see page 374], 
He died at Erie, on his way home, near tlie close of 1796. 

' After the Americans had captured Stony Point, they turned the cannons upon Fort La Fay- 
ette, upon Verplanck's Point, opposite. General Robert Howe [page 292] was directed to attack 
tliat post, but on account of some delays, he did not reach there before Sir Henry Clinton sent up 
relief for the garrison. ^ Note 2, page 133. * Note 1, page 94. 



FIFTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



299 



oners. This gallant act was greatly applauded in the camp, in Congress, and 
throughout the country, and made the enemy more cautious and circumspect. 
The hero was honored by Congress with thanks and a gold medal. These and 
some smaller successes at about this time, elated the Americans ; but their joy 
was soon turned into sorrow, because of disasters in the extreme East. Massa- 
chusetts had fitted out almost forty vessels to attempt the seizure of a British 
post on the Penobscot River. The assailants delayed more than a fortnight 
after their arrival [July 25] before determining to carry tlie place by storm. 
Just as the troops were about to land for the purpose, a British fleet arrived, 
destroyed the flotilla, took many of the soldiers and sailors pi i.soners, and drove 
the remainder into the wilderness [Aug. 13]. These, after great hardships iu 
the forests, reached Boston toward the clos3 of September. 




The storm of war was not confined to the Atlantic settlements. It burst 
over the lofty AUeghanies, and at an early period, even while it was gathering, 
a low, muttering peal of thunder came from clouds that brooded over the far- 
off wilderness of the great valleys of the West. Pioneers from the sea-board 
colonies were thei'e, and they were compelled, almost at the moment of arrival. 
to wage war with the Indian, and hunt savage men as well as savage beasts. 
Among the earliest and most renowned of these pioneers, was Daniel Boone, 
the great " Hunter of Kentucky," of whom Byron wrote, 

"Of all men, saving Sylla, the man-slayer, 

Who passes for, in life and death, most lucky, 



[HTD. 



300 THE REVOLUTION. 

Of the great names which in our faces stare, 

The General Boone, backwoodsman of Kentucky, 
Was happiest among mortals anywhere." ' 

He went west of tlie Blue Ridge as early as 1769, and in 1773. Lis own 
and a few other flxmilies accompanied him to the paradise lying among the 
rich valleys south of the Ohio River. -' From that period until the power of the 
western Indians (who were continually incited to hostilities by the British and 




Tories) was broken liy George Rogers Clarke, Boone's life was one of almost 
continual warfare with the children of the forest. 

Nor did Boone and his companions measure strength with the Indians alone ; - 



' Don Juan, VIII , Ixi. 

^ The wife and daughters of Boone were the first whito females that set foot in tlie valleys west 
of the Alleghanies. Daniel Boone was Ijorn in Berks county, Pennsylvania, in 1734. While he 
was a small boy, his parents settled on the Yadkin, in North Carolina. Wlieu in the iirimo of life, 
he went over tlie mountains, and became a famous Imnter. Ko planted the first settlement on the 
Kain-iuck-ee RWer, yet known as Boonsborougli. During the Revolution he fouglit tlie-Indiana 
bravely, and was a prisoner among thorn for some time, but escaped. He was active in all matters 
pertaining to the settlement of Kentucky, until it became an independent State. Yet ho was, by 
the technicalities of law, doomed to be disinherited of every foot of the soil he had helped to 
redeem from the wilderness, and, at almost eighty years of age, he was trapping beaver upoQ the 
Little Osage River, beyond the Mississippi. Ho died in Missouri, when almost ninety years of 
ago, in September. 1820. 




Clark's Expedition across the Drowned Lands. 



1779.] FIFTH YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 303 

but in time they confronted white leaders and white followers. These conilicts, 
however, were only a series of border forays, until 1778, when Major George 
Rogers Clarke' led a regular expedition against the frontier posts of the enemy, 
in the wilderness in the far north-west, now the States of Indiana and Illinois. 
His little army rendezvoused at the Falls of the Ohio, where Louisville now 
stands, where he was joined by Simon Kenton, and other pioneers. From 
thence they penetrated the country northward, and on the 4th of July [1778], 
they captured Kaskaskia.'' On the 9th, they took the village of Cahokia, 
sixty miles further up the river ; and finally, in August, the stronger British 
post of Vincennes, on the Wabash, fell into their hands. 

Acting in the capacity of a peace-maker, Clarke was working successfully 
toward the pacification of the western tribes, when, in the month of January, 
1779, the commander of the British fort at Detroit retook A^incennes. With 
one hundred and seventy-five men, Clarke penetrated the dreadful wilderness 
a hundred miles from the Ohio. For a whole week they traversed the 
'•drowned lands" of Illinois, sufiering every privation from wet, cold, and 
hunger. When they arrived at the Little Wabash, at a point where the forks 
of the stream are three miles apart, they found the intervening space covered 
with water to the depth of three feet. The points of dry land were five miles 
apart, and all that distance those hardy soldiers, in the month of February, 
waded the cold snow-flood" in the forest, sometimes arm-pit deep ! They 
arrived in sight of Vincennes on the 18th [February, 1779], and the ne.xt 
morning at dawn, with their faces blackened with gunpowder, to make them- 
selves appear hideous, they crossed the river in a boat, and pushed toward the 
town. On the 20th, the stripes and stars were again unfurled over the fort at 
Vincennes and a captured garrison. Had armed men dropped from the clouds, 
the people and soldiers at Vincennes could not have been more astonished, than 
at the apparition of these troops, for it seemed impossible for them to have 
traversed the deluged country. 

The indignation of the people was fiercely aroused by the atrocities at 
Wyoming and upon the head waters of the Susquehanna ; and in the summer of 
1779, General Sullivan' was sent^nto the heart of the country of the Six Na- 
Tioxs," to chastise and humble them. He collected troops in the Wyoming 

' George Rogers Clarke, was bora in Albemarle county, Virginia, in 1752, and first appears in 
liiatory as an advi-nturer beyond the Alleghanies, twenty years afterward. He had been a land- 
aarveyor, and first went to the Ohio region in 1772. He waa a captain in Dunmore's army [note 4, 
page 237] in 1774, and in 1775, he accompanied some emigrants to Kentucky. Pleased with the 
country, he determined to make it his home; and during the war for Independence, ho labored 
nobly to secure the vast region of the west and north-west, as a homo for tlio free. Under his 
leadership, what afterward became the North-west Territory, was disenthralled, and he has been 
appropriately styled the Father of that region. He was promoted to the rank of brigadier, after 
serving under the Baron Steuben against Arnold, in Virginia, in 1781, and at the close of the war 
he remained in Kentucky. He died near Louisville, in February, 1818, at the age of sixty-sis 
years. ' Page 180. ' Note 3, page 241. 

* John Sullivan was born in Maine, in 1740. He was a delegate in the first Continental Con- 
gress [1774], and was one of the first eight brigadiers in the Continental Army. After being in act- 
ive service about four years, he resigned his commission in 1779. He was afterward a member of 
Congress, and governor of New Hampshire, and died in 1795. 

' Page 25. British emissaries had gained over to the royal interest the whole of the Six Na- 
tions except the Oneidas. These were kept loyal to the republicans, chiefly through the instru- 




304 THE REVOLUTION. [1779. 

Valley ; and on the last clay of July, marched up the Susquehanna, with 
about three thousand soldiers. At Tioga Point, he met General James Clinton ' 
on the 22d of August, who came from the Mohawk 
Valley, with about sixteen hundred men. On the 29th 
they fell upon a body of Indian and Tory savages, 
strongly fortified, at Chemung (now Elmira), and dis- 
persed them. Without waiting for them to rally, Sulh- 
van moved forward, and penetrated the country to the 
Genesee River. In the course of three weeks, he de- 
stroyed forty Indian villages, and a vast amount of food 
growing in fields and gardens. One hundred and si.xty 

GENERAL SULLIVAN. ~i i i i i c • ,i <• i i i • . 

thousand bushels 01 corn m the fields and in granaries 
were destroyed ; a vast number of the finest fruit-trees, the product of years of 
tardy growth, were cut down ; hundreds of gardens covered with edible vegetables, 
wore desolated ; the injiabitants were driven into the forests to starve, and were 
hunted like wild beasts ; their altars were overturned, and their graves trampled 
upon by strangers ; and a beautiful, well-watered country, teeming with a 
prosperous people, and just rising from a wilderness state, by the aid of culti- 
vation, to a level with the productive regions of civilization, was desolated and 
cast back a century in the space of a fortnight." To us, looking upon tlie scene 
from a point so remote, it is difiicult to perceive the necessity that called for a 
chastisement so cruel and terrible. But that such necessity seemed to exist we 
should not doubt, for it was the judicious and benevolent mind of Washington 
that conceived and planned the campaign, and ordered its rigid exccution''in the 
manner in which it was accomplished. It awed the Indians for the moment, 
but it did not crush them. In the reaction they had greater strength. It 
kindled the fires of deep hatred, which spread far among the tribes upon the 
lakes and in the valley of the Ohio. Washington, like Demetrius, the son of 1 
Antigonus, received from the savages the name of An-na-ta-kau-les, which sig- | 
nifies a taker of toivns, or Town Destroyer.^ 1 

mentality of one or two Christian missionaries. After tlTe war, tliose of tlie Six Nations who joiiT"! 
tlie Britisli, pleaded, as an excuse, the noble sentiment of loyalty. They were the friends of the En- 
glish, and regarded the parent country as their ally. When they saw the children of their grrn' 
i:ither, the liing, rebelling agamst him, they felt it to be then- duty, in accordance with stipulation ~ 
of solemn treaties, to aid hun. 

' General James Clinton was bom in Ulster county, New York, in 1736. He was a captain in 
the French and Indian "War, and an active oftieer during the Revolution. Ho died in 1812. 

" The Seneca Indians were beginning to cultivate rich openings in the forests, known as tli ' 
"Genesee Flats," quite extensively. They raised large quantities of corn, and cultivated garden - 
and orchards. Their dwellings, however, were of the rudest character, and their villages consistt-l 
of a small collection of these miserable huts, of no value except for winter shelter. 

' At a council lield in Philadelphia in 1792, Corn Planter, the distinguished Seneca chief, tin: 
addressed "VVasIiington, then President of the United States : " Father — The voice of the Senn 
nation speaks to you, the great counselor, in whose heart the 'n'ise men of all the thirteen fires ha\ 
placed their wisdom. It may be very small in your ears, and, therefore, we entreat you to hearkt n 
with attention, for we are aliout to speak to you of things whioh to us are very great. "Wlicn yom 
army entered the country of the Six Nations, we called you The Town Destroyer ; and to this dny. • 
when that name is heard, our women look behind them and turn pale, and our children cling cl"- 
to the necks of their mothers. Our counselors and warriors are men, and can not be afraid; bn 
their hearts are grieved with the fears of our women and children, and desire that it may be burin 
so deep that it may be heard no more." 



1179.] 



FIFTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



305 



r^ 




^. 



SIEGE OP SAVANNAH. 1119. 



While these events were in progress at the North, the Southern army, 
under Lincoln,' was preparing to attack Savannah, in concert with the French 
fleet, then in the West Indies. During that sum- 
mer, Count D"Estaing had battled successfully 
with Admiral Byron there, and early in Septem- 
ber, he appeared off the coast of Georgia with a 
powerful fleet, prepared to co-operate with Lincoln. 
D'Estaing landed troops and heavy battery cannon 
a few miles below Savannah ; and on the 23d of 
September, the combined armies commenced the 
siege. It was soon perceived that the town must 
be taken by regular approaches, and to that end 
all energy was directed. On the morning of the 4th of October, a heavy can- 
nonade and bombardment was opened upon the Britsh works. It continued for 
five days, but with very little effect upon the strong British intrenchments. 
D'Estaing became impatient of delay," and proposed an attempt to take the 
place by storm. It was reluctantly agreed to, for there seemed a certainty of 
final victory if the siege should continue. D'Estaing would listen to no re- 
monstrances, and the assault commenced on the morning of the 9th of October. 
After five hours of severe conflict, there was a truce for the purpose of burying 
the dead. Already, nearly a thousand of the French and Americans had been 
lulled and wounded. ° The standards of France and Carolina, which gallant men 
had planted upon the parapet, had been torn down. Yet important breaches were 
made, and another assault promised a sure triumph. But D'Estaing, strangely 
perverse, was unwilling to renew the assault, and made preparations to withdraw. 
Lincoln yielded a reluctant assent to the movement, and the enterprise was 
abandoned at the moment when the American commander felt certain of victory.' 
Ten days afterward, the French fleet had left the coast, and Lincoln was re- 
treating toward Charleston. Thus closed the campaign for 1779, at the South. 
The repulse at Savannah was a severe blow to the hopes of the patriots of 
Georgia, and spread a gloom over the whole South. Toward the Georgia sea- 
board, every semblance of opposition to royal power was crushed, and only in 
the interior did armed resistance appear. 

' Page 294. 

' D'Estaing expressed his fears, not only of the arrival of a British fleet, to blockade his own ia 
the Savannah River, but of the autumn storms, which might damage liis vessels before he could get 
to sea. 

° Among the mortally wounded, was Count Pulaski, the brave Pole 
whom we first met in the battle on the Brandywine [note 5, page 213]. 
He died on board a vessel bound for Charleston, a few days after the 
siege. Serjeant Jasper, wliose bravery at Fort Moultrie wo have not- 
iced [note 5, page 249]. was also killed, while nobly holding aloft, upon 
a bastion of tlie British works which he had mounted, one of the beauti- 
ful colors [note 5, page 249] presented to Moultrie's regiment by ladies 
of Charleston. The colors were beautifully embroidered, and given to 
the regiment, in the name of the ladies of Charleston, by Mrs. Su- 
sanna Elliott. Just before he died, Jasper said, " Toll Mrs. Elliott I 
lost my life supporting the colors she presented to our regiment." These 
colors, captured during this siege, are among British trophies in the 
tower of London. Savannah honors both these heroes by having finely- 
shaded parks bearing their respective names. ' Page 289. 
20 




CUL'NT PULASKI. 



206 THE REVOLUTION. [1779. 

After the close of Sullivan's campaign against the Senecas, very little of 
general interest transpired at the North, except the withdrawal of the British 
troops from Rhode Island, on the 2.jth of October, 1779. La Fayette had 
been in France during the summer, and chiefly through his efforts, the French 
government had consented to send another powerful fleet,' and several thousand 
troops, to aid the Americans. When informed of this intended expedition, the 
British ministry ordered Clinton to cause the evacuation of Rhode Island, and 
to concentrate, at New York, all his troops at the North. This was accom- 
plished with as little delay as possible, for rumors had reached Rhode Island 
that the new French armament was approaching the coast. So rapid was the 
retreat of the British, caused by their fears, that they left behind them all their 
heavy artillery, and a large quantity of stores. Clinton sailed for the South at 
the close of the year [December 25], with about five thousand troops, to open a 
vigorous campaign in the Carolinas. Washington, in the mean while, had gone 
into winter quarters at JMorristown," where his troops sufiered terribly from the 
severity of the cold, and the lack of provisions, clothing, and shelter.' Strong 
detachments were also stationed among the Hudson Highlands, and the cavalry 1 
were cantoned in Connecticut. 

During this fifth year [1779] of the war for Independence, dilBculties had 
gathered thick and fast around Great Britain. Spain had declared war against 
her* on the 16th of June, and a powerful French and Spanish naval armament 
had attempted to effect an invasion of England in August. American and 
French cruisei's now became numerous and quite powerful, and were hovering 
around her coasts ; and in September, the intrepid John Paul Jones' had 
conquered two of her proud ships of war, after one of the most desperate 



■ rage 28G. ^ Page 269. 

^ Dr. Thadier, in hia Miliiary Journal, says, " The sufiferings of the poor soldiers can scarcely be 
described ; while on duty they are unavoidably exposed to all the inclemency of storms and severe 
cold; at night, they now have a bed of straw upon the ground, and a single blanket to each man:j 
they are badly -clad, and some are destitute of shoes. Wo have contrived a kind of stone chimnej ] 
outside, and an opening at one end of our tents gives us the benefit of the fire within. The snoi^l 
is now [January Gtli, 1780] from four to six feet deep, which so obstructs the roads as to prevcn 
our receiving a supiily of provisions. For the last ten days we have received but two pounds "t 
meat a man, and we are frequently for six or eight days entirely destitute of meat, and then as Inn; 
without bread. The consequence is, the soldiers are so enfeebled from hunger and cold as to In 
almost unaljlo to perform their military duty, or labor in constnicting their huts. It is well kmn' i 
that General Washington experiences the greatest solicitude for the suffering of his army, :iin 
is sensible that they, in general, conduct with heroic patience and fortitude." In a priv it 
letter to a friend, Washington said, " We have had the virtue and patience of the army put t" ili' 
severest trial. Sometimes it has iieen five or six days together without bread, at other timis .1 
many without meat, and once for two or three days at a time without either. * * * At tiu' 
time the soldiers ate every kind of horse food but hay. Buckwheat, common wheat, rye, and India: | 
corn composed the meal which made their bread. As an army, they bore it with the most heroi | 
patience ; but sufferings like these, accompanied by the want of clothes, blankets, &c., will prodiii" 
frequent desertions in all armies ; and so it happened with us, though it did not excite a siiul 
mutiny." 

* Hoping to regain Oibraltar, Jamaica, and tho two Floridas, which Great Britain had t:il ' 
from her, Spain made a secret treaty of peace with Franco in April, 1779, and in June declared \'. .1 
against Great Britain. This event was regarded as higlily favorable to the Americans, because :iii 
thmg that should cripple England, would aid them. 

' John Paul Jones was born in Scotland in 1747, and came to Virginia in boyhood. He cntn r 
tho American naval service in 1775, and was active during the whole war. He was aftern:ir 
very active in tlie Russian service, against the Turks, in the Black Sea, and was created rear-adi- 
ral in the Russian navy. He died in Paris in 17S2. 



1779.] 



FIFTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR U>^ DE PEN D EN C E. 



307 



naval fights ever known. These were the Serapis and Countess of Scar- 
borough. The conflict occurred in the evening, off Flamborough Head, on the 
east coast of Scotland. Jones's ship was the Roiihoinme Richard, which had 
been fitted out in France. After much maneuvering, the Serapis and 




Richard came alongside of each other, their rigging intermingling, and in this 
position they poured heavy broadsides from their respective guns. Three times 
both ships were on fire, and their destruction appeared inevitable. A part of 
the time the belligerents were fighting hand to hand upon the decks. Finally, 
the commander of the Seraois was obliged to yield, and ten minutes afterward, 
the Countess of Scarborough, which had been fighting with another vessel of 
Jones's little fleet, struck her colors. The Richard was a perfect wreck, and 
was fast sinking when the conflict ended ; and sixteen hours afterward, she went 
down into the deep waters of the North Sea, off Bridlington Bay. Jones, with 
his prizes, sailed for Holland, having, during that single cruise, captured prop- 
erty to the value of two hundred thousand dollars.' 

' The naval operations during the war for Independence, do 
not occupy a conspicuous place in history, yet they were by no 
means insignificant. The Continental Congress took action on the 
subject of an armed marhie, in the autumn of 1775. Already 
Washington had fitted out some armed vessels at Boston, and 
constructed some gun-boats for use in the waters around that city. A Gtm-BOAT at bostgit. 

These were propelled by oars, and covered. In November, tlie 

government of Massachusetts estabhshed a Board of Admiralty. A committee on naval affairs, of 
which Silas Deano [paje 2G6] was chairman, was appoiiitjil by the Continental Conjrress ii Octo- 



308 THE REVOLUTION. [1779. 

On the lanS, in America, there had been very little success for the British 
arms ; and sympathy for the patriots was becoming more and more manifest in 
Europe. Even a great portion of the intelligent English people began to 
regard the war as not only useless, but unjust. Yet in the midst of all these 
difficulties, the government put forth mighty energies — energies which might 
have terminated the war during the first campaign, if they had been then 
executed. Parliament voted eighty-five thousand seamen and thirty-five thou- 
sand troops for general service, in 1780, and appropriated one hundred millions 
of dollars to defray the expenses. This formidable armament in prospective, 
was placed before the Americans, at this, the gloomiest period of the war, yet 
they neither quailed nor faltered. Relying upon the justice of their cause, and 
the favor of a righteous God, they felt prepared to meet any force that Great 
Britain might send to enslave them 

ber, 1775. Before the close of the year, the construction of almost twentj' vessels had been ordered 
by Congress; and the Marine Committee was so re-organized as to have in it a representative from 
each colony. In November, 1776, a Oontinenial Navy Board, to assist the Marine Committee, was 
appointed; and in October, 1779, a Boai-d of Admiralty was installed. Its Secretary (equivalent to 
our Secretary of the Navy) [page 382] was John Brown, until 1781, when he was succeeded by 
General McDougal. Robert Morris also acted as authorized Agent of Marine; and many privateers 
were fitted out by him on his own account. In November, 1776, 
Congress determined the relative rank of the naval commanders, such 
as admiral to be equal to a major-general on land: a commodore equal 
to a brigadier-general, &c. The tirst commander-in-chief of the navy, 
or high admiral, was Esek Hopkins, of Rhode Island, whom Congress 
commissioned as such in December, 1775. He first went against 
Dunmore [page 244] on the coast of Virginia. He also went to the 
Bahamas, and captured the town of New Providence and its governor. 
Sailing for home, he captured some British vessels off the east end of 
Long Island, and with these prizes, he went into Narraganset Bay. 
In the mean wliile, Paul Jones and Captain Barry were doing 
good service, and New England cruisers were greatly annoying 
English sliipping on our coast. In 1777, Dr. Franklin, under the 
autliority of Congress, issued commissions to naval officers in Europe. 
Expeditions were fitted out in French sea-ports, and these produced 
AiuiiR.^L HOPKINS. great alarm on the British coasts. 

While tliese things were occurring in European waters, Captains 
Eiddle, Manly, M'Neil, Hinman, Barry, and others, wore making many prizes on the American 
coasts. Finally, in the spring of 1779, an expedition was fitted out at L'Orient, under the auspices 
of the French and American governments. It consisted of five vessels under tlie command of John 
Paul Jones. They sailed first, in June, for the British waters, took a few prizes, and returned. 
They sailed again in August, and on the 23d of September, wliile off the coast of Scotland, not far 
above the mouth of the Ilumber, Jones, with his flag-ship {the Bonhomme Richard), and two others, 
fell in with and encountered a sraaU British fleet, which was convoying a number of merchant ves- 
sels to the Baltic Sea, wlien the engagement took place wliich is described in the text. Congress 
gave Jones a gold medal for his bravery. Many other gallant acts were performed by American 
seamen, in the regular service and as privateers, during the remainder of tlie war. The " whale- 
boat warfare" on the coast, was also very interesting, and exhibited many a brave deed by those 
whose names are not recorded in history — men who belong to the great host of "unnamed demi- 
gods," who, in all ages, have given their services to swell the triumplis of leaders who, in real 
merit, have often been less deserving than tliemselvcs. 

For a condensed account of the whole naval operations of the Revolution, on the coast, see sup- 
plement to Lossing's Field Book of tlie Revolution, 




ifSO.] SIXTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR IXD EPE ND ENCE. 309 

CHAPTER VII. 

SIXTH YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1780.] 

When, on Christmas day, 1779, Sir Henry Clinton sailed for the South, 
with the main body of his army, he left the Hessian general, Knyphausen,' in 
command at New York. To aid the southern patriots, Washington sent thither 
the Baron De Kalb"" and others the following spring [1780], and thus the 
two armies were so much weakened at head-quarters, that military operations at 
the North almost ceased during that year. The Carolinas became the chief 
theater of war, and many and bloody were the acts upon that stage. Invasions 
from without, and the cruelties of Tories' in their midst, made 1780 a year of 
great woe for the patriots and their flimilies below the Roanoke, for they also 
suffered all the horrors of civil war. At no time, during the 
whole conflict, were the Tories, or adherents of the crown, more «!■■ "^^ SJp 
active throughout the whole country, than in 1780. They ^ga /-^/V 
were the most inveterate enemies of the patriots, and the lead- "'' V q* 
ers were in continual correspondence with each other, with the £L ^i// ur 
British government, and with the royal commanders in Amer- ^^ ' ^\ 
ica. Their correspondence was carried on chiefly in cipher — f- Cf "jf 
writing, understood only by themselves, so that in the event of ^ „^- ^ 
their letters falling into the hands of the Whigs, their content? ' /^ 

would remain a secret. These characters sometimes varied, and i^ °C ^^^ 
it was a frequent occurrence for two persons to invent a cipher 3n_ /iL^ 
alphabet, for their own exclusive use. The engraving shows '' *^' *' 
the alphabet of the cipher writing of some New York Tories. :3!f ^7- ^7/ 

A fleet, under Admiral Arbuthnot, with two thousand ma- ,. n^ ^ 
rines, bore the forces of Sir Henry Clinton to the southern f "^ ^■~ 
waters. Aftel^ encountering heavy storms,'' they arrived on the 
coast of Georgia in January; and early in February [Feb. 10], turned north- 
ward, and proceeded to invest Charleston. Clinton's troops were landed [Feb. 
11] upon the isUnds below the city, on the shores of the Edisto Inlet, thirty 
miles distant ; bjit instead of marching at once to make an assault upon the 
town, the British commander prepared for a regular siege. General Lincoln 
was in Charleston with a feeble force^ when Clinton landed ; and he was about 
to evacuate the city and flee to the interior, when intelligence of the tardy plans 
of the British reached him. He then resolved to remain, and prepare for de- 

' Pan;e 259. = Page 316. = Note 4, page 226. 

* During a severe storm off Cape Hatteras, one vessel, carrying heavy battery cannons, was lost, 
and almost all the cavalry liorscs of Tarlctou's legion, perislied at sea. Tarleton supplied himself 
witli others, soon after landing, by plundering tlie plantations near the coast. • 

° During the preceding winter, Lincoln's army had dwindled to a mere handful. The repulse at 
Savannah had so disheartened the people, that very few recruits could be obtained, and when Clin- 
ton arrived, Lincoln's army did not exceed fourteen hundred men in number. The finances of the 
State were in a wretched condition, and the Tories were everywhere active and hopeful. 



310 

fense. 



THE REVOLUTION. 



11180. 



John Rutledge,' the governor of South Carolina, was clothed with all 
the powers of an absolute dictator ; and so nobly did the 
civil and military authorities labor for the public good, 
that when the invaders crossed the Ashley [March 29 
1780], and sat down before the American works on 
Charleston Neck,^ the besieged felt strong enough to 
resist them. In the mean while, the intrenchments had 
been greatly strengthened, and works of defense had 
been cast up along the wharves, and at various points 
around the harbor. Fort ]\Ioultrie' was strongly gar- 
risoned, and Commodore Whipple' was in command of 
a flotilla of small armed ships in the harbor. 




GOVEEXOR RUTLEDGE. 




On the 25th of March, Admiral Ai-buthnot crossed Charleston bar, drove 
Whipple's little fleet to the waters near the town, and cast anchor in Five 

' John Rutledge was born in Ireland, and came to South Carolina when a child. He was one 
of the most active patriots of the South. After the war he was made a judge of the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and also chief justice of South Carohna. He died in the year 1800. 

■ Note 1, pafce 296. ' Note 5, page 249. 

■* Abraham Whipple was bom in Providence, Rhode Island, in 1733. His early life was spent 
chiefly upon the ocean, and, in later yeans, he was long engaged in the merchant service. At the 
ago of twenty-seven, he was commander of a privateer, and during a single cruise, in 1760, he took 
twenty-three French prizes. He was engaged in the destruction of the Gaspe, in 1772 [page 223]. 
In 1775, he was appointed to the command of vessels to drive Sir James Wallace from Narragan- 
sctt Bay. He was active in naval service until the fall of Cliarleston, when he was taken prisoner. 



1780.] SIXTH TEAR OF THE -^AR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 311 

Fathom Hole, not far from St. John's Island. On the morning of the 9th of 
April, he sailed up the harbor, and sustaining but trifling damage from the 
guns of Fort Moultrie, anchored within cannon-shot of the city. As Whipple 
could not contend with the strong ships, he sunk several of his vessels near the 
mouth of the Cooper River, and formed a chevau.v-dc-frise' to prevent the en- 
emy's ships passing beyond the town, so as to enfilade the American works on the 
Neck. Clinton, in the mean while, had erected batteries' in front of these 
works, and both commanders joined in a summons for the patriots to surrender. 
Expecting reinforcements from the interior, the people of the b.eleagured city 
refused compliance, and for more than a month the siege went on." In the 
mean while, American detachments sent out between the Cooper and Santee 
Rivers to keep open a communication with the interior, were attacked and de- 
feated by parties of British horsemen;'' and at the close of the month [April, 
1780], the city was completely environed by the foe Cornwallis had arrived 
[April 18], from New York, wit'.i three thousand fresh troops, and all hopes 
for the patriots faded. 

The night of the 9th of May was a terrible one for Charleston. That day 
a third summons to surrender had been refused, and late in the evening a gen- 
eral cannonade commenced. Two hundred heavy guns shook the city with 
their thunders, and all night long destructive Iiombshells'' were hailed upon it. 
At one time the city was on fire in five 
different places. Nor did morning 
bring relief The enemy had deter- 
mined to take the city by storm. The 
cannonade continued all the day, and 
the fleet moved toward the town to open 
a bombardment. Further resistance 
would have been sheer miulness, for the 

, . ,. o ,1 , 1 ., , SIEUE OF CHARLESTON. 1780. 

destruction ot the town and the people 

seemed inevitable. At two o'clock on the morning of the 12tli, a proposition 
for surrender was made to Clinton, and his guns were all silencetl before day- 
light. At about noon on the 12th [May, 1780], the continental troops marched 
out, and laid down their arms, after a gallant and desperate defense for forty 
days. Lincoln and his army, with a large number of citizens, were made pris- 
oners of war. The citizens, and a great number of soldiers, were paroled.' 

He was the first who unfurled the American flag in the Thames, at London, after the war. Accom- 
panying settlers to Ohio, he became a resident of Marietta, from which he sailed, in 1800, down 
the Ohio, with pork and flour, for Havana. He died in 1819, at the ago of eighty-five years. 

' Note G, page 274. 

^ On Saturday morning, the first of April, the British first broke ground in the face of eighty 
cannons and mortars on tlie American works. 

' General Woodford had just arrived with seven hundred Virginians, and others from North 
Carolina were reported on their way. 

* On the 14th of April, Tarleton defeated Colonel Huger on the head w.aters of the Coopei 
River, and killed twenty-five Americans. On the 6th of May, a party under Colonel White, of New 
Jersey, were routed at a ferry on the Santee, with a loss of about thirty in killed, wounded, and 
prisoners. These British detachments overran the whole country below the Cooper imd Santee, in 
the course of a few days. ' Note 2, page 236. 

° A prisoner on parole is one who is left free to go anywhere within a prescribed space of coun- 




312 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1780. 



Altogether, the captives amounted to between five and si.x thousand ;' and 
among the spoils of victory were four hundred pieces of cannon. 

The fall of Charleston, and the loss of this southern army, was a severe 




blow for the Republicans. It paralyzed their strength ; and the British com- 
manders confidently believed that the finishing stroke of the war had been 
given. It was followed by measures which, for a time prostrated South Caro- 

try, or within a cit}', under certain restrictions relative to conduct. Prisoners taken in war are often 
paroled, and .allowed to return to their friends, witli an agreement not to take up arms. It is a 
point of honor, with a soldier, to "keep his parole," and when such a one is again taken in battle, 
during the period of his parole, he is treated not as a prisoner, but as a traitor. 

' In violation of the solemn agreement for surrender, Clinton caused a great number of the lead- 
in" men in Charleston to be seized, and carried on board prison-ships, where hundreds sufl'ered ter- 
ribly. Many were taken to St. Augustine, and immured in the fortress there. Among other 
prominent citizens thus treated, were Lieutenant-Governor Christopher Gadsden, and David Ram- 
say, the historian, who, with about twenty others, remained in prison at St. Augustine almost eleven 
months, before they were paroled Both of these men were exceedingly active patriots. Ramsay 
was a native of Lancaster county, Pennsylvania, where he was born in 1749. He was educated at 
Princeton ; .studied medicine, and became an eminent physician at Charleston. He was an efficient 
member of the Council of Safety when the Revolution broke out, and was also an esteemed legis- 
lator. He was also a member of the Continental Congress. In 1790, he published his History of 
the American Revolution He wrote and published a Life of Washington, in 1801; a History of 
South Carolina, in 1S08; and when ho died, from a shot by a maniac, in 1815, he had almost com- 
pleted a History oftlie United States. Soon after the assembling of the first National Congress, 
under the new Constitution, in 17.S'J, Dr. Ramsay sent in a petition, asking for the passage ot a 
law for securing to him and his heirs the exclusi\e right to vend and dispose of his books, re- 
spectively entitled, History of the Revolution in South Carolina, and A History of the Amerimn 
Revolution. A bill for that purpose was framed and discussed. Finally, in August, it was " post- 
poned until the next Congress." A siuiilar bill was introduced in January, 17U0, and on the 30th 
of April following, the first copyriglit law recorded on the statute books of Congress, was passed. 



1780.] SIXTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 313 

lina at the feet of royal power. With an activity hitherto unusual for the 
British officers, Clinton took steps to extend and secure his conquest, and to 
re-establish royal power in the South. He sent out three strong detachments of 
his army to overrun the country. One under Cornwallis marched up the 
Santee toward Camden ; another under Lieutenant-colonel Cruger, was ordered 
to penetrate the country to Ninety-six,' and a third, under Lieutenant-colonel 
Brown, marched to Augusta,' in Georgia. A general truce was proclaimed, 
and a pardon to all who should accept British protection. The silence of fear 
overspread the whole country ; and mistaking this lull in the storm of war for 
permanent tranquillity, Clinton and Arbuthnot, with a large body of troops, 
sailed, on the 5th of June [1780], for New York. 

The last and most cruel blow struck by the British, was that which almost 
annihilated an American detachment under Colonel Abraham Buford. He had 
hastened toward Charleston for the relief of Lincoln ; but when he heard of the 
disasters there, he commenced retreating toward North Carolina. His foi-ce 
consisted of nearly four hundred Continental infantry, a small detachment 
of Colonel Washington's cavalry, and two field-pieces. He had evacuated 
Camden, and, in fancied security, was retreating leisurely toward Charlotte, in 
North Carolina. Cornwallis resolved to strike Buford, if possible, and, for 
that purpose, he dispatched Tarleton, with seven hundred men, consisting of his 
cavalry and mounted infantry. That officer marched one hundred and five 
miles in fifty-four hours, and came up with Buford upon the Waxhaw. Impa- 
tient of delay, ho had left his mounted infantry behind, and with only his 
cavalry, he almost surrounded Buford before that officer was aware of danger. 
Tarleton demanded an immediate surrender upon the terms granted to the , 
Americans at Charleston. These terms were humiliating, and Buford refused 
compliance. While the flags for conference were passing and re-passing, Tarle- 
ton, contrary to military rules, was making preparations for an assault, and 
the instant he received Buford's reply, his cavalry made a furious charge upon 
the American ranks. Having received no orders to defend themselves, and 
supposing the negotiations were yet pending, the Continentals were utterly 
dismayed by this charge. All was confusion ; and while some fired upon their 
assailants, others threw down their arms and begged for quarter. None was 
given ; and men without arms were hewn in pieces by Tarleton's cavalry. One 
hundred and thirteen were slain ; one hundred and fifty were so maimed as to 
be unable to travel ; and fifty-three were made prisoners, to grace the triumphal 
entry of the conqueror into Camden. Only five of the British were killed, and 
fifteen wounded. The whole of Buford's artillery, ammunition, and baggage, 
fell into the hands of the enemy. For this savage feat, Cornwallis eulogized 
Tarleton, and commended him to the ministry as worthy of special favor. It 
was nothing less than a cold-blooded massacre ; and Tarktou's quarter became 
proverbial as a synonym to cruelty.^ The liberal pi-ess, and all right-minded 

' Page 336. ' Page 336. 

' Stedman, one of Comwallis's officers, and afterward an eminent English historian of the war, 
says, "On tliis occasion, the virtue of humanity was totally forgot." 



314 THE REVOLUTION. [1780. 

men in England, cried Shame ! After the battle, a large number of the 
wounded were taken to the log meeting-house of the Waxhaw Presbyterian 
Congregation, where they were tenderly cared for by those who had courage 
to remain. This blow, however, was so terrible, that fear seized the people, 
and women and children fled from their homes in dismay, to avoid falling in the 
track of the invader.' 

Brief was the lull of the storm. De Kalb' did not reach the borders of 
South Carolina until midsummer, and then not an 
American was in arms in the lower country. Although 
Congress had confidence in the skill of De Kalb (who 
by the capture of Lincoln, became the commander-in- 
chief at the South), yet it was thought best to send 
General Gates' thither, because of the influence of his 
name. The prospect before him was flir from flattering. 
An army without strength ; a military chest without 
money ; but little public spirit in the commissary 
department ; a climate unfavorable to health ; the spirit 
GENERAL GATES. of the Republicans cast down ; loyalists swarming in 

every direction ; and a victorious enemy pressing to 
spread his legions over the territory he had come to defend, were grave obsta- 
cles in the way of success. Yet Gates did not despond ; and, retaining De 
Kalb in command of his division, he prepared to march into South Carolina. 
When it was known that he was approaching, southern hearts beat high with 
hope, for they expected great things from the conqueror of Burgoyne.' Many 
patriots, who, in their extremity, had signed "paroles" and "protections,"' 
seeing how little solemn promises were esteemed by the conqueror, disregarded 
both, and flocked to the standard of those brave partisan leaders, Sumter, 
Marion, Pickens, and Clarke, who now called them to the field. While Gates 
and his army were approaching, these partisans were preparing the way for 
conquest. They swept over the country in small bands, striking a British 




' Among those who fled, was the widowed mother of Andrew Jackson, the seventh President 
of the United States, who, with her two sons, Robert and Andrew, took refuge in the vicinity of 
Charlotte, North Carohna. The dreadful scenes of that massacre, was the first lesson tliat taught 
Andrew to hate tyranny. It fired his patriotism ; and at the age of thirteen years, he entered the 
army, with his brother Robert, under Sumter. They were both made prisoners ; but even while in 
the power of the British, the indomitable courage of the after man appeared in the boy. When 
ordered to clean the muddy boots of a British officer, he proudly rcfiised, and for his temerity 
received a sword-cut. After their release, Andrew and his brother returned to the Waxhaw set- 
tlement with their mother. That patriotic matron and two sons perished during the war. Her son 
Hugh was slain in battle, and Robert died of a wound which he received fi'om a British officer while 
he was prisoner, because, like Andrew, he refused to do menial service. The heroic mother, while 
on her way home from Charleston, whither she went to carry some necessaries to her friends and 
relations on board a prison-ship, was seized with pri.son-fever, and died. Her unknown grave is 
somewhere between what was then called the Quarter House and Charleston. Andrew was left 
the sole survivor of the family. ' Page 31G. 

' Horatio Gates was a native of England, and was educated for mihtary Ufe. He was the first 
adjutant-general of the Continental .army [note .'i, page 238], and was made major-general in 1716. 
He retired to his estate in Virginia at the close of the war, and finally took up his abode in New 
York, where he died in 1806, at the age of seventy-eight years. 

' Page 281. ' Note 6, page 311. 



1780.] 



SIXTH TEAR OP THE T7AR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



315 




GENERAL SUMTEB. 



detachment here, and a party of Tories there ; and soon, they so eifectually 
alarmed the enemy in the interior, as to check the onward progress of invasion. 

General Sumter' first appeared in power on the 
Catawba River. Already Whigs, between that and 
the Eroad River, led by local officers, had assailed 
the enemy at different points. In the mean while 
Sumter had collected a considerable force, and on 
tlie 30th of July, he attacked a British post at Rocky 
Mount, on the Catawba. He was repulsed, but not 
disheartened. He immediately crossed the river, and 
at Hanging-rock, a few miles eastward, he fell upon 
and dispersed a large body of British and Tories, on 
the 6th of August. Through the folly of his men, 

he did not secure a victory. They commenced plundering, and drinking the 
liquors found in the camp, after they had secured it, and becoming intoxicated, 
were unaljle to complete the triumph. Yet the British dared not follow Sumter 
in his slow retreat. Marion, at the same time, was smiting the enemy, with 
sudden and fierce blows, among the swamps of the lower country, on the 
borders of the Pedee. Pickens was annoying Cruger in the neighborhood of 
the Saluda ; and Clarke was calling for the patriots along the Savannah, Ogee- 
chee, and Alatamaha, to drive Brown" from Augusta. 

General Clinton left Earl Cornwallis in the chief command of the British 
r.rmy at the South, and his troops on the Santee were intrusted to Lord Raw- 
don, an active and meritorious officer. When that general heard of the approach 
of Gates, ho gathered all his available forces at Camden, where he was soon joined 
by the earl. Rumor had greatly magnified the number of the army under Gates. 
The loyalists became alarmed, and the patriots took courage. He came down 
from the hill country, through Lancaster district, and took post at Clermont, a 
few miles north of Camden. Feeling certain of victory, he marched from his 
camp on the night of the 15th of August, to surprise the British at Camden. 
Without being aware of this movement, Cornwallis and Rawdon advanced at 
the same hour to sui'prise the Americans. A little after 
midnight the belligerents met [August 16, 1780], near San- 
ders's Creek, about seven miles north of Camden, on the Lan- 
caster road. The sand was so deep that the footsteps of the 
approaching armies could not be heard by each other. They 
came together in the dark, almost noiselessly, and both wci'c 
equally surprised. A slight skirmish between the vanguards 
ensued, and early in the morning a general battle began. 
After a desperate struggle with an overwhelming force, the 
Americans were compelled to yield to the British bayonets in saxders's creek. 




' Tlioraas Sumter was a native of South Carolina, and was early in the field. Ill health com- 
pelled him to leave tlie army just before the close of the war. in 1781. He was afterward a mem- 
ber of the National Congress, and died on tlie High Hills of Santee [page 337], in 1832, at the 
age of ninety-eight years. ^ Page 336. 



316 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1180. 




BAROX DE KALB. 



front, and the sabres of Tarleton's dragoons on their flanks. The rout 
became general. The militia fell in great numbers, under the heavy blows 
from the British cavalry ; and for more than two miles, along the line of 
their retreat, the open wood was strewn with the dead and dying. Arms, artil- 
lery, horses, and baggage, were scattered in every direction. More than a third 
of the continental troops were killed ; and the entire loss of 
the Americans, in killed, wounded, and prisoners, was 
about a thousand men, besides all of their artillery and 
ammunition, and a greater portion of their baggage and 
stores.' The British loss was three hundred and twenty- 
five. Among the killed was the brave Baron de Kalb,' 
whose remains were buried at Camden, and there they 
yet lie, under a neat monument, the corner-stone of 
which was laid by La Fayette in 1825.^ 

Having vainly endeavored to rally his flying troops. 
Gates fled to Charlotte,* eighty miles distant. There he continued to bo 
joined by ofiicers and men, and he began to hope that another army might be 
speedily collected. But when, a few days after his own defeat, he received intel- 
ligence that Sumter's force had been nearly annihilated by Tarleton' near the 
Catawlja, he almost despaired. That event was a sad one 
for the republicans. Sumter had been ordered, by Gates, 
to intercept a British detachment which was conveying 
stores for the main army, from Ninety-Six.^ He was 
joined by other troops sent to assist him, and they cap- 
tured forty-four wagons loaded with clothing, and made a 
number of prisoners. On hearing of the defeat of Gates, 
Sumter continued his march up the Catawba, and on the 
18th [August, 1780] he encamped near the mouth of 
the Fishing Creek. There he was surprised by Tarleton, and his troops were 
routed with great slaughter. More than fifty were killed, and three hundred 
were made prisoners. All the Ijooty captured by the Americans fell into the 
hands of Tarleton. Sumter escaped, but was stripped of power. 

With the dispersion of Gates's army, and Sumter's brave band, the victory 
of the British was again complete ; and at the close of summer, there were no 




COLONEL TARIETOK. 



' General Gates had felt so certain of victory, that he had made no provisions for a retreat, or 
the salvation of his stores in the rear. His troops were scattered in all directions, and lie, appar- 
ently panic-stricken by the terrible blow, fled, almost alone, to Charlotte. Even now [18(37] bul- 
lets are found in the' old pine-trees on the route of their retreat. Gates did indeed, as General 
Charles Lee predicted he would, when he heard of his appointment to the command of the south- 
ern iirmy, "exchange his northern laurels for southern willows." 

' De Kalb was a native of Alsace, a German province ceded to France. He had been in Amer- 
ica as a secret French a^ent, sibout fifteen years before. He came to America with La Fayette in 
1777, and Congress commissioned him a major-general. He died of liis wounds at Camden, three 
days after the battle. ' Page 45,3. * Page 237. 

' Tarleton was one of the most active and unscrupulous officers of the British army. He was 
distinguished for his abihties .ind cruelties during tlie southern rampiiigns of 17S0-'81. He was 
born in Liverpool, in 17.54. He married a daughter of the Duke of Ancaster, in 1798, and was 
afterward made a major-general ° Page 336. 



1780.] 



SIXTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



31T 



republicans in arms in South Carolina, except Marion and his men. Within 
three months [May 12 to August 16], two American armies had been annihil- 
ated, and one of the most formidable partisan corps (Sumter's) scattered to the 
winds. 




The exploits of Marion' and his men, form the materials of one of the most 
interesting chapters in the histoi-y of our War for Independence. He was in 
Charleston during the long siege, but having been disabled by an accident,' he 
had retired to the country, and was not among the prisoners when the city 
passed in the possession of the British.^ He was therefore untrammeled by any 
parole, and as soon as he was able, he mounted his horse, and took the field. 
With a few ragged followers, equal in grotesque appearance to any Falstaif 



' FraTicis Marion was a descendant of a Huguenot [page 49] settler, and was bom near George- 
town, South Carolina, in 1752. His first military lessons were learned in the war with the Chero- 
kees [page 204], in 1761. He entered the army at the commencement of the Revolution, and was 
one of the bravest and most useful of all the partisan officers at the South. He wag also a member 
of the South Carolina Legislature, during, and after the w.ar. He died at his home, near Eutaw 
Springs, on his beloved Santee, in 179.5, in tlio sixty-third year of liis age. 

' Marion was dining with some friends at a house in Tradd-street, Charleston, when, on an at- 
tempt being made to cause him to drink wine, contrary to his practice and desire, he leaped from a 
window, and sprained his anlde. The Americans yet kept the country toward the Santee. open, 
and Marion was conveyed to his home. " Page 311. 



318 THE REVOLUTION. [1180. 

ever saw/ ho was annoying the Tories in tlie neighborhood of the Pedee, when 
Gates was moving southward ; and just before the battle at Camden, he ap- 
peared in Gates's camp. The proud general would have treated him with con- 
tempt, had not Governor Rutledge," then in the camp, known the sterling 
worth of the man before them. While Marion was there, the people of the 
Williamsburg district, who had arisen in arms, sent for him to be their com- 
mander. Governor Rutledge gave him the commission of a brigadier on the 
spot ; and soon afterward, Marion organized that noted brigade, which per- 
formed such wonderful exploits among the swamps, the broad savannahs, and 
by the water-courses of the South. It was this motley brigade, only, that 
appeared in the field, and defied British power, after the dispersion of Gates's 
army at Camden. 

Had Cornwallis been governed by good judgment and humanity, the con- 
quest of South Carolina might have Ijeen permanent, 
for the State swarmed with Tories, and the Republic- 
ans were wearied with the unequal contest. But he 
was governed by a foolish and wicked policy, and pro- 
ceeded to establish royal authority by the most severe 
measures. Instead of winning the respect of the people 
iiy wisdom and clemency, he thought to subdue them 
l)y cruelty. Private rights were trampled under foot, 
and social organization was superseded by the iron rule 
LORD coKN-wALLis °^ military despotism.^ His measures created the most 

bitter hatred; and hundreds of patriots, who might 
have been conciliated, were goaded into active warfiire by the lash of military 
power. Evei-ywhere the people thirsted for vengeance, and only awaited the 
call of leaders, to rally and strike again for homes and freedom. 

Now, feeling confident of his power in South Carolina, Cornwallis' prepared 
to invade the North State. Early in September he proceeded with his army 
to Charlotte, ° while detachments were sent out in various directions to awe the 
Republicans and encourage the loyalists. While Tarleton, with his legion, 



' Colonel Otho H. WiUiams said of his appearance then, that hi3 followerg were " distinfruished 
by small leathern caps, and the wretchedness of their attire. Their number did not exceed twenty 
men and boys, some white, some blaelc, and all mounted, but most of them miserably equipped. 
Their appearance was, in fact, so burlesque, that it was with much difficulty tlie diversion of the 
regular soldiery was restrained by the officers ; and the general himself [Gates] was glad of an op- 
portunity of detaching Colonel Marion, at his own instance, toward the interior of South Carolina, 
with orders to watch the motions of the enemy, and furnish intelligence." 

" Page 310. 

' He issued cruel orders to his subalterns. They were directed to hang every militia-man who 
had once served in Loyalist corps, but were now found in arms against the king. Many who had 
submitted to Clinton [page 313], and accepted protection, and had remnined at home quietly during 
the recent revolt, were imprisoned, their property taken from them or destroyed, and their families 
treated with the utmost rigor. See note 3, page 337. 

* Charles, Earl Cornwallis, was born, in Suffolk, England, in 1738. He was educated for mili- 
tary life, and commenced his career in 1759. After the Revolution in America, he was made gov- 
ernor-general of India [note 2, page 224], then lord-lieutenant of Ireland, and again governor of 
India. He died near Benares, East Indies, in 1805. 

' His advanced corps were attacked by the Americans under Colonel Davie, on their arrival at 
Charlotte, but after a severe skirmish, the patriots were repulsed. 




1780.] SIXTE TEAR OF THE "WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 319 

was operating on the east side of the CataTvba, Major Patrick Ferguson -was 
sent to embody the militia who favored the king, among the mountains west of 
the Broad River. Many profligate and worthless men joined his standard, and 
on the fii'st of October, 1780, he crossed the Broad River at the Cherokee ford, 
in Yorkville district, and encamped among the hills of King's Mountain, with 
about fifteen hundred men. Several corps of Whig militia united to oppose 
him,' and on the 7th of October, they fell upon his camp on King's Mountain, 
there, a cluster of high, wooded, gravelly hills, about two miles below the 
southern line of North Carolina. A very severe engagement ensued, and the 
British were totally defeated. Ferguson was slain," and three hundred of his 
men were killed and wounded. The spoils of victory, which cost the Americans 
only twenty men, were eight hundred prisoners, and fifteen hundi-ed stand of 
arms. This defeat was to Cornwallis, what the affair at Bennington' was to 
Burgoyne, and it gave the Republicans hope. 

Nearer the sea-board, in the mean while, the patriots were daily gaining 
strength. Marion and his men' were striking the banding Tories here and 
there, and annoying British outposts continually ; while Colonel Pickens and 
Clarke were hourly augmenting their forces in Georgia and south-western 
Carolina. Sumter, too, undismayed by his recent defeat, again appeared in the 
field ;* and other leaders were coming forth between the Yadkin and Broad 
Rivers. Alarmed by the defeat of Ferguson, and these demonstrations on flank 
and rear, Cornwallis withdrew [October 14] to South Carolina, and toward the 
close of October [27th], made his head quarters at AYinnsborough, midway 
between the Broad and Catawba Rivers, in Fairfield district. Here be 
remained until called to the pursuit of Greene, ° a few weeks later. 

Victory after victoiy was achieved by Marion and his brigade, until late in 
October, when they pushed forward to assail the British post at Georgetown, 
for the purpose of obtaining necessary supplies. Hitherto Marion had confined 
his operations to forays upon British and Tories ; now he undertook a more 

' These were commanded by Colonels 'William Campbell, Isaac Shelby, Benjamin Cleveland, 
John Sevier, Joseph 'Winston, Charles McDowell, and James 'Williams. Their united forces 
amounted to nearly eighteen hundred men. 

■ On the spot where Ferguson was slain, a plain stone has been erected to the memory of that 
officer, and of Americans who were killed. The following inscriptions upon the stone, give the 
names: North side. — "Sacred to the memory of Major Willum Chroxiole, Captain John Mat- 
tocks, 'R^iLLiAJi RoBB, and John Botd, who were killed here lighting in defense of America, on 
the seventh of October, 17 SO." South sidf. — "Colonel Ferguson, an officer belonging to his Britan- 
nic majesty, was here defeated and killed." Ferguson's rank is incorrectly given, on the monument. 
He was only a major ; but his good conduct was placing him in the way of speedy promotion. He 
was a son of the eminent Scotch jurist, James Ferguson, and came to America in 17 77. He was 
in the battle on the Brandywine, in the autumn of tliat year [page 273], and accompanied Sir Henry 
Clinton to South Carolina [page 306] at the close of 1779. " = Page 277. ' Page 317. 

' Sumter collected a small force in the viciuity of Charlotte, and returned to South Carolina. 
For some weeks he annoyed the British and Tories very much, and Lord Cornwallis, who called him 
The Carolina Game Cock, used great endeavors to crush him. On the night of the 12th of Novem- 
ber, Major 'Wemyss, at the head of a British detachment, fell upon liim near the Broad River, but 
was repulsed. Eight days afterward he had a severe engagement with Tarleton, at Blackstock's 
plantation, on the Tyger River, in Union district. He had now been joined by some Georgians 
under Colonels Clarke and Twiggs. The British were repulsed, with a loss, m killed and wounded, 
of about three hundred. The Americans lost only three kUled and five wounded. Sumter waa 
among the latter, and he was detained from the tield several months, by liis wounds. 

» Page 332. 



320 THE REVOLUTIOJT. [1T80. 

serious business. The garrison ■was on the alert, and in a severe skirmish with 
a large party near the town, the Partisan was repulsed. He then retired to 
Snow's Island, at the confluence of Lynch's Creek and the Pedee, where he 
fixed his camp, and secured it by such works of art as the absence of natural 
defenses required. It was chiefly high river swamp, dry, and covered with a 
heavy forest, filled with game. From that island camp, Marion sent out and 
led detachments as occasion required ; and for many weeks, expeditions which 
accomplished wonderful results, emanated from that point. Their leader seemed 
to be possessed of ubiquitous powers, for he struck blows at different points in 
rapid succession. The British became thoroughly alarmed, and the destruction 
of his camp became, with them, an object of vital importance.' That work was 
accomplished in the spring of 1781, when a party of Tories penetrated to 
Marion's camp, during his absence, dispersed the little garrison, destroyed the pro- 
visions and stores found there, and then fled. The Partisan was not disheartened 
by this misfortune, but pursued the marauder some distance, and then wheeling, 
he hastened through the then overflowed swamps to confront Colonel Watson, 
who was in motion with a body of fresh troops, in the vicinity of the Pedee. 

While these events were progressing at the South, others of great import- 
ance were transpiring at the North. As we have observed," military operations 
were almost suspended in this region during the year, and there were no offens- 
ive movements worthy of notice, except an invasion of New Jersey, in June. 
On the 6th of that month (before the arrival of Clinton from Charleston), Knyp- 
Iiausen^ dispatched General Matthews from Staten Island, with about five 
thousand men, to penetrate New Jersey. They took possession of Elizabeth- 
town [June 7], and burned Connecticut Farms (then a hamlet, and now tho 
village of Union), on the road from Elizabethtown to Springfield. When the 
invaders arrived at the latter place, they met detachments which came down 
from Washington's camp at Morristown, and by them were driven back to the 
coast, where they remained a fortnight. In the mean while Clinton arrived, 
and joining Matthews with additional troops [June 22], endeavored to draw 
Washington into a general battle, or to capture his stores at Morristown. 
Feigning an expedition to the Highlands, Clinton deceived AVashington, who, 
with a considerable force, marched in that direction, leaving General Greene in 
command at Springfield. Perceiving the success of his stratagem, he, with 
Knyphausen, marched upon Greene, witn ^bout five thousand infantry, a con- 
siderable body of cavalry and almost twenty pieces of artillery. After a severe 

' IIorG was the scene of the interview between Marion and a j'Oimg British officer from George- 
town, so well remembered by tradition, and so well delineated by the pen of Simras and the pencil 
of White. The officer who came to treat respecting prisoners, was led blindfolded to the camp of 
Marion. There he first saw the diminutive form of the great partisan leader, and around him, in 
groups, were his followers, lounging beneath magnificent trees draped with moss. When their business 
was concluded, Marion invited the young Briton to dine with him. He remained, and to his utter 
astonishment he saw some roasted potatoes brought fora'ard on a piece of bark, of which the 
general partook freely, and invited his guest to do the same. " Surely, general," said the officer, 
"this can not be your ordinary fare I" " Indeed it is," replied Marion, "and we are Ibrtunato on 
this occasion, entertaining company, to have more than our usual allowance." It is related that 
the young officer gave up his commission,on his return, declaring tliat such a people could not be, 
and 'ought not to be subdued. " Page 309. ' Page 259. 




Makion's Encampment ox rnz Pcdi: 



1780.] 



SIXTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



323 



skirmish at Springfield, the British were defeated [June 23, 1780], and setting 
fire to the village, they retreated, and passed over to Staten Island. 

Good news for the Americans came from the East, a few days after this 
invasion. It was that of the arrival, at Newport, Rhode Island, on the 10th 
of July [1780], of a powerful French fleet, under Admiral Ternay, bearing 
six thousand land troops under the Count de Rochambeau. This expedition 
had been expected for some time, it having sailed from Brest early in April. 




The whole matter had been arranged with the French government by La Fay- 
ette, who had returned from France in May, and brought the glad tidings to 
the Americans. With wise forethought, the relation between Washington and 
Rochambeau had been settled by the French government. In order to prevent 
any difl[iculties in relation to command, between the American and French offi- 
cers, the king commissioned Washington a lieutenant-general of the empire. 
This allowed him to take precedence of Rochambeau, and made him commander- 
m-chief of the allied armies. Soon after his arrival, Rochambeau, by appoint- 
ment, met Washington at Hartford, in Connecticut, to confer upon their future 
movements. The season being so far advanced, that it was thought imprudent 
for the French army to enter upon active duties during the current campaign, it 



324 THE REVOLUTION. [1780. 

was determined to have the main body of it remain in camp, on Rhode Island, 
while the cavalry should be cantoned at Lebanon, in Connecticut, the place of 
residence of Jonathan Trumbull, governor of that State. That eminent man 
was the only chief magistrate of a colony who retained his ofiBce after the change 
from royal to Republican rule ; and throughout the war, he was one of the 
most efficient of the civil officers among the patriots. ' 

The arrival of the French caused Clinton to be more circumspect in his 
movements, and he made no further attempts to entice Washington to fight. 
Yet he was endeavoring to accomplish by his own strategy, and the treason of an 
American officer, what he could not achieve by force. At different times during 
the war, the British officials in America had tampered, directly or indirectly, 
with some Americans, supposed to be possessed of easy virtue, but it was late in 
the contest before one could lie found who was wicked enough to be a traitor. 
Finally, a recreant to the claims of patriotism appeared, and while the French 
army were landing upon Rhode Island, and were preparing for winter quarters 
there, Clinton was bargaining with Benedict Arnold for the strong military 
post of West Point," and its dependencies among the Hudson Highlands, and 
with it the liberties of America, if possible. 

Arnold was a brave soldier, but a bad man.' He fought nobly for freedom, 
from the beginning of the war, until 1778, when his passions gained the mas- 
tery over his judgment and conscience. Impulsive, vindictive, and unscrupu- 
lous, he was personally unpopular, and was seldom without a quarrel with some 
of his companions -in-arms. Soon after his appointment to the command at 
Philadelphia,^ he was married to the beautiful young daughter of Edward 
Shippen, one of the leading loyalists of that city. He lived in splendor, at an 
expense far beyond his income. To meet the demands of increasing creditors, 
he engaged in fraudulent acts which made him hated by the public, and caused 
charges of dishonesty and malpractices in office to be preferred against him, 
before the Continental Congress. A court-martial, appointed to try him, con- 



' Jonathan Tnimbull was bom at Lebanon, Connecticut, in June, 1710, and was educated at 
Harvard CoUe,s;e. ?Ie prepared for the ministry, but finally became a merchant. He was a mem- 
ber of the Connecticut Assembly at the age of twenty-three years. He was chosen governor of 
Connecticut in 1769^ and for fourteen consecutive years he was elected to that office. He died at 
Lebanon, in August, 1785, at the age of seventy-five years. See page 323. 

'' During the spring and summer of 1778, the passes of the Hudson Highlands were much 
strengthened. A strong redoubt called Fort Clinton (in honor of George Clinton, then governor of 
New York), was erected on the extreme end of the promontory of West Point. Other redoubts 
were erected in the rear; and upon Mount Independence, five hundred feet above the Point, the 
strong fortress of Fort Putnam was bmlt, whose gray ruins are yet visible. Besides these, an 
enormous iron chain, each linlc weighing more than one hundred pounds, was stretclied across the 
Hudson at West Point, to keep British ships from ascending the river. It was floated upon timbers, 
linked together with iron, and made a very strong obstruction. Two of these floats, with the con- 
necting links, are preserved at Washington's Head Quarters, at Newburgh; and several links of th^ 
great chain may be seen at the Laboratory, at West Point. 

= While yet a mere youth, he attempted murder. A young Frenchman was an accepte<l 
suitor of Arnold's sister. The young tyrant (for Arnold was always a despot among his play-fellow.s1 
disUked him, and when he could not persuade his sister to discard him, he declared he would shoot 
the Frenchman if he ever entered the house again. The opportunity soon occurred, and Arnold 
discharged a loaded pistol at him, as he escaped tlirough a window. The young man left the place 
forever, and Hannah Arnold lived the life of a maiden. Arnold and the Frenchman afterward met 
at Honduras, and fought a duel, in which the Frenchman was severely wounded. 

* Note 3, page 287. 



1180.] 



SIXTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



325 



victed him, but sentenced him to a reprimand only. Although Washington 
performed that duty with the utmost delicacy, Arnold felt the disgrace. It 
awakened vengeful feelings which, operating with the pressure of debt, made him 
listen with complacency to the suggestions of a bad nature. He made treason- 
able overtures to Sir Henry Clinton, and by a correspondence of several months 
(under an assumed name, and with propositions couched in commercial phrases) 
with the accomplished Major Andre,' Clinton's adjutant-general, he bargained 
with the British commander to betray West Point and its dependencies into his 
hands. For this service he was to receive a brigadier's commission, and fifty 
thousand dollars in cash. 




^^.^^^'^^^^^ ^^ 




The traitor managed the affair very adroitly. For a long time, Washington 
had been suspicious of Arnold's integrity, but was unwilling to believe him 
capable of treason. Under pretense of having private business in Connecticut, 
Arnold left Philadelphia, passed through Washington's camp on the Hudson, 
and on his return, he suggested to the chief that he would be glad to have com- 
mand of West Point. He made many patriotic professions, and his desires werr- 
gratified. He was appointed to the command of that post, in August, 1780, 
and then all his thoughts were turned to the one great object of the betrayal of 



' Arnold's hand-writing wag dii3,stuiged, and ho signed his lottors Guslavw. Andre's letters 
were signed John Anderson. A correspondence was carried on between them for more than a 
year. 



326 THE REVOLUTION. [1780. 

his trust. The time chosen for the consummation of his treasonable designs, 
was when Washington was absent, in September, in conference with the French 
officers at Hartford, Connecticut.' Up to the time of his taking command of 
West Point, Arnold and Andre had negotiated in writing. They had never 
met, but now a personal conference was necessary. For that purpose, Andre 
went up the Hudson in the sloop of war, Vulture, which anchored oflf Teller's 
Point, just above the mouth of the Croton River. Andre was taken ashore, 
near Haverstraw, on the west side of the Hudson, where, bj previous appoint- 
ment, he met Arnold. Before thej parted [Sept. 22, 1780], the whole matter 
was arranged. Clinton was to sail up the river with a strong force, and 
after a show of resistance, Arnold was to surrender West Point and its depend- 
encies into his hands. But all did not work well. Some Americans dragged 
an old iron si.x-pound cannon (yet preserved at Sing Sing) to the end of Teller's 
Point, and with it so galled the VuHiire, that she was driven from her anchor- 
age, and, dropping down the river, disappeared from Andres view. He was 
consequently compelled to cross to the eastern side of the Hudson in disguise, 
and make his way toward New York, by land. At Tarrytown, twenty-seven 
miles from the city, he was stopped [Sept. 23] and searched by three young 
militia men,° who, finding papers concealed in his ])oots,' took him to the near- 
est American post. Colonel Jameson, the commander, could not seem to com- 
prehend the matter, and unwisely allowed Andre to send a letter to Arnold, 
then at his quarters opposite West Point. The alarmed and warned traitor im- 
mediately fled down the river in his barge, and escaped to the Vulture in safety, 
leaving behind him his young wife and infant son, who were kindly treated by 
Washington.' 

The unfortunate Major Andre was tried and found guilty as a spy, and was 
hanged on the 2d of October, 1780, at Tappail opposite Tarrytown, while the real 
miscreant escaped. Strenuous efforts were made to gain possession of Arnold, and 
save Andre, but they failed,' and that accomplished officer, betrayed by circum- 
stances, as he said in a letter to Washington, "into the vile condition of an 
enemy in disguise," suffered more because of the sins of others, than of his own. 
Washington would have spared Andre, if the stern rules of war had permitted. 

' Pas;e 323. 

" Joiin Paulding, David "Williams, and Isaac Van Wart, all residents of Westchester county. 
Andre offered them large bribes if they would allow him to pass, but they refused, and thus saved 
their country from ruin. 

' These papers are well preserved. After being in private hands more than seventy years, they 
were purchased, and deposited in the New York State Library, in 1853. 

* Washington returned from Hartford on the very morning of Arnold's escape, and reached his 
quarters (yet standing opposite West Point) just after the traitor had left. The evidences of his 
treason were there, and officers were sent in pursuit, but in vain. Washington sent the wife and 
son of Arnold to New York, whither the traitor was conveyed by the Vulture. That infant, who 
was named James Robertson Arnold, was born at West Point. He became a distinguished officer 
in the Briti* army, having passed through all the grades of office, from lieutenant. On the accession 
of Queen Victoria, in 1835, he was made one of her aids-de-camp, and rose to the rank of major- 
general, with the badge of a Knight of the Royal Hanoverian Ouelphic Order. 

' Serjeant Champe, of Lee's legion [page 333], went into New York City, in the disguise of a 
deserter, joined the corps which had been placed under Arnold's command, and had every thing 
arranged for carrying off the traitor, in a Ijoat, to the New Jersey shore. On the very day when he 
was to execute his scheme, at niglit, Arnold's corps were ordered to Virginia, and Champe was 
compelled to accompany it. There he escaped, and joined Lee in the Carohnas. 




1781.] SEVENTH YEAR OF THE 'WAR FOR I XDEPE U D EXCE. 327 

The young soldier has always been more pitied than blamed ; ■while the name 
of Arnold will ever be regarded with the bittei'est scorn.' Although he did not 
accomplish his wicked schemes, he received the stipulated reward for his treason- 
able services. And history, too, has given him its reward of recorded shame, 
while those who were instrumental in securing 

Andre, and with him the evidences of the foul /^i^iS\ /T^f^': 
treason, are honored by the nation with its ever- 
lasting gratitude. Thankful for deliverance from 

the dangers of treason, Congress voted [Nov. 3, ''*^ '^^'-^^ WJ^lt. 

1780] each of the three young militia men, a sil- 
ver medal and a pension of two hundred dollars a 
year, for life. And marble monuments have been 

CAPTOR S MED VL. 

erected to their memories f while the sentiment of 

sympathy for the unfortunate Andre, has also caused a memorial to him. to be 

erected at Tarrytown, upon the spot where he was executed. 

And now another year <lrew to a close, and yet the patriots were not sub- 
dued. England had already expended vast treasures and much blood in en- 
deavors to subjugate them ; and, on account of the rebellion, had involved 
herself in open war with France and Spain. Notwithstanding all this, and 
unmindful of the fact that a large French land and naval armament was already 
on the American shores,' she seemed to acquire fresh vigor as every new ob- 
stacle presented itself And when the British ministry learned that Holland, 
the maritime rival of England, was secretly negotiating a treaty with the United 
States for loans of money and other assistance, they caused a declaration of war 
against that government to be immediately proclaimed [Dec. 20, 1780], and 
procured from Parliament immense appropriations of men and money, ships and 
stores, to sustain the power of Great Britain on land and sea. 



CHAPTER •VIII. 

SEVENTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE, [nsi ] 

One of the noblest displays of true patriotism, for which the war for Inde- 
pendence was so remarkable, signalized the opening of the year 1781. Year 

' Benedict Arnold was bom in Norwich, Connecticut, in January, 1730. He was bred to the 
business of an apothecary, and for some time carried on that, with bookselling, in New Haven. 
We have already met him in his career during the war, up to the time of his treason. We shall 
meet him again, in Virginia [page 330], with the enemy. At the close of the war, he went to En- 
gland, then to Nova Scotia, but he was everywhere despised. He died in London, in June, 1801, 
where, just three years afterward, his wife also died. 

' On one sde is the word "Fidelity," and on the other, "Vincit asior patriae" — "The love 
of country conquers." 

^ To Paulding, in St. Peter's church-yard, about two miles from PeekskiU, and to Van Wart in 
Greenburg church-yard, a little more than that distance from Tarrj-town. Williams was buried in 
Schoharie county, where a monument is about to be erected to his memory. ' Page 323. 



328 THE REVOLUTION. [1781. 

after year the soluiers had suifered every privation, from lack of money and 
clothing. Faction had now corrupted the Continental Congress, and the public 
welfare suflFered on account of the tardiness of that body in the performance of 
its legitimate duties. Continental money had become almost worthless,' and 
the pay of officers and men was greatly in arrears. The frequent promises of 
Congress had been as frequently unfulfilled, and the common soldiers had cause 
to be dissatisfied with the illiberal interpretation which their officers gave to 
the terms of enlistment." They had asked in vain for aid ; and finally, on the 
first day of January, 1781, thirteen hundred of the Pennsylvania line, whose 
time, as they understood it, had expired, left the camp at Morristown,' with the 
avowed determination of marching to Philadelphia, and in person demanding 
justice from the national legislature. General Wayne' was in command of the 
Pennsylvania troops, and was much beloved by them. He exerted all his influ- 
ence, by threats and persuasions, to bring them back to duty until their griev- 
ances should be redressed. They would not listen to his remonstrances ; and, 
on cocking his pistol, they presented their bayonets to his breast, saying, "We 
respect and love you ; often have you led us into the field of battle, but we are 
no longer under your command ; we warn you to be on your guard ; if you fire 
your pistol, or attempt to enforce your commands, we shall put you instantly 
to death." Wayne appealed to their patriotism; they pointed to the impo- 
sitions of Congress. lie reminded them of the strength their conduct would 
give to the enemy ; they exhibited their tattered garments and emaciated forms. 
They avowed their willingness to support the cause of freedom, for it was dear 
to their hearts, if adequate provision could be made for their comfort, and then 
boldly reiterated their intention to march directly to Philadelphia, and demand 
from Congress a redress of their grievances. 

Finding threats and persuasions useless, Wayne concluded to accompany 
the mutineers. When they reached Princeton, they j)resented the general with 
a written programme of their demands. It appeared reasonable ; but not being 
authorized to promise them any thing, the matter was referred to Congress. 
That body immediately appointed a commission to confer with the insurgents. 
The result was a compliance with their just demands, and the disbanding of a 
large part of the Pennsylvania line, for the winter, which was filled by new 
recruits in the spring.' 

' Page 245. Thirty dollars in paper were then worth only one in silver. 

' The terms, as expressed, were, that they should "serve for three years, or during the war;" 
that is, for three years if the war continued, or be discharged sooner if tlie war sliould end sooner. 
The officers claimed that they were bound to serve as long as the war should continue. 

' The head-quarters of Washington were now at New Windsor, just above the Hudson High- 
lands. The Pennsylvania troops were cantoned at Morristown, New Jersey ; and the New .Jersey 
troops were at Pompton, in the same State. * Page 298. 

' Intelligence of tliis revolt reached Washington and Sir Henry Clinton on the same day. 
Washington took measures immediately to suppress the mutiny, and prevent the bad influence of its 
example. Sir Henry Clinton, mistaking the spirit of tlie mutineers, thought to gain great advantage 
by tlie event. He dispatched two emissaries, a British sergeant, and a New Jersey Tory named 
Ogdcn, to the insurgents, with the written offer that, on laying down their arms and marching to 
New York, they should receive their arrearages, and the amount of the depreciation of tlie Conti- 
nental currency, in hard cash ; that they should be well clothed, have a free pardon for all past 
offenses, and be taken tmder the protection of the British government ; and that no military service 



1781.] SEVENTH TEAR OF THE AVAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 329 

On the 18th of January, a portion of the New Jersey line, at Pompton, 
followed the example of their comrades at Morristown. The mutiny was soon 
quelled [January 27 J, but by harsher means than Wayne had employed. Gen- 
eral Robert Howe' was sent by Washington, with five hundred men, to restore 
order. Two of the ringleaders were hanged, and the remainder quietly sub- 
mitted. These events had a salutary effect. They aroused Congress and the 
people to the necessity of more efficient measures for the support of the army. 
Taxes were imposed and cheerfully paid ; a special agent, sent abroad to obtain 
loans, was quite successful," and a national bank' was established at Philadel- 
phia, and placed under the charge of Robert Morris," to whose superintendence 
Congress had recently intrusted the public Treasury. To his efforts and finan- 
cial credit, the country was indebted for the means to commence offensive opera- 
tions in the spring of 1781. He collected the taxes, and by the free use of hi.? 
ample private fortune, and his public credit, he supplied the army with flour 
and other necessaries, and doubtless prevented their disbanding by their own 
act. 

Let us now turn our attention to events in the South. While half-starved, 
half-naked troops were making such noble displays of patriotism amid the snows 

should be required of them, unless voluntarily offered. Sir Henry requested them to appoint agents 
to treat witli his and adjust the terms of a treaty ; and, not doubting the success of liis plans, he 
went to Staten Island himself, with a large body of troops, to act as circumstances might require. 
Like his masters at home, ho entirely misappreiiended tlio spirit and the incentives to action of the 
American soldiers. They were not mercenary — not soldiers by profession, fighting merely for hire. 
The protection of their homes, their wives and little ones, and the defense of holy principles, which 
their general intelligencs understood and appreciated, formed the motive-power and the bond of union 
of the American army; and the soldier's money stipend was the least attractive of all the induce- 
ments which urged him to take up arms. Yet as it was necessary to his comfort, and even his 
existence, the want of it afforded a just pretext for the assumption of powers delegated to a few. 
The mutiny was a democratic movement: and, while the patriot felt justified in using his weapons 
to redress grievano ?s, ho still looked with horror upon tho armed oppressors of his country, and 
regarded the act and stain of treason, und;r any circu7iistaiices, as worse than the infliction of death. 
Clinton's proposals were, therefore, rejected with disdain. " See, comrades," said one of the leaders, 
" he takes us for traitors. Let us show him that tho American army can furnish but one Arnold, 
and that America has no truer friends than we." They immediately seized the emissaries, who, 
being delivered, with Clinton's papers, into the hands of Wayne, were tried and executed as spies, 
and tlie reward which had been offered for their apprehension was tendered to the mutineers who 
seized them. They sealed tho pledgo of their patriotism by nobly refusing it, saying, "Necessity 
wrung from us the act of demmdin;; justice from Congress, but wo desiro no reward for doing our 
duty to our bleeding country I" A committee of Congress, appointed to report on the condition of 
the army, said, a short time previous to this event, that it was " unpaid for five months ; that it 
seldom liad mire than six days' provisions in advance, and wa.s, on several occasions, for sundrj- 
successive days, without meat ; that ths medical department had neither sugar, coffee, tea, choco- 
late, wine, nor spirituous liquors of any kind, and that every department of the army was without 
money, and had not even the shadow of credit left." " ' Page 292. 

' Colonel John Laurens [See page 348], a son of Henry Laurens [page M%], had been sent 
to France to ask for aid. 'While earnestly pressing his suit, with A'ergennes, the French minister, 
one day, that official said, that the king had every disposition to favor the United States. This 
patronizing expression kindled the indignation of the young diplomatist, and he replied witli empha- 
sis, " Favor, sir I Tlio respect which I owe to my country -nill not admit the term. Say that tho 
obhgation is mutual, and I will acknowledge the obligation. But, a.s the last argument I shall offer 
to your E.xoellency, the sword which I now wear in defense of France, as well as my OTi-n country, 
unless the succor I solicit is unmediately accorded, I may be compelled, within a short time, to draw 
against France, as a British subject." This had the effect intended. The French dreaded a recon- 
ciliation of the colonies with Great Britain, and soon a subsidy of one million two hundr^-^d thousand 
dollars, and a further sum, as a loan, was granted. The French minister also gave a guaranty for 
a Dutch loan of about two millions of dollars. 

^ This was called the Bank of North America, and w.as the first institution of the kind estab- 
lished in this couutr)'. * Page 2G1. 



330 THE REVOLUTION. [1781. 

of New Jersey, Arnold, the arch-traitor,' now engaged in the service of his 
royal master, was commencing a series of depredations upon lower Virginia, 
with about sixteen hundred British and Tory troops, and a few armed vessels. 
lie arrived at Hampton Roads" on the 30th of December. Anxious to distin- 
guish himself, he pushed up the James River, and after destroying [January 5, 
1781] a large quantity of public and private stores at Richmond, and vicinity, 
he went to Portsmouth [Jan. 20], opposite Norfolk, and made that his head- 
quarters. Great efforts were made by the Americans to seize and punish the 
traitor. The Virginia militia men were collected in great numbers, for the 
purpose ; and Jefferson, then governor of that State, offered a reward of five 
thousand guineas for his capture.' La Fayette was sent into Virginia, with 
twelve hundred men, to oppose him ; and a portion of the French fleet went 
[March 8, 1781] from Rhode Island, to shut him up in the Elizabeth River, 
and assist in capturing him. But all these efforts failed. He was brave, vigil- 
ant, and exceedingly cautious. Admiral Arbuthnot' pursued and attacked the 
French fleet on the 16th of IMarch, and compelled it to return to Newport ; and 
General Phillips soon afterward joined Arnold [March 26], with more than 
two thousand men, and took the chief command. In April, the traitor accom- 
panied Phillips on another expedition up the James River, and after doing as 
much mischief as possible between Petersburg and Richmond, he returned to 
New York.' We shall meet Arnold presently on the New England coast." 

During the year 1781, the southern States became the most important 
theater of military operations. General Greene' was appointed, on the 30th of 
October, 1780, to succeed General Gates in the direction of the southern army. 
He first proceeded to Hillsborough, to confer with Governor Nash, and other 
civil officers of North Carolina, and arrived at the head-quarters of the army, 
at Charlotte, on the second of December. On the following day he took formal 
command, and Gates immediately set out for the head-quarters of Washington, 
in East Jersey, to submit to an inquiry into his conduct at Camden,' which 
Congress had ordered. Greene, with his usual energy, at once prepared to 
confront or pursue the enemy, as occasion might require. He arranged his 
little army into two divisions. With the main body he took post at Cheraw, 
east of the Pedee, and General Morgan was sent with the remainder (about 
a thousand strong) to occupy the country near the junction of the Pacolet and 
Broad Rivers. Cornwallis, who was just preparing to march into North Car- 

' Page 325. ' Page 243. ' Pago 326. * Page 310. 

' General Phillips sickened and died at Petersburg. Lord Cornwallis, who arrived from North 
Carolina.soon afterward [page 338] took the chief command. In a skirmish, a short distance from 
Petersburg, on the 27th of April [1181], in which Arnold was engaged, he took some Americans 
prisoners. To one of them he put the question, " If the Americans should catch me, what would 
tliey do to me?" The soldier promptly replied, "They would bury with military honors the leg 
which was wounded at Saratoga, and hang the remainder of you upon a gibbet." 

° Page 340. 

' Nathanial Greene was bom, of Quaker parents, in Rhode Island, in 1740. He was an anchor- 
smith, and was pursuing his trade when the Revolution broke out. He hastened to Boston after 
the skirmish at Lexington, and from tliat time until the close of the war, he w.as one of the most 
useful officers in the army. He died near Savannah, in June, 1786, and was buried in a v.ault in 
tliat city. His sepulchre can not now be identified. No living person knows in what vault his 
remains were deposited, and there is no record to cast light upon tlie quo?tion. ' Page 315. 



1781.] SEVENTH YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 331 

olina again,' when Greene made this disposition of his army, found himself in 
a dangerous position, for he was placed between the two divisions. Unwilling 
to leave Morgan in his rear, he sent Tarletou to capture or disperse his com- 




V^^^^^ 



mand. The Americans retreated before this superior force, but were overtaken 
at the Cowpens, in Spartanburg district, and compelled to fight." There, well 
posted upon an eminence, Morgan' and his brave follow- 
ers turned upon their pursuers. Tarleton was discon- 
certed by this movement, for he expected to overtake the 
Americans while on the wing ; yet, feeling confident of 
an easy victory, he quickly arranged his line in battle 
order. It was now nine o'clock in the moi-ning [January 
17, 1781]. At a signal from Tarleton, his advance gave 
a shout, and rushed furiously to the contest, under cover 
of artillery, and an incessant discharge of musketry. 

' Page 318. 

^ The scene of the battle is among the Thicketty Mountains, west of the Broad River. It was 
called Cowpens from the fact, tliat some time before the Revolution, some traders at Camden kept 
herds of cows in that fertile region. 

^ Daniel Morgan, commander of the famous rifle corps of the Revolution, was born in New Jer- 
sey, in 1738, and was in tlie humble sphere of a wagoner, when called to the field. He had been 
a soldier under Braddock, and joined Washington at Cambridge, in 1775. He served with distinc- 
tion in the army of the Revolution, and was a farmer in Virginia after the war, where he died in 
1802. 




GEXER.IL MORGAN. 




332 THE REVOLUTION. [1181. 

The Americans Tvere prepared to receive them, and combatted with them for 
more than two hours, with slvill and braverj. The British were defeated, with 
a los.s of ahnost three hundred men in killed and 
wounded, five hundred made prisonei's, and a large quan- 
tity of arrus, ammunition, and stores. It was a brilliant 
victory ; and Congress gave Morgan a gold medal, as a 
token of its approbation. Colonels Howard' and Wash- 
ington," whose soldierly conduct won the battle, received 
each a silver medal. 

When the battle was ended, Morgan pushed forward 
with his prisoners, intending to cross the Catawba, and 
make his way toward Virginia. Cornwallis started in pursuit of him, as soon 
as he heard of the defeat of Tarleton. He destroyed his heavy baggage, and 
hastened with his whole army toward the Catawba to intercept Morgan and 
his prisoners, before they should cross that stream. But he was too late. He 
did not reach that river until in the evening, two hours after Morgan had 
crossed. Then feeling confident of his prey, he defeiTcd his passage of the 
stream until morning. A heavy rain during the night filled the river to its 
brim ; and while the British were detained by the flood, ]\Iorgan had reached 
the banks of the Yadkin, where ho was joined by General Greene and his escort. 
One of the most remarkable military movements on record, now occurred. 
It was the retreat of the American army, under Greene, from the Catawba, 
through North Carolina, into Virginia. When the waters of the Catawba had 
subsided, the next day, Cornwallis crossed, and resumed his pursuit. He 
reached the western bank of the Yadkin on the 3d of February [1781], just as 
the Americans were safely landed on the eastern shore. There he was again 
arrested in his progress by a sudden swelling of the floods. Onward the patriots 
pressed, and soon again Cornwallis was in full chase. At Guilford Court-house, 
the capital of Guilford county, Greene was joined [February 7], by his main 
body from Cheraw,' and all continued the flight, for they were not strong 
enough to turn and fight. After many hardships and narrow escapes during 
the retreat, .the Americans reached the Dan on the 13th of February, and 

' Jolin Eager Howard, of the Maryland line. Ho was bom in Baltimore county in 1T52. He 
went into military service at the commencement of the war. He was in all the principal battles of 
the Revolution, was chosen governor of Maryland in ITJS, was afterwad United States Senator, and 
died in October, 1827. h 

' William Washington, a relative of the general. He was born in Stafford county, Virginia. 
He entered the army under Mercer, who was killed at Princeton [page 269], and greatly distin- 
guished himself at the South, as a commander of a corps of cavalry. Taken prisoner at Eutaw 
Springs [page 338], he remained a captive till the close of the war, and died in Charleston, in 
Maxell, 1810. In a personal combat with Tarleton in the battle at the Cowpcns, Washington 
wounded his antagonist in his hand. Some months afterward, Tarleton said, sneeringly, to Mrs. 
Willie Jones, a vntty American lady, of Halifax, North Carolina, •' Colonel Washington, I am told, 
is illiterate, and can not write his own name." "Ah! colonel," said Mrs. Jones, "you ought to 
know better, for you bear evidence that he can make his mark.'^ At another time he expressed a 
desire to see Colonel Washington. Mrs. Aslie, Mrs. Jones's sister, instantly replied, " Had you 
looked behind you at the Cowpens you might have liad that pleasure." Stung by this keen wit, 
Tarleton placed his hand upon his sword. General Leslie [page 3471, -yvlio was present, remarked, 
"Say what you please, Mrs. Ashe; Colonel Tarleton knows better than to insult a lady in niy 
presence." " Page 330. 



1181.] SEVENTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 333 



crossed its rising waters safely into the friendly bosom of Halifax county, in 
Virginia, When Cornwallis arrived, a few hours later [February 14J, tlio 
stream was too much swollen to allow him to cross. For ihe third time the 
waters, as if governed by a special Providence, interposed a barrier between 
the pursuers and the pursued. Mortified and dispirited, the earl here aban- 
doned the chase, and moving sullenly southward through North Carolina, he 
established his camp at Hillsborough. 

General Greene remained iu Virginia only long enough to refresh his troops, 
and receive recruits,' and then ho re- crossed the Dan 
[February 23], to oppose Cornwallis in his efforts to 
embody the loyalists of North Carolina under the royal 
banner. Colonel Lee,^ with his cavalry, scoured the 
country around the head waters of the Haw and Deep 
Rivers, and by force and stratagem foiled the efforts 
of Tarleton, who was recruiting in that region. On one 
occasion he defeated and dispersed [March 2] a body of 
three hundred loyalists under Colonel Pyle,^ near the 
Alamance Creek, after which the Tories kept quiet, and 
very few dared to take up arms. Greene, in the mean 
while, had moved cautiously forward, and on the first 

of March [1781], he found himself at the head of almost five thousand troops. 
Feeling strong enough now to cope with Cornwallis, he sought an engagement 
with him, and on the 15th they met, and fiercely contended, near Guilford 
Court-house, about five miles from the present village of 
Greensborough, in Guilford county, North Carolina. 
That battle, which continued for almost two hours, was 
one of the severest of the war. Although the Americans 
were repulsed and the British became masters of the field, 
the victory was almost as destructive for Cornwallis as a 
defeat. " Another such victory," said Charles Fox in the 
British House of Commons, " will ruin the British army."* 
Both parties sufiered severely ; and, in some degree, the 
line of the Scotch ballad might be applied to them : 




COLONEL HENEY LEE. 




BATTLE OF GUILFORD. 



" They baith did fight, thoy baith did beat, they baith did rin awa." 



' ' On his way south, to take command of the southern army, he left the Baron Steuben [pa^e 
291] in Virginia, to gatlier recruits, provisions, &c., and forward them to him. This service tlio 
Baron performed with efficiency. 

" Henry Lee was born in Virginia, in 1756. He entered tlie military service as captain of a 
Virginia company in 1176, and in 1777 joined tlie continental army. At the head of a legion, ho 
performed extraordinary services during the war, especially at the South. Ho was afterward gov- 
ernor of Virginia, and a member of Congress. He died in 1818. 

' Lee sent two young countrymen, whom he had captured, to the camp of Pyle, to inform that 
leader that Tarleton was approacliing, and wished to meet him. Pyle had never seen Tarleton, and 
when he came up he supposed Lee and his party to be that of the renowned British officer. 
Friendly salutations were expressed, and at a word, the Americans fell upon the loyalists, killed 
almo.st a hundred of them, and dispersed the remainder. This event took place two or three miles 
from the scene of the Regulator battle mentioned on page 22.'?. 

* That statesman moved in committee, " That his majesty's ministers ought immediately to take 
every possible means for concluding peace with our American colonies." Toung William Pitt, the 




334 THE REVOLUTION. [1781. 

The battalions of Cornwallis were so shattered,' that be could not maintain 
the advantage he had gained ; while the Americans retreated in good order to 
the Reedy Fork. Thoroughly dispirited, be abandoned Western Carolina, and 
moved [March 19] with his wliole army, to Wilmington, near the sea-board. 
Greene rallied his forces and pursued the British as for as Deep River, in 
Chatham county. There he relinquished the pursuit, and prepared to re-enter 
South Carolina. 

Lord Rawdon,' one of the most efficient of Cornwallis's chief ofRcers, was 
now in command of a British force at Camden. On the 6th of April, Greene 
marched directly for that place, and on the 19th, he 
encamped on Ilobkirk's Hill, about a mile from Rawdon's 
intrenchments. Six days afterward [April 25, 1781], he 
was surprised' and defeated by Rawdon, after a sharp battle 
for several hours, in which the Americans lost, in killed, 
wounded, and missing, two hundred and sixty-six men. 
The British lost two hundred and fifty-eight.' The British 
retired to their works at Camden, and Greene, with his 
little army, encamped for the night on the north side of 
Sanders's Creek.' Greene conducted his retreat so well, 
that he carried away all his artillery and baggage, with 
fifty British prisoners, who were captured by Colonel Washington." 

This defeat was unexpected to Greene,' yet he was not the man to be 

successor of his father, the Earl of Chatham, inveighed eloquently against a further prosecution of 
the war. He averred that it was " wicked, barbarous, unjust, and diabohcal — conceived in injust- 
ice, nurtured in folly — a monstrous thing that contained every characteristic of moral depravity and 
human turpitude— as mischievous to tlie unhappy people of England as to the Americans." Yet, 
as in former years, the British government was bUnd and stubborn still. 

' The Americans lost in killed and wounded, about four hunched men, besides almost a thousand 
■n-ho deserted to their homes. The loss of the IJritish was over six hundred. Among tlie officers 
who were killed was Lieutenant-Colonel 'Webster, who was one of the most efBeient men in the 
British army. On this occasion, Greene's force was much superior in number to that of Comwallis, 
and he had every advantage of position. Events such as are generally overlooked by the historian, 
but which exhibit a prominent trait in the character of the people of North Carolina, occurred during 
this battle, and deserve great prominence in a description of the gloomy picture, for they form 
a few touches of radiant hght in the midst of the sombre coloring. 'While the roar of cannon 
boomed over the country, groups of women, in the Buflalo and Alamance congregation!!, who were 
under the pastoral charge of the Reverend Dr. Caldwell, might have been seen engaged in common 
prayer to the God of Hosts for his protection and aid ; and in many places, the solitary voice of a 
pious woman went up to the Divine Ear, with the earnest pleadings of faith, for the success of the 
Americans. The batthng hosts were surrounded by a cordon oi praying xoonien during those dread- 
ful hours of contest. " ^ Page 315. 

^ Greene was brealcfasting at a spring on the eastern slope of Hobkirk's Hill, when Rawdon's 
army, by a circuitous rout through a forest, fell upon him. Some of his men were cleaning their 
guns, others were washing their clothes, and all were unsuspicious of danger. 

• The number killed was remarkably small Only eighteen of the Americans, and thirty-eight 
of the British, were slain on the battle-tield. ' Page 315. 

° He had captured two hundred, but hastily paroling the officers and some of the men, he took 
only fifty with him. 

' Greene had some desponding views of tlie future at this time. To Luzerne, the French min- 
ister at Philadelphia, he earnestly wrote : '• This distressed country cannot struggle mucli longer 
without more effectual support. * * * 'We fight, get beaten, rise, and fight again. Tlu.> whole 
country is one continued scene of blood and slaughter." To La Fayette, he wrote: "You may 
depend upon it, that nothing can equal the sufferings of our little army, but their merit." To Gov- 
ernor Reed, of Pennsvlvania, he wrote: "If our good friends, tlie French, cannot lend a helping 
liand to save these sinking States, they must and will fall." At that tune, the French army had 
remained for several months inactive, in New England. 



1781.] SEVENTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 335 

crushed by adversity. On the morning succeeding the battle, he retired as far 
as Rugeley's Mills, and then crossing the Wateree, he took a strong position 
for offensive and defensive operations. The two annies were now about equal 
in numbers, and Greene's began to increase. Alarmed by this, and for the 




safety of his posts in the lower country, Rawdon set fire to Camden and 
retreated [May 10, 1781] to Nelson's Ferry, on the Santee. He had ordered 
Lieutenant-Colonel Cruger' to abandon Ninety-six" and join Brown at Augusta,' 
and had also directed Maxwell, the commander of Fort Granby,' to leave that 
post, and retire to Orangeburg," on the North Edisto. But his orders and his 
movements Were made too late. Within the space of a week, four important 
posts fell into the hands of the Americans," and Greene was making rapid marches 
toward Ninety-six. Lee had pressed forward and co-operated with Pinckney in 

' Page 313. 

' So called because it was ninety-six miles from tlie frontier fort, Prince George, on the Keowee 
River. Its site is occupied by the pleasant village of Cambridge, in Abbeville District, one hundred 
and forty-seven miles north-west from Charleston. ' Page 313. 

' On the western side of the Congaree, two miles from the present city of Columbia, South 
Carolina. 

' On the east bank of the North Edisto, about sixty-five miles south of Columbia. 
Lee and Marion were the principal leaders against these posts. Orangeburg was taken on the 
11th of May; Fort Jtotte on the 12th; the post at Nelson's Ferry on the lith, and Fort Granby on 
the 16th. Fort Watson, situated on the Santee, a few miles above Nelson's Ferry, was taken on 
the 1 6th of April. Nelson's Ferry is at the mouth of Eutaw Creek, on the Santee, about fifty miles 
from Charleston. Fort Motte was near the junction of the Wateree and Congaree Rivers, and was, 
because of its geographical position, the most important of all these po.sts. It was composed of the 
fine residence of .Rebecca Motte (a widowed mother, with six children), and temporary fortifications 
constructed around it. Mrs. Motte. who was an ardent Whis, had been driven to her farm-house 
upon an eminence near by. Marion and Lee appeared before Fort Motte with a considerable force, 
but having only one piece of artillery, could make but slight impression. The expected approach 



336 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1781. 



holding the country-between Ninety-six and Augusta, to prevent a junction of 
the garrisons at either of those places ; and thus, by skillful operations, the 
Americans completely paralyzed the lately potent strength of the enemy. At 
the beginning of June [1781], the British possessed only three posts in South 
Carolina, namely, Charleston, Nelson's Ferry, and Ninety-six. 

On the 22d of May [1781], Greene commenced the siege of Ninety-six,' 
with less than a thousand regulars and a few raw militia. Kosciuszko,' the 
bravo Pole, was his chief engineer, and the post being too strong to be captured 
by assault, the Americans commenced making regular ap- 
proaches, by parallels.' Day after day the work went 
slowly on, varied by an occasional sortie. For almost a 
month, the effoi'ts of the Americans were unavailing. Then 
hearing of the approach of Rawdon, with a strong force, to 
the relief of Cruger, they made an unsuccessful effort, on 
the 18th of June, to take the place by storm. They raised 
the siege the following evening [June 19], and retreated 
beyond the Saluda. Rawdon pursued them a short distance, when he wheeled 
and marched to Orangeburg. 

Although unsuccessful at Ninety-six, detachments of the Republican army 
were victorious elsewhere. While this siege was pro- 
gressing, Lee and Pickens, with Clarke and others of 
Georgia, were making successful efforts on the Savan- 
nah River. Lee captured Fort Galphin, twelve miles 
below Augusta, on the 21st of iNIay, and then he sent 
an officer to that post, to demand of Brown an instant 
surrender of his garrison. Brown refused, and the 
siege of Augusta was commenced on the 23d. It 
continued until the 4th of June, when a general as- 




FORT XIXETY-SIX. 




GENERAL PICKENS. 



of Rawdon, would not allow them to make the slow process of a regular siege. Lee proposed to 
hurl some burning missile upon the building, and consume it. To this destruction of her property, 
Mrs. Motte at once consented, and bringing out a bow and some arrows, which had been brought 
from the East Indies, these were used successfuUy for the purpose of conveying fire to the dry roof 
The house was partially destroyed, when the British surrendered. The patriotic lady then regaled 
both the American and British officers with a good dinner at her own table. Colonel Horry (one 
of Marion's officers), in his narrative, mentions some pleasing incidents which occurred at tlie table 
of Mrs. Motte, on this occasion. Among the prisoners was Captain Ferguson, an officer of consider- 
able reputation. Finding himself near llorry, Ferguson said, "You are Colonel Horry, I presume, 
sir." Horry replied in tlie affirmative, when Ferguson continued, " Well, I was with Colonel Wat- 
son when he fought your General Marion on Sampit. I think I saw you there with a party of 
horse, and also at Nelson's Ferry, when Marion surprised our party at the house. But," he con- 
tinued, " I was hid in high grass, and escaped. Tou were fortunate in your escape at Sampit, for 
Watson and Small had twelve hundred men." "If so," replid Horry, "I certainly was fortunate, 
for I did not suppose they had more than half that number." "I consider myself," added the cap- 
tain, " equally fortunate in escaping at Nelson's Old Field." " Truly you were," answered Horry 
dryly, "for Marion had but thirty militia on that occasion." The officers present could not suppress 
laugliter. When Greene inquired of Ilorry how he came to aflront Captain Ferguson, he replied, 
"He .aftronted himself by telling his own story." 

' The principal work was a star redoubt [note 3, page 192]. There was a picketed inclosuro 
[note 1, page 127] around the little village; and on the west side of a stream tunning from a 
spring (a) was a stockadp [note 2, page 183] fort. The besiegers encamped at four different points 
around the works. ' Page 277. 

' These are trenches, dug in a zig-zag line in the direction of the fortress to bo assailed. The 



1781.] SEVENTH YEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 337 

sault was agreed upon. Brown now proposed a surrender ; and the following 
day [June 5, 1781J the Americans took possession of that important post. 
They lost fifty-one men, killed and wounded ; the British lost fifty-two killed, 
and three hundred and thirty-four (including the wounded) were made pris- 
oners. At the close of the siege, Lee and Pickens' hastened to join Greene 
before Ninety-six, and all, on the approach of Rawdon, retreated beyond the 
Saluda, as we have observed. 

The two chief commanders of the belligerent forces now changed relative 
positions. When Rawdon retired toward Orangeburg, Greene became his pur- 
suer, and sent a message to Marion and Sumter, then on the Santee, to take a 
position in front of the enemy, so as to retard his progress." Finding Rawdon 
strongly intrenched at Orangeburg, Greene deemed it prudent not to attack 
him. The Americans crossed the Congaree, and the main body encamped on 
the Hi(jh Hills of Santee, in Santee district, there to pass the hot and sickly 
season. Leaving his troops at Orangeburg, in the command of Colonel Stew- 
art (who had come up from Charleston with a reinforcement), Rawdon went to 
the sea-board and embarked for England.' 

Early in August, Greene was reinforced by North Carolina troops, under 
General Sumner ; and at the close of that month he crossed the Wateree and 
Congaree, and marched upon Orangeburg. Stewart (who had been joined by 

earth is cast up in such a way that the worlcraen are shielded from shots from the assailed works, 
and in this way they get near enough to undermine a fort, or erect a battery, so as to have a power- 
ful effect. 

' Andrew Pickens was born in Pennsylvania, in 1739. In childhood he went to South Car- 
olina, and was one of the first in the field for liberty, in the upper country of that State. He was a 
very useful officer, and good citizen. He died in 1817, at the age of seventy-eight years. 

' It is related that the message to Sumter from Greene was conveyed by Emily Geiger, the 
daughter of a Grcrman planter in Fairfield district. He prepared a letter to that officer, but none 
of his men appeared willing to attempt the hazardous service, for the Tories were on the alert, as 
Rawdon was approaching the Congaree. Greene was delighted by the boldness of a young girl, 
not more than eighteen years of age, who came forward and volunteered to carry the letter to Sum- 
ter. "With his usual caution, he communicated the contents of the letter to Emily, fearing she 
might lose it on the way. The maiden mounted a fleet horse, and crossing the Wateree at the 
Camden Ferry, presssd on toward Sumter's camp. Passing through a dry swamp on the second 
day of her journey, she was intercepted by some Tory scouts. Coming from the direction of Greene's 
army, she was an object of suspicion, and was taken to a house on the edge of the swamp, and con- 
fined in a room. With proper delicacy, they sent for a woman to search her person. No sooner 
was she left alone, than she ate up Greene's letter piece by piece. After a while, the matron ar- 
rivei made a careful search, but discovered nothing. With many apologies, Emily was allowed to 
pursue her journey. She reached Sumter's camp, communicated Greene's message, and soon Raw- 
don was flying before the Americans toward Orangeburg. Emily Geiger afterward married Mr. 
Thurwits, a rich planter on the Congaree. 

' A short time before he sailed, Rawdon was a party to a cruel transaction which created a 
great deal of excitement throughout the South. Among those who took British protection after the 
fall of Charleston in 1780 [page 311], was Colonel Isaac Hayne, a liighly respectable Carolinian. 
When General Greene, the following year, confined the British to Charleston alone, and their pro- 
tection had no force, Hayuo considered himself released from the obligations of his parole, took up 
arms for his country, and was made a prisoner. Colonel Balfour was then in chief command at 
Charleston, and from the beginning seemed determined on the death of Hayne. Without even the 
form of a trial, tliat patriot was condemned to be hanged. Not one, not even the prisoner, supposed 
that such a cruelty was contemplated, until the sentence was made public, and he was informed 
that he had 'out two days to live. The men of the city pleaded for him ; the women signed peti- 
tions, and went in troops, and upon their kneea, implored a remission of his sentence. All was 
in vain. Rawdon had e.xerted his influence to save the prisoner, but finally he consented to his 
execution, as a traitor, and he became as inexorable as Balfour. Greene was inclined to retahate, 
but, fortunately, hostilities soon afterward ceased, and the flow of blood was stopped. 

22 



338 THE RETOLTTTION. [1781. 

Cruger from Ninety-six), immediately retreated to Eutaw Springs, near the 
south- west bank of the Santee, and there encamped. Greene pursued ; and on 
the morning of the 8th of September [1781], a severe battle commenced. The 
British were driven from their camp ; and Greene's troops, like those of Sum- 
ter at Hanging Rock,' scattered among the tents of the enemy, drinking and 
plundering. The British unexpectedly renewed the battle, and after a bloody 
conflict of about four hours, the Americans were obliged to give way. Stewart 
felt insecure, for the partisan legions were not far off, and that night the Brit- 
ish retreated toward Charleston. The next day [Sept. 9, 1781], Greene ad- 
vanced and took possession of the battle-field, and then sent detachments in 
pursuit of the enemy. Both parties claimed the honor of a victory. It be- 
longed to neither, but the advantage was with the Americans. Congress and 
the whole country gave warm expressions of their appreciation of the valor of 
the patriots. The skill, bravery, caution, and acuteness of Greene, were highly 
applauded ; and Congress ordered a gold medal, ornamented with emblems of 
the battle, to be struck in honor of the event, and presented to him, together 
with a British standard, captured on that occasion. The Americans lost, in 
killed, wounded, and missing, five hundred and fifty-five. The British lost six 
hundred and ninety-three. 

While these events were transpiring upon the upper waters of the Santee,' 
Marion, Sumter, Loo, and other partisans, were driving British detachments 
from post to post, in the lower country, and smiting parties of loyalists in every 
direction. The British finally evacuated all their interior stations, and retired 
to Charleston, pursued almost to the verge of the city by the bold American 
scouts and partisan troops. At the close of the year [1781] the British at the 
South were confined to Charleston and Savannah ; and besides these places, 
they did not hold a single post south of New York. Late in the season 
[November] Greene moved his army to the vicinity of Charleston, ° placing it 
between that city and the South Carolina Legislature, then in session at Jack- 
sonborough ; while Wayne, at the opening of 1782, was closely watching the 
British at Savannah. 

We left Cornwallis, after the battle at Guilford Court-house, making his 
way toward Wilmington,* then in possession of a small British garrison, under 
Major Craig. Cornwallis arrived there on the seventh of April, 1781, and 
remained long enough to recruit and rest his shattered army. Apprised of 
Greene's march toward Camden, and hoping to draw him away from Lord 
Rawdon, then encamped there,' he marched into Virginia, joined the forces of 
Phillips and Arnold, at Petersburgh," and then attempted the subjugation of 
that State. He left Wilmington on the 25th of April, crossed the Roanoke at 

' Page 315. 

^ At Columbia, the Saluda and Wateree join, and form the Congaree. Thi.'i, with other and 
smaller tributariea, form the Santee. The Wateree, above Camden, is called the Catawba. 

' After the battle at Eutaw Springs, Greene again encamped on the High Hills of Santee, from 
whence he sent out expeditions toward Charleston. These were successful, and the enemy was 
kept close upon the sea-board during the remainder of the war. * Page 334. 

" Pago 315. • ° Page 330. 



1781.] SEVENTH TEAR OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 339 

Halifax, and on the 20th of May, reached Petersburg. La Fayette was then 
in Virginia,' but his force was too small effectually to oppose the invaders, and 
the State seemed doomed to British rule. 

For the purpose of bringing La Fayette into action, Cornwallis penetrated 
the country beyond Richmond, and destroyed an immense amount of property.' 
He also sent out marauding parties in various directions,^ and for several weeks 
the whole State was kept in great alarm. He finally proceeded [June, 1781] 
slowly toward the coast, closely pursued by La Fayette, Wayne, and Steuben. 
While lying at Williamsburg, he received [June 29] ordei-s from General 
Clinton, to take post near the sea, in order to reinforce the garrison at New 
York, if necessary, which was now menaced by the combined American and 
French armies. He crossed the James River [July 9] at Old Jamestown, 
where he was attacked by Wayne before he could embark his troops. Wayne 
struck a severe blow, and then skillfully and hastily retreated back to 
the main army under La Fayette, then only two miles distant. His loss was 
inconsiderable, but the attack damaged the British seriously. After crossing 
the river, Cornwallis proceeded by land to Portsmouth, opposite Norfolk ; but 
disliking that situation, he went to Yorktown, on the York River, and com- 
menced fortifying that place and Gloucester Point, opposite. 

The French army under Rochambeau,* in the mean while, had left New 
England, and made its way to the Hudson River, where 
it joined [July 6, 1781] that of the Americans, in the 
vicinity of Dobbs' Ferry.' At that time, Washington, 
who had the immediate command of the American 
forces, contemplated an attack upon the British in New 
York city. For six weeks the two armies remained in 
Westchester waiting for the arrival of the Count De 
Grasse, an eminent French naval commander, to co- 
operate in the attack. While preparing to strike the 
blow, Clinton was reinforced [August 11] by nearly three colnt de kochajillai 
thousand troops from Europe ; and intelligence came 
from De Grasse that he could not then leave the West Indies. Thus foiled, 
Washington turned his thoughts to Virginia ; and when, a few days afterward, 
he learned from De Barras, the successor of Ternay," in command of the French 

■ Page 330. 

' The principal object of Corawallis in marching beyond Richmond, was to prevent a junction 
with La Fayette of troops under Wayne, tlien approaching througli Maryland. But the marquis 
was too expert, outmarched the earl, and met Wayne on the 10th of June. 

' Colonel Simcoe, commander of an active corps called the Queen's Hangers, was sent to capture 
or destroy stores at the junction of the Fluvanna and Rivanna Rivers. Cornwallis also dispatched 
Tarleton to attempt the capture of Governor Jefferson and the Legislature, who had fled from Rich- 
mond to Charlottesville, near the residence of Mr. Jefferson. Seven members of the Legislature fell 
into his hands [June 4], and Mr. Jefferson narrowly escaped capture by fleeing from his house to 
the mountains. 

* The Count Rochambeau was bom at Vendome, in France, in 1725. He was a distinguished 
officer in the French army, and after liis return from America, was made a Field Marshal by his 
king. He was pensioned by Bonaparte, and died in 1807. ' Page 257. 

° Admiral Ternay died at Newport, soon after the arrival of the fleet there, in the summer of 
1780. His remains were deposited in Trinity Cfiarch-yard there, and a marble slab was placed 
over his grave. 





340 THE REVOLUTION. [1781. 

fleet at Newport, that De Grasse wa.'? about to sail for the 
Chesapeake, he resolved to march soutlnvaril, and assist 
La Fayette against Cornwallis. He wrote deceptive let- 
ters to General Greene in New Jei-sey, and sent them so 
as to be intercepted bj Sir Henry Clinton.' He thus 
blinded the British commander to liis real intentions ; and 
it was not until the allied armies had crossed the Hudson, 
passed through New Jersey, and were marching from the 
Delaware toward the head of Chesapeake Bay," that Clin- 
couxT DE GRASSE. toH was conviuccd that an attack upon the city of New 
York was not the object of Washington's movements. It 
was then too late for successful pursuit, and he endeavored to recall the Amer- 
icans by sending Arnold to desolate the New England coast. Although there 
was a terrible massacre perpetrated by the invaders at Fort Griswold'' [Septem- 
ber 6, 1781], and New London, opposite (almost in sight of the traitor's birth- 
place),' was burned, it did not check the progress of Washington toward that 
goal where he was to win the greatest prize of his military career. Nor did 
reinforcements sent by water to aid Cornwallis, effect their object, for when 
Admiral Graves arrived off the Capes [September 5], De Grasse was there to 
guard the entrance to the Chesapeake.* He went out to fight Graves, but after 
a partial action, both withdrew, and the French fleet was anchored [September 
10] within the Capes." 

While Cornwallis was fortifying Yorktown and Gloucester, and the hostile 
fleets were in the neighboring waters, the allied armies, twelve thousand strong,' 
were making their way southward. They arrived before Yorktown on the 28th 
of September, 1781 : and after compelling the British to abandon their out- 
works, commenced a regular siege. The place was completely invested on the 
80th, the line of the allied armies extending in a semi-circle, at a distance of 
almost two miles from the British works, each wing resting upon the York 
River. Having completed some batteries, the Republicans opened a heavy can- 
nonade upon the town and the British works on the evening of the 9th of Oc- 

' These letters directed Greene to prepare for an attack on New York. 

' Tliis is generally called in the letters and histories of the tune, " Head of Elk," the narrow, 
upper part of the Chesapeake being called Elk River. There stands the village of Elkton. 

' Arnold landed at the mouth of the Thames, and proceeded to attack Fort Trumbull, near New 
London. The garrison evacuated it, and the village was burned. Another division of the expe- 
dition went up on the east side of the Thames, attacked Fort Griswold at Groton, and after Colonel 
Ledyard had surrendered it, he and almost ever}- man in the fort were cruelly murdered, or badly 
wounded. There is a monument to their memory at Groton, 

' He was bom at Norwich, at the head of the Thiimes, a few miles north of New London. See 
note 1. page 327. 

' Graves intended to intercept a French squadron, which was on its way with heavy cannons 
and military stores for the armies at Yorktown. He was not aware that De Grasse had left the 
AVest Indies. 

' The place of anchors^ was in Lmn Haven Bay. The hostile fleets were in sight of each 
other for tive successive days, hut neither party was anxious to renew the combat. 

' Including the Virginia militia, the whole of the American and French forces employed in the 
siege, amounted to a little over sixteen thousand men. Of the Americans, about seven thous;md 
were regular troops, .ind four thousand militia. The French troops numbered about five thousand, 
including those brought bv De Grasse from the West Indies. 



1781.] SEVENTH TEAE OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 341 



tober. On the following evening they hurled red-hot balls among the British 
shipping in front of the town, and burned several vessels. Hour after hour, 
disasters were gathering a fearful web of difficulty around Cornwallis. De- 
spairing of aid from Clinton, and perceiving his strong fortifications crumbling, 
one by one, under the terrible storm of iron from a hundred heavy cannons, he 
attempted to escape on the night of the 16th, by crossing to Gloucester, break- 
ing through the French troops statione<l there, and making forced marches to- 
ward New York. When the van of his troops embarked, the waters of the 
York River were perfectly calm, although dark clouds were gathering in the 
horizon. Then a storm arose as sudden 
and as fearful as a summer tornado, dis- 
persed the boats, compelled many to put 
back, and the attempt was abandoned.' 
Hope now faded : and on the 19th. Corn- 
wallis surrendered the posts at York- 
town and Gloucester, with almost seven 
thousand British soldiers, and hLs ship- 
ping and seamen, into the hands of Wash- 
ington and De Grasse." 

The ceremony, on the occasion of 
the surrender, was exceedingly impos- 
ing. The American army was drawn 
up on the right side of the road lead- 
ing from Yorktown to Hampton 'see 
map), and the French army on the left, 
mile in length. Washington, upon his white charger, was at the hea<i of the 
American column ; and Rochambeau, upon a powerful bay horse, was at the 
head of the French column. A vast concouree of people, equal in number, ac- 
cording to eye-witnesses, to the military, was also assembled from the sur- 
rounding country to participate in the joy of the event. Universal silence pre- 
vailed as the vanquished troops slowly marched out of their intrenchments, with 
their colors cased, and their drums beating a British tune, and passed between 
the columns of the combined armies. All were eager to look upon Lord Corn- 
wallis, the terror of the South,' in the hour of his adversity. They were dis- 




SIEGE OF TOEKTOWX. 



Their lines extended more than a 



' Note 4, page 247. 

' The British lost one hundred and fiftr-six killed, three hundred and twenty-six wounded, and 
seventy missing. The combined armies lost in killed and wounded, about three hundred. Among 
the spoils were seventv-five bra.'55, and one hundred and sixty iron cannons ; seven thousand seven 
hundred and ninety-four muskets : twenty-eight regimental standards ; a large quantity of musket 
and cannon-balls ; and nearly eleven thousand dollars in specie in the military chest. The army 
was surrendered to Washington, and the shipping and seamen to De Grasse. The latter soon after- 
ward left the Chesapeake, and went to the West Indies. Rochambeau remained with his troops in 
Virginia during the winter, and the main body of the American army marched nortli, and went into 
winter quarters on the HudsotL A strong detachment, under General St. Clair [page 276], was 
sent south to drive the British from Wilmington, and remforce the army of General Greene, then 
lying near Charleston. 

* The conduct of Lord Cornwallis. during his march of over fifteen hundred miles throti^ the 
Southern States, was often disgraceful to the British name. He suffered dwelling-houses to be 
plundered of every thing that could be carried off; and it was well known that his lordship's table 



342 THE REVOLUTIOIf. [1781. 

appointed ; he had given himself up to vexation and despair, and, feigning 
illness, he sent General O'Hara ivith his sword, to lead the vanquished army to 
the field of humiliation. Having arrived at the head of the line. General 
O'Hara advanced toward Washington, and, taking off his hat, apologized for the 
absence of Earl Cornwallis. The commander-in-chief pointed him to General 
Lincoln for directions. It must have been a proud moment for Lincoln, for 
only the year before he was obliged to make a humiliating surrender of his 
army to British conquerors at Charleston.' Lincoln conducted the royal troops 
to the field selected for laying down their arms, and there General O'Hara 
delivered to him the sword of Cornwallis. Lincoln received it. and then po- 
litely handed it back to O'Hara, to be returned to the earl. 

The delivery of the colors of the several regiments, twenty-eight in num- 
ber, was next performed. For this purpose, twenty-eight British captains, 
each bearing a flag in a case, were drawn up in line. Opposite to them, at a 
distance of six paces, twenty-eight American sergeants were placed in line to 
receive the colors. An ensign was appointed by Colonel Hamilton, the officer 
of the day, to conduct this interesting ceremony.'^ When the ensign gave the 
order for the British captains to advance two paces, to deliver up their colors, 
and the American sergeants to advance two paces to receive them, the former 
hesitated, and gave as a reason, that they were unwilling to surrender their 
flags to non-commissioned officers. Hamilton, who was at a distance, observed 
this hesitation, and rode up to inquire the cause. On being informed, he will- 
ingly spared the feelings of the British captains, and ordered the ensign to 
receive them himself, and hand them to the American sergeants. The scene is 
depicted in the engraving. 

Clinton appeared at the entrance to Chesapeake Bay a few days afterward, 
with seven thousand troops, but it was too late. The final blow which struck 
down British power in America had been given. The victory was complete ; 
and Clinton returned to New York, amazed and disheartened. 

Great was the joy throughout the colonies when intelligence of the capture 
of the British army reached the people. From every family altar where a love 
of freedom dwelt — from pulpits, legislative halls, the army, and from Congress,^ 



was furnished with plate thus obtained from private families. His march was more frequently that 
of a marauder than an- honorable general. It is estimated that Virginia alone lost, during Corn- 
wallis's attempt to reduce it, thirty thousand slaves. It was also estimated, at the time, from the best 
information that could be oljtained, that, during the six months previous to the surrender at York- 
town, the whole devastations of his army amounted in value to about fifteen millions of dollars. 

' Page 311. 

' Ensign Robert Wilson, of General James Clinton's New Tork Brigade. He was the youngest 
commissioned officer in the army, being then only eighteen years of age. He was afterward a magis- 
trate in central New York for a number of years, and was for some time postmaster at Manlius, in 
Onondago county. He died in 1811. 

' A messenger, with a dispatch from "Washington, reached Philadelphia at midnight. Soon the 
watchmen in the streets cried, •' Past twelve o'clock, and Cornwallis is taken." Before dawn the 
exulting people filled the streets; and at an early hour, Secretary Thomson [page 227] read that 
cheering letter to the assembled Congress. Then that august body went in procession to a temple 
of the living God [Oct. 24th, 1781], and there joined in public thanksgivings to the King of kings, 
for the great victory. They also resolved that a marble column should be erected at Yorktown, to 
commemorate the event ; and that two stands of colors should be presented to Washington, and two 
pieces of cannon to each of the French commanders, Rochambeau and De Grasse. 




SORBENDEB OF FLAGS AT TOEKTOWN. 



1782.] CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 345 

there went up a shout of thanksgiving and praise to the Lord God Omnipotent, 
for the success of the allied troops, and these were mingled with universal eulo- 
cries of the great leader and his companions in arms. The clouds which had 
lowered for seven long years, appeared to be breaking, and the splendors of 
the dawn of peace burst forth, like the light of a clear morning after a dismal 
night of tempest and woe. And the desire for peace, which had long burned 
in the bosom of the British people, now found such potential expression, as to 
be heeded by the British ministry. The intelligence of the fate of Cornwallis 
and his party, fell with all the destructive energy of a bomb-shell in the midst 
of the war-party in Parliament;' and the stoutest declaimers in favor of bay- 
onets and gunpowder, Indians and German mercenaries," as fit instruments for 
enslaving a free people, began to talk of the expediency of peace. Public 
opinion soon found expression in both Houses of Parliament ; and Lord North' 
and his compeers, who had misled the nation for twelve years, gave way 
under the pressure of the peace sentiment, and retired from office on the 20th 
of March, 1782. The advocates of peace then came into power ; and early in 
the following May, Sir Guy Carleton* arrived in New York, with propositions 
for a reconciliation. 



CHAPTER IX. 

CLOSING EVENTS OP THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1182—1789.] 

General Greene, with the main body of the Southern army, was yet on 
the High Hills of Santee, when, on the 30th of October [1781], intelligence 
of the capture of Cornwallis reached him. The day of its arrival was made 
jubilant with rejoicings by the army. The event seemed to be a guaranty for 
the future security of the Republicans in the South, and Governor Rutledge' 
soon called a Legislative Assembly, to meet at Jacksonborough, to re-establish 
civil authority. An offer of pardon for penitents, brought hundreds of Tories 
from the British lines at Charleston, to accept the clemency. The North Caro- 
lina Tories were dismayed, for immediately after the surrender of Cornwallis, 
St. Clair" had marched upon Wilmington, when the frightened enemy imme- 
diately abandoned that post, and Major Craig, the commander, and a few 
followers, took post upon St. John's Island, near Charleston. Yet the vigilance 
of the Americans was not allowed to slumber, for a wary foe yet occupied the 
capitals of South Carohnaand Georgia,. Marion and his men kept " watch and 
ward" over the region between the Cooper and the Santee,' while Greene's main 

' Lord George Germaine said that Lord North received the intelligence "as he would have 
done a cannon-ball in his breast." He paced the room, and tlirowing his arms wildly about, kept 
exclaiming, " 0, God ! it is all over, it is all over !" 

" Page 246. = Page 224. « Page 240. ' Page 310. ' Page 276. 

' On one occasion, Marion's brigade suffered a severe defeat, while the commander was attend- 



346 THE REVOLUTION. [1182. 

army lay near the Edisto ; and Wayne, always vigilant, kept the enemy as 
close -within his intrenchments at Savannah. Washington, who returned to the 
North immediately after the surrender, was, at the same time, keeping Clinton 
and his army close prisoners in New York. 




7 <^7^p> 



While the theater of war was thus narrowing, British statesmen of all 
parties, considering the capture of Cornwallis and his army as the death-blow 
to all hope for future conquests, turned their attention to measures for an 
honorable termination of the unnatural war. General Conway, the firm and 
long-tried friend of the Americans, oflfered a resolution in Parliament in Febru- 
aiy [1782], which was preliminary to the enactment of a decree for command- 
ing the cessation of hostilities. It was lost by only one vote. Thus encouraged, 

ing Iiig duties as a member of the South Carolina Legislature. He left his men in command of 
Colonel Horry, and near the Santee, Colonel Thompson (afterward the eminent Count Rumford) 
attacked the corps, with a superior force, and dispersed it. Marion arrived during the engagement, 
rallied his brigade, and then retired beyond the Santee, to reorganize and recruit. Benjamin 
Thompson wa^ a native of Massachusetts, and was bom in March, 1753. He became a school- 
ma.ster, and while acting in that capacity, he married a rich widow. Already his mind was filltil 
with scientifie knowledge, and now he pursued his studies and investigations with energj-. T\' hen 
the Revolution broke out, he refused to take part in politic.il matters. The Whigs drove him to 
Boston for British protection, and lie was sent to England hy Lord Howe, with dispatches. Toward 
the close of the war, he commanded n corps of Tories at New York and Charleston. He returned 
to Europe, became acqiiainted with the sovereign of Bavaria, made himself exceedingly useful, was 
raised to the highest dignity, and was created a coimt. After suffering many vicissitudes, he died, near 
Paris, in August. 1814. His daughter, the Countess of Rumford, who was bom in America, died at 
Concord, New Hampshire, in 1852. See Lossing's Eminent Americans. 



1789.] CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 347 

the opposition pressed the subject warmly upon the attention of the House of 
Commons and the nation, and on the 4th of March, Conway moved "That the 
House would consider as enemies to his majesty and the country all those who 
should advise, or by any means attempt, the further prosecution of offensive 




war on the Continent of North America." The resolution was carried without 
a division, and the next day the attorney-general introduced a plan for a truce 
with the Americans. Orders for a cessation of hostilities speedily went forth 
to the British commanders in America, and preparations were soon made for 
evacuating the cities of Savannah and Charleston. 

When General Leslie, the British commander at Charleston, was apprised 
of these proceedings in Parliament, he proposed to Genei-al Greene a cessation 
of hostilities. Like a true soldier, Greene referred the matter to Congress, and 
did not for a moment relax his vigilance. Leslie also requested Greene to allow 
him to purchase supplies for his army, at the same time declaring his intention 
to evacuate Charleston. Greene was unwilling thus to nourish a viper, until 
his power to injure was destroyed, and he refused. Leslie then resorted to 
force to obtain provisions. Already he had made several efforts to penetrate 
the country for the purpose, and now, late in August, he attempted to ascend 
the Combahee,' when he was opposed by the Americans under General Gist, of 



' Page 42 



348 THE REVOLUTION. [1782. 

the Maryland line. Colonel John Laurens' volunteered in the service ; and in 
a sku-mish at day-break, on the 25th of August, he was killed. He was greatly 
beloved by all, and his death was mourned with real sorrow. His was almost 
the last hfe sacrificed in that glorious old war. The blood of one other was 
shed at Stono Ferry,' a few weeks afterward, when Captain Wilmot was killed in 
a skirmish with a British foraging party. 

Several weeks previous to this, the British had evacuated Savannah. That 
event occurred on the 11th of July, when General Wayne, in consideration of 
the eminent services of Colonel James Jackson,^ appointed him to "receive the 
keys of the city of Savannah" from a committee of British ofiicers. He per- 
formed the duty with great dignity, and on the same day the American army 
entered the city. Roya^ power then ceased in Georgia, forever. On the 14th 
of December following, the British evacuated Charleston, and the next day, the 
Americans, under General Greene, took possession of it, greeted from windows, 
balconies, and even house-tops, with cheers, waving of handkercniefe, and cries 
of "God bless you, gentlemen! Welcome! Welcome!" The British 
remained in New York almost a year longer (until the 25th of November, 
1783), under the command of Sir Guy Carleton, who had succeeded Sir Henry 
Clinton, because the final negotiations for peace were not completed, by ratifi- 
cation, until near that time. 

Measures were now taken by Congress and the British government to 
arrange a treaty of peace. The United States appointed five commissioners for 
the purpose, in order that difierent sections of the Union might be represented. 
These consisted of John Adams, John Jay, Benjamin Franklin, Thomas Jef- 
ferson, and Henry Laurens. These met Richard Oswald, the English com- 
missioner, at Paris, and there, on the 30th of November, 1782, they signed a 
preliminary treaty.' French and English commissioners also signed a treaty 
of peace on the 20th of January following. Congress ratified the action of its 
commissioners in April, 1783, yet negotiations were in progress until September 
following, when a definitive treaty was signed [September 3, 1783] at Paris.' 
In that treaty, England acknowledged the Independence of the United 
States ; allowed ample boundaries, extending northward to the Great Lakes, 

' Note 2, page 329. ' Pago 206. 

' James Jackson was one of the most eminent men in Georgia* He wa.s bom in England, in 
September, 1757, and came to America in 1772. He studied law at Savannah, and was an active 
soldier during the whole war for Independence. When a Uttlo past thirty years of age, he was 
elected governor of Georgia, but declined the honor on account of his youth. He was a member 
of the United States Senate for some time, and was governor of his State for two years. He died, 
while at Washington, as United States senator, in lS08, and his remains are in the Congressional 
bvirial-ground. See his portrait on page 347. 

' A'^ergennes, the French minister, was dissatisfied with the manner In which the matter had 
been conducted. It was understood, by the terms of the alliance between the United States and 
France (and expressly stated in tlie instructions of the commissioners), that no treaty should be 
signed by the latter without the knowledge of the other. Yet it was done on this occasion." A 
portion of the American commissioners douljted the good faith of A'ergennes, because lie favored 
Spanish claims. Dr. Franklin, however, trusted Vergennes implicitly, and the latter appears to 
have acted honorably, throughout. The cloud of dissatisfaction soon passed away, when Franklin, 
with soft words, explained the whole matter. 

' It was signed, on the part of England, by David Hartley, and on that of the United States, by 
Dr. Franklin, John Adams, and John Jay. 



1789.] CLOSING EVENTS OF TUE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 349 

and westward to the Mississippi, and an unlimited right of fishing on the banks 
of Newfoundland. The two Floridas were restored to Spain. At the same 
time, definitive treaties between England, France, Spain, and Holland, were 
signed by their respective commissioners," and the United States became an 
active power among the nations of the earth.'' 

A great work had now been accomplished, yet the joy of the American 
people, in view of returning peace and prosperity, was mingletl with many 
gloomy apprehensions of evil. The army, which, through the most terrible 
sufierings, had remained faithful, and become conqueror, was soon to be dis- 
banded ; and thousands, many of them made invalids by the hard service in 
which they had been engaged, would be compelled to seek a livelihood in the 
midst of the desolation which war had produced.^ For a long time the public 
treasury had been empty, and neither officers nor soldiers had received any pay 
for their services. A resolution of Congress, passed in 1780 [October 21], to 
allow the officers half pay for life, was ineffective, because funds were wanting. 
Already the gloomy prospect had created wide-spread murmurings in the army, 
and there were many men who sighed for a stronger government. They ascribed 
the weakness of the Confederation to its republican form, and a change, to be 
wrought by the army, was actually proposed to Washington. Nicola, a foreign 
ofiicer in a Pennsylvania regiment, made the proposition, in a well-written letter, 
and not only urged the necessity of a monarchy, but endeavored to persuade 
Washington to become king, by the voice of the army. The sharp rebuke of the 
commander-in-chief [May, 1782] , checked all further movements in that direction. 

The general discontent soon assumed another shape, and on the 11th of 
March, 1783, a well-written address was circulated through the American camp 
(then near Newburg), which advised the army to take matters into its own 
hands, mal^e a demonstration that should arouse the fears of the people and of 
Congress, and thus obtain justice for themselves.* For this purpose a meeting 
of oflBcers was called, but the great influence of Washington prevented a 
response. The commander-in-chief then summoned all the officers together, 
laid the matter before them [March 15], and obtained from them a patriotic 
expression of their faith in the "justice of Congress and the country." In a 
few days the threatening cloud passed away, and soon after this event Congress 
made arrangements for granting to the officers full pay for five years, instead 
of half pay for life ; and to the soldiers full pay for four months, in partial 
liquidation of their claims. This arrangement was not satisfactory, and discon- 

' That between Great Britain and Holland was signed on the second. 

' John Adams was the first minister of the United States to Great Britain. Ho was politely 
received by King George tlie Third ; and that monarch was faithful to his promises to preserve 
inviolate the covenant he had made by acknowledging the independence of the new Republic. 

" The army, consisting of about ten tliousand men, was then encamped on the Hudson, near 
Newburg. 

' This address wag anonymous, but it was afterward acknowledged to be the production of John 
Armstrong, then a major, and one of General Gates's aids. It is believed that Gates and other 
oflBcers were the instigators of the scheme, and that Armstrong acted under their direction. He 
was an accomplished writer, and was much in public life after the war. He was United States min- 
ister to France for six years, from 1804. He was Secretary of War in 1814 ; and died in Dutchess 
county, New York, in 1843, in the eighty-fifth year of his age. 



350 THE REVOLUTION. [1182. 

tent still prevailed." In the mean while [March 2] the preliminary treaty had 
arrived. On the eighth anniversary of the skii-mish at Lexington [April 19, 
1783], a cessation of hostihtes was proclaimed in the army, and on the 3d of 
November following, the army was disbanded by a general order of Congress. A 
small force was retained under a definite enlistment, until a peace establishment 
should be organized.' These were now at West Point, under the command of 
General Knox. The remainder of that glorious band of patriots then quietly 
returned to their homes, to enjoy, for the remnant of their lives, the blessings of 
the liberty they had won, and the grateful benedictions of their countrymen. 
Of the two hundred and thirty thousand Continental soldiers, and the fifty-six 
thousand militia who bore arms during the war, the names of only two are now 
[1867] on the pension list !^ And the average of these must be full ninety years. 
The British army evacuated the city of New York on the 25th of Novem- 
ber, 1783. With their departure, went, forever, the last instrument of royal 
power in these United States. On the morning of that day — a cold, frosty, 
but clear and brilliant morning — the American troops, 
under General Knox,* who had come down from West 
Point and encamped at Harlem, marched to the Bowery 
Lane, and halted at the present junction of Third 
Avenue and the Bowery. Knox was accompanied by 
George Clinton,'^ the governor of the State of New 
York, with all the principal civil officers. There they 
remained until about one o'clock in the afternoon, when 
the British left their posts in that vicinity and marched 
to Whitehall." The American troops followed, and 

GOTEENOR CLINTON. ^ 

' In May, I'ZSS, a portion of the Pennsylvania troops, lately arrived from the South, marched 
to Philadelphia, where they were joined by others, and for three hours they stood at the door of the 
State House, and demanded immediate pay from Congress. St. Clair, then in command there, 
pacified them for the moment, and Washington soon quelled the mutiny. See page 328. 

' A great portion of the officers and soldiers had been permitted, during the summer, to visit 
their homes on furlough. The proclamation of discharge, by Congress, was followed by Washing- 
ton's farewell address to his companions in arms, written at Rocky Hill, New Jersey, on the 3d of 
November. He had already issued a circular letter (Ne%vburg, June 8th, 1783) to the governor.>. 
of all the States on the subject of disbanding tlio army. It was designed to be laid before the sev- 
eral State Legislatures. It is a document of great value, because of the soundness of its doctrines, 
and the weight and wisdom of its counsels. Four great points of policy constitute the chief theme 
of his communication, namely, an indmolubk union of the States; a sacred regard for pullic justice; 
the organization of a proper peace establishment; and a friendly intercourse among the people of the 
several States, by which local prejudice might be effaced. "These," he remarks, "are the pillars on 
which the glorious fabric of our independency and national character must be supported." No 
doubt this address had great influence upon tlie minds of the whole people, and made them yearn 
for that more efficient union whicli the Federal Constitution soon afterward secured. 

' Great Britain sent to America, during the war, one hundred and twelve thousand five hun- 
dred and eighty-four troops for tlie land service, and more than twenty-two thousand seamen. Of 
all this host, not one is known to be living. One of them (John Battin) died in the city of New 
York, in June, 1852, at tlie age of one hundred years and four montlis. 

* Henry Knox, the able commander of the artillery during the Revolution, was born in Boston, 
in 1740. He entered the army at the commencement of the war. He was President Washington's 
Secretary of War, and held that offlco eleven years. He died at Thomaston, in Maine, in 1806. ^ 

' Like Governors Trumbull [page 323] and Rutledge [page 310], Clinton, in a civil capacity, 
was of immense ser^'ice to the American cause. He was bora in Ulster county, New York, in IpO. 
He was governor about eighteen years, and died in 1812, while Vice-President of tlie United 
States. See page 40L ° Now the South Ferry to Brooki™. 




1789.] CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 351 

before three o'clock General Knox took formal possession of Fort George amid 
the acclamations of thousands of emancipated freemen, and the roar of artillery 
upon the Battery. 

Od Thursday, the 4th of Becemher, Washington mat his officers, yet re- 




maining in service, at his quarters, corner of Broad and Pearl-streets, New 
York, for the last time. The scene, as described by Marshall,' the best of the 
early biographers of Washington, was one of great tenderness. The commander- 
in-chief entered the room where they were all waiting, and taking a glass of 
wine in his hand, he said, " With a heart full of love and gratitude, I now take 



' John Marshall, the eminent Chief Justice of the United States, was born in Fauquier county, 
Virginia, in 1755, and was the eldest of fifteen children by the same mother. He entered the mil- 
itary service, in the Virginia militia, against Dunmore [page 244], in 1775, and was in the battle at 
the Great Bridge [see page 243]. He remained in service, as an excellent officer, until early in 

1780, when he studied law, and became very eminent in his profession. He was again in the field in 

1781. In 1782 he was a member of the Virginia Legislature. He was chosen Secretary of War in 
1800, and the next year was elevated to the Chief Justiceship of the United States. His Life of 
Washington was published in 1805. Judge Marshall died at Philadelphia in 1835, in the eightieth 
year of his age. He was an exceedingly plain man, in person and habits, and always carried his 
own marketing home in his hands. On one occasion, a young housekeeper was swearing lustily 
because he could not hire a person to carry his turkey home for him. A plain man, standing by, 
offered to perform the service, and when they arrived at the door, the young man asked, "What 
shall I pay you?" "Oh, notliing," replied tlio old man; "you are welcome; it was on ray way, 
and no trouble." "Who is that polite old gentleman who brought home my turkey for me?" in- 
quired the young man of a bystander. "That," he replied, "is John Marshall, Chief Justice of the 
United States." The astonished young man exclaimed, " Why did he bring home my turkey ?" 
" To give you a severe reprimand," replied the other, "and to learn you to atte/l to your own bus- 
iness." The lesson was never forgotten. 



352 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1182. 




leave of you. I most devoutly wish that your latter days may be as prosperous 
and happy as your former ones have been glorious and honorable." Having 
drank, he continued, "I can not come to each of you to take my leave, but 
shall be obhged to you if each will come and take me by the hand." Knox, 
who stood nearest to him, turned and grasped his hand, and, while the tears 
flowed down the cheeks of each, the commander-in-chief kissed him. This he 
did to each of his officers, while tears and sobs stifled utterance. Washington 
soon left the room, and passing through corps of light infantry, he walked in 
silence to Whitehall, where he embarked in a barge for Elizabethtown, on his 
way to Annapolis, in Maryland, where Congress was in session. There, on the 
23d of December, he resigned into its custody the com- 
mission which he received [June 16, 1775] from that 
body more than eight years before.' His address on 
that occasion was simple and touching, and the re- 
sponse of General Mifilin,^ the president, was equally 
affecting. The spectacle was one of great moral sub- 
limity. Like Cincinnatus, Washington, having been 
instrumental, under Pi'ovidence, in preserving the lib- 
erties of his country and achieving its independence, 
laid down the cares of State and returned to his plow. 

A few months before the final disbanding of the army, many of the officers, 
then at Newburg, on the Hudson, met [June 19, 1783] at the head-quarters of 
the Baron Steuben, situated about two miles from the Fishkill 
Ferry, and there formed an association, which they named the 
Society of the Cincinnati. The chief objects of the Society 
were to promote cordial friendship and indissoluble union among 
themselves ; to commemorate, by frequent re-unions, the great 
struggle they had just passed through ; to use their best en- 
deavors for the promotion of human liberty; to cherish good 
feeling between the respective States ; and to extend benevolent 
aid to those of the Society whose circumstances might require 
it. They formed a General Society, and elected Washington 
its first president. They also made provision for the formation 
of auxiliary State societies. To perpetuate the Association, it 
was provided, in the constitution, that the eldest male descend- 
ant of an original member should be entitled to bear the Order, 
and enjoy the privileges of the Society. The Order' consists 
of a gold eagle, suspended upon a ribbon, on the breast of which is a medallion 



GENERAL MIFFLIN. 




' Page 238. At the same time Washington rendered the account current of his expenditures, 
for reconnoitering, traveling, secret service, and miscellaneous expenses, amounting to about 
$74,480. He would receive nothing in compensation for his own services as commander-in-chieC 

' Thomas MifBin was born in Philadelphia in 1744. Ho was a Quaker [note 7, page 94], but 
joined the patriot army in 1775, and rapidly rose to the rank of major-general. He was a member 
of Congress after the war, and also governor of Pennsylvania. Ho died in January, 1800. 

° An order is a badge, or visible token of regard or distinction, conferred upon persons for mer- 
itorious services On the breast of Baron Steuben on page 291, is the order of Fidelity, presented 
io him by Frederic the Great of Prussia, for his services in the army of that monarch. Some of the 



1789.] CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 353 

with a device, representing Cincinnatus receiving the Roman senators.' Sev- 
eral State societies are yet [18G7J in existence. 

The war was ended, and peace was guarantied, but the people had much to 
do in the adjustment of public affairs, so as to lay the foundations of permanent 
prosperity, and thus secure the liberty and independence proclaimed and 
acknowledged. The country was burdened with a heavy debt, foreign and do- 
mestic,' and the Articles of Confed rat 1011' gave Congress no power to dis- 
charge them, if it had possessed the ability. On its recommendation, however, 
the individual States attempted to raiss their respective quotas, by direct tax- 
ation. But all were impoverished by the war, and it was found to be impos- 
sible to provide means even to meet the arrears of pay due the soldiers of the 
Revolution. Each State had its local obligations to meet, and Congress could 
not coerce compliance with its recommendations. 

This effort produced great e.Ycitement in many of the States, and finally, in 
1787, a portion of the people of Massachusetts openly rebelled. Daniel Shays, 
who had been a captain in the continental army, marched at tlie head of a thou- 
sand men, took possession of Worcester, and prevented a session of the Supreme 
Court. He repeated the same at Springfield. The insurrection soon became 
so formidable, that Governor Bowdoin was compelled to call out several thou- 
sand militia, under General Lincoln, to suppress it. Lincoln captured one hun- 
dred and fifty of the insurgents, and their power was broken. A free pardon 
was, finally, offered to all privates who had engaged in the rebellion. Several 
leaders were tried, and sentenced to death, but none were executed, for it was 
perceived that the great mass of the people sympathized with them. This epi- 
sode is known as S/iays's RebelUon. 

We have already noticed the fact that the Pope was unfriendly to England,* 
and looked with fiivor upon the rebellious movements of h'er colonies. Soon 
after the treaty of peace was concluded [Sept. 3, 1783], the Pope's Nuncio at 
Paris made overtures to Franklin, on the subject of appointing an apostolic 
vicar for the United States. The matter was referred to Congress, and that 
body properly replied, that the subject being purely spiritual, it was beyond 
their control. The idea of entire separation between the State and spiritual 
governments — the full e.xercise of freedom of conscience — was thus early enun- 



orders conferred by kings are very costly, being made of gold and silver, and precious stones. The 
picture of the order of the Cincinnati, given on the preceding page, is half the size of the original. 

' Cincinnatus was a noble Roman citizen. When the Romans were menaced with destruction 
by an enemy, the Senate appointed delegates to invite Cincinnatus to assume the chief magistracy 
of the nation. They found him at his plow. He immediately complied, raised an army, subdued 
the enemy, and, after bearing the almost imperial dignity for fourteen days, he resigned his office, 
and returned to his plow. How like Cincinnatus were Washington and his compatriots of tlie War 
for Independence ! 

' According to an estimate made by the Register of the Treasury in 1790, the entire cost of the 
War for Independence, was at least one hundred and thirty millions of dollars, exclusive of vast sums 
lost by individuals and the several States, to the amount, probably, of forty millions more. The 
treasury paj-ments amounted to almost ninety-three millions, chiefly in continental bills. The foreign 
debt amounted to eight millions of dollars ; and the domestic debt, due chiefly to the officers and 
soldiers of the Revolution, was more than thirty millions of dollars. 

^ Note 1, page 267, and Supplement. ' Page 266. 

23 



354 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1782 



ciated. The Pope accordingly appointed John Carroll,' of Maryland, a cousin 
of Charles Carroll, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, to the 
high oiSce of Apostolic- Vicar. He was consecrated Bishop of Baltimore, and 
■was ultimately made Archbishop of the United States. At about the same 




-ff^£y'/^«£^ 



time, the Church of England in America sought a reorganization, and Samuel 
Seabury, an Episcopal minister of New London, Connecticut, at the request of 
the Churchmen of that State, proceeded to England to obtain ordination as 
. bishop. The English bishops were not allowed to confer the dignity unless the 
recipient would take the oath of allegiance to the king of England, as head of 
the Church. This, Seabury (although a loyalist during the war) could not do, 
and he sought and obtained ordination from Scotch bishops. Such was the 
commencement of the two most prominent prelatical Chui-ches in the United 
States. The Methodist Church, which has since flourished so wonderfully, was 
then just taking firm root. 

' John Carroll was bom in Maryland in 1735, sind at the .as;e of thirteen years, was sent to 
Europe to be educated. He was ordained a priest in 1769, and l5ecame a teacher at St. Onaer and 
at Liege. When the Jesuits were expelled frnn\ France, he went to England, and returned to his 
native country in 1775. He accomp.anied a Congressional committee to Canada, in 177G, to en- 
deavor to persuade that Roman Catholic colony to join the others in the revolt. Throughout the 
war he was attached to the Repulicaii cause. He was appointed Vicar-General in 1786, and was 
consecrated a bishop in 1790. He was made archbishop in 1808. He died in Baltimore in 1815, 
at the age of eighty years. His usual signature was \ J. Bis'', of Baltimore. 



1789.] CLOSING EVENTS OP THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 355 

For a long time it IiaJ been clearly perceived that, while the Articles of 
Conftderatlon formed a sufficient constitution of government during the prog- 
ress of the war, they were not adapted to the jniblic wants in the new condition 
of an independent sovereignty in which the people found themselves. There 
appeared a necessity for a greater centralization of power by which the general 
government could act more efficiently for the public good. To a great extent, 
the people lost all regard for the authority of Congress, and the commercial 
afiairs of the country became wretchedly deranged. In truth, every thing 
seemed to be tending toward utter chaos, soon after the peace in 1783,' and the 
leading minds engaged in the struggle for Independence, in view of the increas- 
ing and magnified evils, and the glaring defects of the Articles of Confedera- 
tion, were turned to the consideration of a plan for a closer union of the States, 
and for a general government founded on the principles of the Declaration of 
Independence, from which the confederation in question widely departed. 

The sagacious mind of Washington early perceived, with intense anxiety, 
the tendency toward ruin of that fair fabric which his wisdom and prowess had 
helped to rear, and he took the initial step toward the adoption of measures 
which finally resulted in the formation of the present Constitution of the United 
States." At his suggestion, a convention, for the purpose of consulting on the 
best means of remedying the defects of the Federal Government, was held at 
Annapolis, in Maryland, in Septemljer, 1786. Only five States (Virginia, 
Delaware, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and New York) were repi-esented. They 
met on the 11th of that month, and John Dickenson' was chosen chairman. 
They finally appointed a committee to prepare a draft of a report to be made to 
the Legislatures of the several States, then represented. The committee 
reported on the 14th, but there not being a representation from a majority of 
the States, it was thought advisable to postpone further action. They adjourned, 
after recommending the appointment of deputies to meet in convention at 
Philadelphia, in May following. The report was adopted and transmitted to 
Congress. On the 21st of February, 1787, a committee of that body,' to whom 
the report of the commissioners was referred, reported thereon, and strongly 
recommended to the different Legislatures to send forward delegates to meet in 
the proposed convention at Philadelphia. Propositions were made by delegates 
from New York and Massachusetts, and finally the following resolution, sub- 
mitted by the latter, after being amended, was agreed to : 

" Resolved, That in the opinion of Congress, it is expedient that on the 
second Monday in May next, a convention of delegates, who shall have been 
appointed by the several States, be held at Philadelphia, for the sole and 
express purpose of revising the Articles of Confederatio)i, and reporting to 
Congress and the several Legislatures such alterations and provisions therein 
as shall, when agreed to in Congress, and" confirmed by the States, render the 



' Page 3i8. " Pajre 359. ' Pa<?e 219. 

' The committee consisted of Messrs. Dau.a, Yamum, S. II. Mitcliell. Smitli, Cadwalader, In-ine. 
N. Mitcliell, Forest, Grayson, Blount, Bull, and Few. 



35G THE EEYOLUTION. [1782. 

Federal Constitution adequate to the exigences of the government and the 
preservation of the Union." 

This resolution, with a preamble, was immediately transmitted to the several 
Speakers of State Legislatives Assemblies, and they were laid before the repre- 
sentatives of the people in all the States of the Confederacy. While a feeling 
generally prevailed, that somelhimj must be done to avert the threatened anarchy, 
toward which governmental operations were rapidly tending, great caution was 
observed in the delegation of powers to those who should be appointed members 
of the proposed convention.' In May, 1787,' delegates from all tlie States, 
except New Hampshire and Rhode Island,' assembled at Philadelphia, in the 
room where Congress was in session when the Declaration of Independence was 
adopted.' Washington, who was a delegate from A^irginia, was, on motion of 
Robert Morris, chosen Pi-esident. Able statesmen were his associates,' and they 
entered earnestly upon their duties. They had not proceeded far, however, 
before they perceived that the Articles of Confederation were so radically 
defective, and their powers so inadequate to meet the wants of the country, that, 
instead of trying to amend that old code, they went diligently to work to form 
a new Constitution. For some time they made but little progress. There were 

' The great question that came up before the members, at the very commencement of the session 
of the Convention, was, " What powers do we possess ? Can the amendments to the Articles of 
Confederation be carried so far as to establish an entirely new system?" 

' The day fixed for the assembling of the Convention, was the 14th of May. On that day, del- 
egates from only half the States were present. The remainder of the delegates did not all arrive 
before the 25th. 

' Ignorant and unprincipled men, wlio were willing to liquidate public and private debts by the 
agency of unstaljle paper money, controlled the A8.sembly of Rhode Island, and that body refused 
to elect delegates to the Convention. But some of the best and most influential men in the State 
joined in sending a letter to the Convention, in which they expressed their cordial sympathy with 
the object of that national assembly, and promised their adhesion to whatever the majority might 
propose. The following are the names of the delegates : 

New HampsMre. — John Langdon, John Pickering, Nicholas Oilman, and Benjamin West. 

Massachwsetls. — Francis Dana, Elbridge Gerry, Nathaniel Gorham, Rufus King, and Caleb Strong. 

Connecticut. — William Samuel Johnson, Roger Sherman, and Oliver Ellsworth. 

New York. — Robert Tates, John Lansing, Jr., and Alexander Hamilton. 

New Jersey. — David Brearley, William Churchill Houston, William Paterson, John Neilsoa 
William Livingston, Abraham Clark, and Jonathan Dayton. 

Pennsylvania. — Thomas Mifflin, Robert Morris, George Clymer, Jared Ingcrsoll, Thomas Fitz- 
simmons, James Wilson, Gouverneur Morris, and Benjamin Franklin. 

Delaware. — George Reed, Gunning Bedford, Jr., John Dickenson, Richard Bassstt, and Jacob 
Brown. 

Maryland. — James M 'Henry, Daniel of St. Thomas Jenifer, Daniel Carroll, John Francis Mercer, 
and Luther Martin. 

Virginia. — George Washington, Patrick Henry, Edmund Randolph, John Blair, James Madison, 
.Jr.. George Mason, and George Wythe. Patrick Henry having decUned his appointment, James 
M'Clure was nominated to supply his place. 

North Carolina. — Richard Caswell, Alexander Martin, William Richardson Davie, Richard 
Dobbs Spaight, and Willie Jones. Richard CasweU having resigned, William Blount was appointed 
a deputy in his place, Willie Jones having also declined his appointment, his place was supplied by 
Hugh Williamson. 

Smith Carolina. — John Rutledge, Charles Pinckey, Charles C. Pinckney, and Pierce Butler. 

Georgia. — William Few, Abraham Baldwin, William Pierce, George Walton, William Houston, 
and Nathaniel Pendleton. * Page 250. 

' The members who were most conspicuous as debaters in the Convention, were Randolph, 
Madison, and Mason, of Virginia; Kmg, Gerry, and Gorham, of Massachusetts; Gouverneur Mor- 
ris, Wilson, and Dr. Franklin, of Pennsylvania ; Jolmson, Sherman, and Ellsworth, of Connecticut ; 
Lansing and Hamilton, of New York; the two Pinckneys, of South Carolina; Paterson, of New 
Jersey ; Martin, of Maryland ; Dickenson, of Delaware ; and Dr. Williamson, of North Carolina. 




Fran'KLIN IX THE Natioxal Coxteijtiox. 



1789.] CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 359 

great diversities of opinion, ' and it seemed, after several days, that the conven- 
tion must, of necessity, dissolve without accomplishing any thing. Some pro- 
posed a final adjournment. At this momentous crisis, Dr. Franklin arose, and 
said to the President, " How has it happened, sir, that while groping so long 
in the dark, divided in our opinions, and now ready to separate without accom- 
plishing the great objects of our meeting, that we have hitherto not once thought 
of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate our understandings ? 
In the beginning of the contest with Britain, when we were sensible of danger, 
we had daily prayers in this room for divine protection. Our prayers, sir, 
were heard, and graciously answered." After a few more remarks, ho moved 
that " henceforth, prayers, imploring the assistance of Heaven, and its blessings 
on our deliberations, be held in this Assembly every morning before we proceed 
to business." The resolution was not adopted, as the convention, excepting 
three or four members, thought prayers unnecessary, because in this case they 
■would be merely formal. Objections were also made, because there were no 
funds to defray the expenses of such clerical services. 

After long and animated debates, the Convention referred all proposition.^;, 
reports, etc., which had been agreed to from time to time, to a Committee of 
Detail, consisting of Rutledge, Randolph, Gorham, Ellsworth," and Wilson. 
The Convention then adjourned, and ten days afterward [August 6, 1787] it 
met, and that committee reported a rough sketch of the Constitution, as it now 
stands. Now, again, long and sometimes angry debates were had. Amend- 
ments were made, and all were referred to a committee for final revision. 
That committee submitted the following resolution on the 12th of September, 
which was adopted : 

' Edmund Randolph submitted a plan on the 29th of May, in a series of Rcsohitions, which was 
known as the " Virginia Plan." It proposed to form a general governraeut, compo.sed of a legislature, 
and an executive and judiciary department ; a revenue, and an army and navy, independent of the 
control of the several States ; to have power to conduct war, estabhsh peace, and make treaties ; to 
have the exclusive privilege of coining money, and the gener.al supervision of all national trans- 
actions. Upon general principles, this plan was highly approved ; but in that Convention there 
were many ardent and pure patriots, who looked upon the preservation of the State sovereignties 
as essential, and regarded this proposition as an infringement upon State Rights. Mr. Paterson 
also submitted a plan for amending the Articles of Confederation. It proposed to enlarge the 
powers of Congress, but left its resources and supplies to be found through the medium of the State 
governments. This was one of the most serious defects of the old League — a dependence of the 
general government upon the State governments for its vitality. Other propositions were submitted 
from time to time, and the most intense solicitude was felt by every member. Subjects of the most 
vital interest wore ably discussed, from day to day ; but none created more earnest debate than a 
proposition for the general government to assume tlie debts of the States contracted in .providing 
means for carrying on the war. The debts of the several States were unequal. Those of Massa- 
chusetts and South Carolina amounted to more than ten millions and a half of dollars, while the 
debts of all the other States did not extend, in the aggreg.ate, to fifteen millions. This assumption 
was finally made, to the amount of twenty-one millions five hundred thousand dollars. See 
page 370. 

" Oliver Ellsworth was one of the soundest men in the Convention, and was ever one of tho 
most beloved of the New England patriots. He was born in Windsor, Connecticut, in April, 1745. 
He was educated at Yale College, and at Princeton, and at the age of twenty-five, he commenced 
tho practice of law at Hartford. He w.as an eloquent speaker, and became very eminent in his 
profession. He was a member of the Continental Congress in 1777, and in 1784 he was appointed 
Judge of the Superior Court of Connecticut. He was the first United States senator fi-om Connect- 
icut, under the new Constitution, and in 1796 he was appointed Chief Justice of the United States. 
He was an embassador to the French court from 1799 to 1801. He died in November, 1807, at 
the age of sixty -two years. See next page. 



360 



THE EEVOLTJTION. 



[1782. 



^^ Resolved tinanimously, That the said report, -with the resolutions and 
letters accompanying the same, be transmitted to the several Legislatures, in 
order to be submitted to a convention of delegates chosen in each State by 
the people thereof, in conformity to the resolves of the Convention, made and 
provided, in that case." 




M^ %u^^ 



The new Constitution, when submitted to the people,' found many and able 
opposers. State supremacy, sectional interests, radical democracy, all had nu- 
merous friends, and these formed the phalanx of opposition. All the persuasive 
eloquence of its advocates, with pen and speech, was needed to convince the 
people of its superiority to the Articles of Oonfederation, and the necessity for 
its ratification. Among its ablest supporters was Alexander Hamilton," whose 



' The Convention agreed to the revised Constitution on the 15th of September, and on the 17tli 
it was signed by the representatives of all tlie States then present, except Randolph, Gerry, and 
Mason. The Constitution was submitted to Congress on the 28th, and that body sent copies of it 
to all tlie State Legislatures, State Conventions were then called to consider it ; and more than a 
year elapsed before the requisite number of States had ratified it. These performed that act in the 
following order: Delaware, Dec. 7, 1787; Pennsylvania, Dea 12, 1787; New Jer.sey, Dec. 18, 
1787; Georgia, Jan. 2, 1788; Connecticut, Jan. 9, 1788; Massachusetts, Feb. 6, 1788; Maryland, 
April 28, 1788; South Carolina, May 23, 1788; New Hampshire, June 21, 1788; Virginia, June 
26, 1788; New York, July 2G, 1788; North CaroUna, Nov. 21, 1788; Rhode Island, May 29, 
1790. 

' Alexander Hamilton was bom on the Island of Nevis, British West Indies, in January, 1757. 
He was of Scotch and French parentage. He became a clerk to a New York merchant at St. 
Croix, and he was finally brought to New York to be educated. He was at King's (now Columbia) 
College, and was distinguished as a good speaker and WTiter, while yet a mere lad. When the Rev- 
olution broke out, he espoused the Republican cause, entered the army, became Washington's favor- 
ite aid and secretary, and was an efficient officer until its close. He made the law his profession, 
and, as an able financier, he was made the first Secretary of the Treasury, under the new Constitu- 



1789.] CLOSING EVENTS OF THE TVAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 361 

pen and sword had been identified with the career of Washington during almost 
the whole War for Independence. He gave to its advocacy the whole weight of 
his character and power of his genms ; and, aided by Jay and Madison, he scat- 
tered broadcast among the people, those able papers called Tk Federalist. 
These, like Paine's Crisis, stirred the masses ; and soon eleven States, in Con- 




vention assembled, gave the National Constitutioa their support, and ratified 
it. Congress then fixed the time for choosing electors for President and Vice- ' 
President,' and provided for the organization of the new government. On ' 
Wednesday, the 4th day of March, 1789, the old Continental Congress- ex- 
pired, and the National Constitution became the organic law of the 
Republic. This was the crowning act of the War for Independence,' and 
then the United States of America commenced their glorious career as a 
powerful empire among the nations of the earth. 



tion. He was shot in a duel, by Aaron Burr, in July, 1804, at the early age of forty-seven years. 
His widow, daughter of General Schuyler, died in November, 1854, in the ninety-seventh year of 
her age. 

' These are men elected by the people in the various States, to meet and choose a President and 
Vice-President of the United States. Their number is equal to the whole number of Senators and 
Representatives to which the several States .ire entitled. So the people do not vote directly for the 
Chief Magistrate. Formerly, the man who received the highest number of votes was declared to 
be President, and he who received the next highest number was proclaimed Vice-President. Now 
these are voted for as distinct candidates for separate offices. See Article II. of the National Con- 
stitution, Supplement. The first electors were chosen on the first Wednesday in February, 1789. The 
inauffuration of the first President did not take place [page 3G6] until the 30th of April following. 

'>age 226. 

^ For details of the history, biography, scenery, reUcs, and traditions of the War for Independ- 
ence, see Lossing's Pictorial Field Book of the Revolution. 



362 



THE REVOLUTION. 



[1T82. 



Congress was in session at New York while the Convention at Philadelphia 
was busy in preparing the National Constitution. During that time it disposed 
of the subject of organizing a Territorial Government for the vast region north- 
ward of the Ohio River, within the domain of the United States.' On the 11th 
of July, 1787, a committee of Congress reported " An Ordinance for the Gov- 
ernment of the Territory of the United States North-west of the Ohio." This 




report embodied a bill, whose provisions in regard to personal liberty and distri- 
bution of property, were very important. It contained a special proviso that 
the estates of all persons dying intestate, in the territory, should be equally 
divided among all the children, or next of kin in equal degree, thus striking 
down the unjust law of primogeniture, and asserting a more republican prin- 
ciple. The bill, also, pi'ovided and declared, that "there shall be neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude in the said territory, otherwise than in the 
punishment of crimes whereof the party shall have been duly convicted." This 
ordinance was adopted on the 13th, after adding a clause relative to the reclam- 
ation of fugitives from labor, similar to tli.at incorporated in tbe National Con- 
stitution a few weeks later." 

This ordinance, together with the fact that Indian titles to seventeen mil- 
lions of acres of land in that region, had been lately extinguished by treaty 



' Page 390. 



' See tlie National Constitution, Article IV.. Section 1, Clause 3 



1789.J CLOSING EVENTS OF THE WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 3G3 

with several of the dusky tribes,' caused a sudden and great influx of immi- 
grants into the country along the northern banks of the Ohio. Manasseh Cut- 
ler, Rufus Putnam, Winthrop Sargent, and other New Englanders, organized 
the " Ohio Company," and entered into a contract for the sale of a tract of five 
millions of acres, extending along the Ohio from the Muskingum to the Scioto.^ 
A similar contract was entered into with John Cleves Symmes, of New Jersey, 
for the sale of two milhons of acres, between the Great and Little Miamis. 
These were the first steps taken toward the settlement of the vast North-iocsl 
Territory, which embraced the present States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Mich- 
igan, and Wisconsin. It was estimated that, during the year following the 
organization of that Territory [1788], full twenty thousand men, women, and 
children had passed down the Ohio River, to become- settlers upon its banks. 
Since, then, how wonderful has been the progress of settlement beyond the 
Alleghanies ! How wide and deep has been the ever-flowing tide of emigration 
thither! The original thirteen States have now [18(57] expanded into 
TiiiRTT-EiGiiT, and vast territoi'ies, destined to become numerous other States, 
are rapidly filling with people.' 



' The Six Nations [page 25], the Wyandots [page 2:!], the Delawares [page 20], and tlio 
Sbawnees [page 19]. 

' Rufus Putnam, who had been an active officer during the War for Independence, was one of 
the most efficient of the Ohio settlers. He was born in Worcester county, Massaclmsetts, in 1738. 
He entered the provincial army in 1757, and continued in service during the remainder of the 
French and Indian War. He entered the army of the Revolution in 1775, and at near tlie close of 
the war, he was promoted to brigadier-general He went to tlie Ohio country, witli abcut forty 
settlers, in 1788. They pitelied their tents at the mouth of the Muslcingum River, formed a settle- 
ment, and called it Marietta. Suspicious of the Indians, they built a stockade, and called it Canptis 
Martins. In 1780, President Washington commissioned General Putnam Supreme Judge of tlie North- 
west Territory ; and in 1792, he was appointed a brigadier, under Wayne. He was appointed sur- 
veyor-general of the United States in 1796; helped to frame the Constitution of Ohio in 1802 ; and 
then retired to private life. He died at Marietta in 1824. at the age of eighty-six years. He is 
called the Fatuer of Ohio. 

' The following table gives the names, in alphabetical order, of tlie States that compose the 
Republic, at this time [1867], with the area of eacli in square miles, and its population in 1860: 



States. Are.^. 

Alabama. 50.73'3 

Arkansas 53,193 

Califurnia 188.981 

Colorado 104,500 

Connecticut 4,750 

Delaware 2,130 

Florida 59,243 

Georgia 53,000 

Illinois 56,410 

Indian*. 83,809 

Iowa 66,045 

Kansas 81,818 

Kentucky 37.680 

Louisiana 41,846 

Maine 35,000 

Maryland 11,124 

Massachusetts 7.S0O 

Michisan 66.451 

Minnesota. S3,531 



Sta 



964.2U1 
4.35,460 
379,994 



14ll,4')4 

1,057,286 

1,711,951 

1,350,423 

674.699 

107,206 

1,165,684 

709,003 

628.279 

687,049 

l,281,0o0 

749,113 

172,0:!3 



Area. 
47,156 
65,350 
76.995 
81,539 
9 2f,0 
8,320 



Mississippi 

Missouri 

Nebraska 

Neva^la 

New Hampshire . 

New Jersey 

New York 47,000 

North Carolina 50.704 

Ohio 39,964 

Oregon 9.i,274 

Pennsylvania 46,000 

Rhode Island. 1,306 

South Carolina 34,000 

Tennessee 45.600 

Texas 274,.35G 

Vermont 10,212 

Virginia 3S.852 ( 

West Vii-ginia 23.000 j 

m.<)U 



POPL'L 

791,895 

1.182,012 

28,841 

6.657 

826,073 

672,035 

3,880.785 
992.622 

3,839.602 
52.465 

2,9116,115 
174,620 
70.3.703 

1,109.801 
604,216 
81.5,098 

1,596,318 



Xutal 2,066,863 31,218,773 

There are also eight organized Territories in which population is rapidly increasing. Tliese 
are Arizona, Dakotah, Idaho, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, Utah, and ^Vashington. The 
aggregate area of these Territories is 935.650 square miles; and the aggregate population, in 18C0, 
was 211,113; making the grand total of the area of the Republic 3,002,013, and of population, 
31,429,891. The population at this time [June, 1867] isprobably about 40,000,000. 




&OL\EnNELR MORBIS. 



SIXTH PERIOD. 

THE NATIOX. 

CHAPTER I. 

WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 
ITSD— HDT. 

When the JViitio/tal Constitution^ had 
received the approval of the people, and 
was made the supreme law of the Repub- 
lic, all minds and hearts seemed spontaneously turned toward Washington as 
the Ijest man to perform the responsible duties of chief magistrate of the nation. 
0» the 6th of April, 1789, he was chosen President of the United States by 
the unanimous vote of the electors,' and John Adams was made Vice-President. 
The journey of Washington from Mount Vernon to New York, was like a 
triumphal march. He had scarcely left his porter's lodge, when he was met 
by a company of gentlemen from Alexandria, who escorted him to that town. 
Everywhere the people gathered to see him as he passed along the road. Towns 
sent out committees to receive him, and public addresses and entertainments 



' We have observed that Gouverneur Morris was one of the committee to make the final revision 
of the Constitution. The committee placed it in his hands, and that instrument, in language and 
general arraugcment, is the work of that eminent man. Gouverneur Morris was born near New 
York, ill 1752. He was a lawyer, and was always active in public life. In 1792 he was appointed 
min'ster to France, and after his return he was a legislator for many years. He died in 1816. 

' Note 1, page 361. 



ns9.] 



WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



365 



were given in his honor, in many places. Militia companies escorted him from 
place to place, and firing of cannons and ringing of bells, announced his approach 
to the large towns. At Trenton, his reception was peculiar and gratifying. It 
was arranged by the ladies. Over Trenton bridge an arch was thrown, which 
was adorned with laurel leaves and flowers from the conservatories. Upon tho 




crown, and formed of leaves and flowers, were the words, " December 26, 
1776 ;" ' and on the sweep beneath was the sentence, also formed of flowers : 
'•The Defender of the Mothers will be the Protector of the 
Daughters." Beneath that arch the President was met by a troupe of 
females. As he approached, a group of little girls, bearing each a basket, 
commenced strewing flowers in the road, and the whole company, young and 
old, joined in singing the following ode, written for the occasion by Governor 
Howell : 

'• Welcome, mighty chief, once more 

Welcome to this grateful shore. 

Now no merconnry foe 

Aims again the fatal blow — 

Aims at Thee the fatal blow. 

Virgins fair and matrons grave, 

Those tliy conquering arm did save, 

Build for thee triumphal bowers — 

Strew your hero's way with flowers!" 



866 



THE NATION. 



[1789. 



Washington reached New York on the 23d of April, 1789. On the 
30th lie appeared upon the street-gallery of the old City Hall' in New York, 
and there, in the presence of an immense concourse of people assembled in 
front, the oath of office was administered to him by Chancellor Livingston.' 




After delivering an impressive address to the members of both Houses of Con- 
gress, the President and the representatives of the people went in solemn pro- 
cession to St. Paul's Church, and there invoked the blessings of the Supreme 
Ruler upon the new government just inaugurated. 

Men were never called upon to perform duties of greater responsibility, than 
those which demanded the consideration of Washington and his compeers. The 
first session of Congress^ was chiefly occupied in the organization of the new 
government, and in the elaborating of schemes for the future prosperity of the 
Republic. The earliest efforts of that body were directed to the arrangement 
of a system of revenues, in order to adjust and regulate the wretched financial 

' It stood on the site of the present Custom House, corner of Wall and Broad-streets. In the 
picture on pao;e 364. a correct representation of its street-gallery is given. 

' One of the committee [note 2, page 20 1] to draft the Declaration of Independence. He was 
born in New York in 1747, became a lawyer, and was always an active public man. He was 
minister to France in 1801, when he purchased Louisiana for the United States. See page 390. Ho 
joined Robert Fulton in steamboat experiments [page 398j, and died in 1813. 

''Meiabers of the House of Rejire-seutatives are elected to seats for two years, and they 
usually hold two sessions or sittings during that time. Each full term is called a Coru/res.< 
Tliere are usually two sessions of eacli Congress, botli confmeuciug on the first Monday in De- 
cember, and the 'last ending on the 3d of March, Senators are elected by the State L^gislatiir.-s. 



1797.] WASHINaTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 367 

affairs of the country.' This subject was brought forward by Madison,^ the 
tacitly acknowledged leader in the House of Representatives, two days after the 
votes for President and Vice-President had been counted. Pursuant to his sug- 
gestion, tonnage duties were levied, and also a tariff, or duties upon foreign 
goods imported into the United States. These duties were made favorable to 
American shipping. This was the commencement of our present, though con- 
siderably modified, revenue system. 

Having made provision for the collection of revenue, Congress next turned 
its attention to the reorganization of the executive departments. Three — Treas- 
ury, War, and Foreign Affairs — were created, the heads of which were to be 
styled secretaries, instead of ministers, as in Europe. These the President 
might appoint or dismiss with the concurrence of the Senate. They were to 
constitute a cabinet council, always ready for consultation with the President, 
on public affairs, and bound to give him tlieir opinions in writing, when 
required. 

It may be instructive to take a brief retrospective view of the progress of 
legislative action concerning the commerce of the United States from the close 
of the Revolution until the time in question. In March, 1783, the younger 
Pitt^ proposed in the British Parliament, a scheme for the temporary regulation 
of commercial intercourse between Great Britain and the United States. Its 
chief feature was the free admission into the British West India ports of American 
vessels laden with the products of American industry — the West India people, 
in turn, to be allowed like free trade with the United States. The proposition 
was rejected, and soon an order went forth from the Privy Council,* for the 
entire exclusion of American vessels from West India ports, and prohibiting the 
importation there of several products of the United States, even in British bot- 
toms. Notwithstanding this unwise and narrow policy was put in force, Mr. 
Adams, the American minister at the court of St. James, proposed, in 1785, 
to place the navigation and trade between all the dominions of the British crown 
and all the territories of the United States, upon a basis of perfect reciprocity. 
This generous offer was not only declined, but the minister was haughtily 
assured that no other would be entertained. ^Vhereupon Mr. Adams imme- 
diately recommended the United States to pass navigation acts for the benefit 
of their commerce. 

Some individual States attempted to legislate upon commercial matters 
and the subject of duties for revenue, but their efforts were comparatively 
fruitless. The importance of having the united action of all the States, in 
framing general navigation laws, was clearly perceived, and this perception was 
one of the chief causes which led to the Convention that formed the National 
Constitution.'* The new government was inaugurated in due time, and, as we 
have mentioned, the earliest efforts of Congress, under the new order of things, 
were the consideration of schemes for imposing discriminating duties." These 



' Page 353. ' Note 5, pa^e 356. ' Pa'.,'e 217. 

* Note 1, page 400. ' ' Page 355. " Page 366. 



368 THE NATION. [1789. 

measures immediately opened the blind eyes of British legislators to the neces- 
sity of a reciprocity in trade between the two countries. They saw that Amer- 
ican commerce was no longer at the mercy of thirteen distinct legislative bodies, 
as under the old Confederation, nor subject to the control of the king and his 
council. They perceived that its interests were guarded and its strength nur- 
tured, by a central power, of wonderful energy, and soon haughty Britain 
became the suppliant. Soon after the passage of the revenue laws by Con- 
gress, a committee of Parliament proposed to ask the United States to con- 
sent to an arrangement precisely the same as that suggested by Mr. Adams, 
si.x years before, which was so scornfully rejected. The proposition was met 
by generous courtesy on the part of the United States ; yet it was not until 
1816, when the second war for Independence' had been some time closed, that 
reciprocity treaties fairly regulated the commerce between the two countries. 

During the period here referred to, another great commercial interest, then 
in embryo, was under contemplation and discussion, by a few men of forecast. 
It was that of the production of Cotton. Primarily it is an agi-icultural inte- 
rest, but now, when a large portion of the cotton used in Europe is grown 
in the United States, it has become a great commercial interest. Among the first 
and most powerful advocates of the cultivation of this plant, was Tench Coxe,^ of 
Philadelphia, who, as early as 1785, when he Avas only thirty years of age, ])ub- 
lished the fact that he " felt pleasing convictions that the United States, in its 
extensive regions south of Anne Arundel and Talbot comities, Maryland, woidd 
certainly become a gre.it cotton-producing country." And while the National 
Convention was in session in Piuladelphia, in 1 787,° Mr. Coxe delivered a powerful 
public address on that and kind red subjects, havingfor his object the establishment 
of a society for the encouragement of manufactures and the useful arts. Before 
that time, not a bale of cotton had ever been exported from the United States 
to any other country, and no planter had adopted its cultivation, as a " crop." * 

The Senate was engaged upon the important matter of a National judiciary, 
while the House was employed on the Revenue bills. A plan, embodied in a 
bill drafted by Ellsworth of Connecticut,* was, after several amendments, con- 
curred in by both Houses. By its provisions, a national judiciary was estab- 
lished, consisting of a supreme court, having one chief justice, and five associate 

' Page 409. 

' Tench Coxe was born in Philadelphia, in May, 1755, and, as wc have mentioned in the text, 
was one of the earliest advocates of the cotton culture. From 1 187 until his death, tliere was 
never an important industrial movement in which he was not greatly interested, or in whicli his 
name did not appear prominent. In t79i, while he was the Commissioner of Revenue, at Phila- 
delphia, he published a large octavo volume, containing his views, as expressed in speech and 
writing, on the subject of the cotton culture. In 1806, he published an essay on naval power 
and the encouragement of manufactures. The following year he published an essay on the culti- 
ration of cotton, and from time to time thereafter, he wrote and published his views on these 
suljjects. He died in July, 1824, at the age of more than sixty-eight years. See next page. 

'= Page 356. 

* It has been estimated that the entire produce of cotton, in all countries, in 1791, was four hun- 
dred and ninety millions of pounds, and that the United States produced only one twenty-fifth of 
the entire quantity. In the years 1859-60, the ten cotton-growing States of the Union produced 
four millions, six hundred and seventy-five thousand, seven hundred and seventy bales, of four 
hundred pounds each, making an aggregate of 1,870,680.000 pounds. The whole world did not 
produce as much cotton as this, annually, previous to the year 1840. ' Page 360. 



1797.] 



WASHING TO X'S ADMINISTRATION. 



369 



justices, who were to hold two sessions annually, at the seat of the National 
Government.' Circuit and district courts were also established, which had ju- 
risdiction over certain specified cases. Each State was made a district, as were 
also the Territories of Kentucky" and Maine.' The districts, except Kentucky 




and Maine, were grouped together into three circuits. An appeal from these 
lower courts to the Supreme Court of the United States, was allowed, as to 
points of law, in all civil cases when the matter in dispute amounted to two 
thousand dollars. A marshal was to be appointed by the President, for each 
district, having the general powers of a sheriff, who was to attend all courts, 
and was authorized to serve all processes. A district attorney, to act for the 
United States in all cases in which tlie National Government might be intei'- 
csted, was also to be appointed for each district. Such, ia brief outline, and 
in general terms, was the National judiciary, organized at the commencement 
of the Government, and still in force, with slight modifications. 

The next business of importance that engaged the attention of Congress, 



' Jo!in Jay [page 379] of New Tork, one of the most active and acute lawyer.^ in the country, 
was apppointed the first Chief Justice of the United States; and Edmund Randolph, of Virginia, 
was made Attorney-General. Randolph succeeded Patrick Henry as governor of Virginia, in 1781.;, 
and was very active in the Convention of 1787. See note 1, page .359. He succeeded Jeflerson as 
Secretary of State, and dfedinl813. John Rutledgo [page 210], of South Carolina; James Wilson, 
of Pennsylv.ania ; William Gushing, of Jfassachuserts ; Robert H. Harrison, of Maryl.and ; and John 
Blair, of Virginia, were appointed associate judges. " Page 377. . ' Page 45?. 

24 



370 THE NATION. [1789. 

was the proposed amendments to the National Constitution, made by the minor- 
ities of the several conventions which ratified that instrument. This subject 
was brought forward by Madison, in justice to these minorities, and pursuant 
to pledges which ho had found it necessary to give, in order to secure its ratifi- 
cation in Virginia. These amounted, in the aggregate, to one hundred and 
forty-seven,' besides separate bills of rights proposed by Virginia and New 
York. Many of these amendments were identical in spirit, as, for example, the 
nine propositions by Massachusetts were repeated by New Hampshire. And it 
is a singular fact, that of all the proposed amendments, not one, judged by sub- 
sequent experience, was of a vital character. How well this illustrates the 
profound wisdom embodied in our Constitution ! Sixteen amendments were 
finally agreed to by Congress, ten of which were subsequently ratified by the 
States, and became a part of the Supreme Law." After a session of almost 
six months. Congress adjourned, ° on the 29th of September [1789], and Wash- 
ington, having appointed his cabinet council,' made a brief tour through the 
northern and eastern States, to make himself better acquainted with the people 
and their resources.' 

On the 8th of January, 1790, the second session of the first Congress com- 
menced, during which Alexander Hamilton," the first Secretary of the Treasury, 
made some of those able financial reports which established the general line of 
national policy for more than twenty years. On his recommendation, the gen- 
eral government assumed the pulslic foreign and domestic debt incurred by the 
late war,' and also the State debts contracted during that period. The foreign 
debt, including interest, due to France and to private lenders in HolLmd, with 
a small sum to Spain, amounted to ^11,710.378. The domestic debt, regis- 
tered and unregistered, including interest, and some claims, principally the out- 
standing continental money,* amounted to $42,414,085. Nearly one third of 
this was the arrears of interest. As the government certificates, continental 

' The minority of tho Pcnnsvlvania Convention proposed 14; of Massachusetts, 9; of Maryland, 
23; of South Carohua, 4; of New Hampshire, 12; of Virginia, 20; of New York, 32. 
' See Supplement. 

° A few days bcfffe tho adjournment, a resolution was adopted, requesting the President of the 
United States to recommend a day of public thanltssiving and prayer, to be observed by the people 
of the nation, in acknowledgment of the many signal favors of the Almighty, in permitting them to 
establish, in peace, a free government. 

* Alexander Hamilton was appointed Secretary of the Treasury; 
Henry Knox, Secretary of War ; and Thomas Jefferson, Secretary 
of Foreign Affairs. Jefferson was then United States minister at the 
court of France, and did not enter upon his duties until March, 1790. 
The office of Secretary of the Navy was not created until the pres- 
idency of ilr. Adams. Naval affairs were under the control of the 
Secretary of War. General Knox was one of the most efficient 
officers of the Revolution, having, from tlio beginning, the chief com- 
mand of the artillery. He entered the army as captain of artiller}-, 
and rose to the rank of major-general. Note 4. page 350. 

' Washington was everywhere received with great honors ; and 

Trumbull, author oi iPFlnqal, wrote to his friend, Oliver Wolcott : 

GEXER.VL KXOX. " We have gone through all the popish grades of worship ; and the 

President returns all fragrant with the odor of incense." 
Note 2, page 360. 

Note 2. page 253. In that note the amount given is the principal, without the interest. 
Page 245. 




1191.] WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 371 

bills, and other evidences of debt, Tvere now held chiefly by speculators, -nho 
had purchased them at reduced rates, the idea had been put forth by prominent 
men, that it would be proper and expedient to apply a scale of depreciation, as 
in the case of the paper money toward the close of the war, ' in liquidating these 
claims. But Hamilton opposed it as dishonest and impolitic, arguing, in sup- 
port of the latter objection, that public credit was essential to the new Federal 
Government. He therefore urged that all the debts of the government should 
be met according to the terms of the contract. He proposed the funding of the 
public debt, in a fair and economical way, by which the public creditors should 
receive their promised si.x per cent, interest, until the Government should be 
able to pay the principal, the Secretary assuming that, in five years, the 
United States might effect loans at five, and even at four per cent., witli which 
these claims might bo liquidated. He proposed to have the proceeds of the 
post-ofiice' as a sinking fund, for the gradual extinction of the debt. After 
much debate, the propositions of Hamilton, in general, were agreed to by Con- 
gress, on the 9th of March, 1790.' A system of revenue from imposts and 
internal excise, proposed by Hamilton, was also adopted. A petition from 
the Society of Friends, or Quakers, presented on the 11th of February, on the 
subject of slavery, caused long, and, sometimes, acrimonious debates. An act 
was also passed, during this session, making the District of Columbia the per- 
manent seat of the National Government, after the lapse of ten years from that 
dat.^ 

The First Congress commenced its third session' in December, 1790, and 
before its close, measures were adopted which laid the foundations of public 
credit and national prosperity, deep and abiding. During the two years in 
which the new government had been engaged in the business of organization, a 
competent revenue had been provided for ; the public debt, national and State, 
had been funded, and the interest thereon had been provided for ; a national 
judiciary, wise in all its features, had been established ; and the nation, in 
its own estimation and that of other States of the world, had taken a proiid 
position in the great political family. North Carolina [Nov. 21, 1789] and 
Rhode Island [M;iy 29, 1790], bad already become members of the Nation.il 
Union, byratifying the Constitution ;°and during this session, Vermont" had been 
admitted [February 18, 1791] as a State. Settlements were now rapidly 
spreading beyond the Alleghanies,' and the subject of territorial organizations 

' Note 3, page 245. ' Page 373. 

^ The President was authorized to borrow $12,000,000, if necessary, to pay offtlie foreign debt; 
and a new loan was to be opened, payable in certificates, of the domestic debt, at their par value, 
and in continental bills of credit, at tlie rate of one hundred for one. Congress also authorized an 
additional loan, payable in certificates of the State debts, to the amount of $21,500,000. These 
certificates were those which had been issued for services or supplies, during the war. A new 
board of commissioners was appointed, with full power to settle all claims on general principles of 
equity. ' Note 3, page 366. ^ Page 360. 

" Vermont was originally called the New Hampshire Grants, and was claimed by both New 
York and New Hampshire. In 1777, the people met in convention, and proclaimed the territory 
an independent State. After purchasing the claims of New York for $30,000, it was admitted into 
the Union. 

' The first census, or enumeration of the inhabitants of the United States, was completed m 
1791. The number of all sexes and colors, was 3,929,000. The number of slaves was 695,000. 



B72 THE NATION. [1789. 

was pressed upon the conskleration of Congress. Already the North-ioestern 
Territory, as we have seen,' had been established [July, 1787], and Tennessee 
had been constituted [March 26, 1790] the Territory South-icesi of the Ohio.'' 

The suliject of a national currency early engaged the attention of Congress, 
and at the commencement of the last session of the First Congress, a bill for 
the establishment of a national bank was introduced into the Senate, in accord- 
ance with the suggestion and plan of Hamilton. At that time the whole bank- 
ing capital in the United States was only ,$2,000,000, invested in the Bank of 
North A}7ierica, at Philadelphia, established by Robert Morris ;' the Bank of 
New York, in New York city, and the Bank of Massacliusetts, in Boston. 
The charter was limited to twenty years ; its location was to be in the city of 
Philadelphia, and its management to lie intrusted to twenty-five directors. 
Although chartered in January, 1791, the National Bank did not commence 
its operations, in corporate form, until in February, 1794, when it began with 
a capital of $10,000,000. 

Early in the first session of the second Congress, the important subject of 
a national mint received the attention of the representatives of the people. That 
subject had been frequently discussed. As early as 1782, the topic of coins 
and currency had been presented to the Continental Congress, by Gouverneur 
Morris, in an able report, written at the request of Robert Morris. In 1784, 
Mr. Jefierson, as chairman of a committee appointed for the purpose, submitted 
a report, agreeing with Morris in regard to a decimal system, but entirely dis- 
agreeing with him in the details.* lie proposed to strike four coins, namely, 
a golden piece of the value of ten dollars ; a dollar, in silver ; a tenth of a dol- 
lar, in silver; and a hundredth of a dollar, in copper. In 1785, Congress 
adopted Mr. Jefferson's report, and made legal provision, the following year, 
for a coinage upon that basis. This was the origin of our cejit, dime, dollar, 
and earjle. Already several of the States had issued copper coins ;" but the 
National Constitution vested the right of coinage solely in the General Govern- 
ment. Tlie establishment of a Mint was delayed, however, and no special action 
in that direction was taken until 1790, when Mr. Jefferson, then Secretary of 

' Page 3G2. 

^ The subject of the public lands of the TJnited States has always been one of interest. The 
first act of Congress, on the subject of hmited sales, was in accordance with a scheme proposed by 
Hamilton, in 1790, wliich provided in some degree for the protection of small purchasers. Previous 
to that, not less than a tract of four thousand acres could be purchased. This was calculated to 
make labor subservient to wealth, in new settlements. Hamilton's scheme was highly approved. 
Tlie minimum price of pubhc land, previous to 1800, was two dollars per acre ; since then, one dol- 
lar and twenty-five cents. The extent of the public domain has greatly increased, by accessions, 
within a few years. At the close of 1855, there remained unsold about 96,000,000 of acres of sur- 
veyed public domain, and of the unsurveyed, about 136,000,000 of acres, worth, in the aggregate, 
about j(276,000,000. The average cost to the government, per acre, of acquiring title, surveying, 
selling, and managing, is about 22 cents per acre, while it sells at $1.25 per acre, or a net profit of 
$1.03. ' Note 3, page 263. 

' Morris attempted to harmonize the moneys of all the States. Starting with an ascertained 
fraction as an unit, fdr a divisor, he proposed the following table of moneys : 
Ten units to be equal to one penny. 
Ten pence to one bill. 

Ten bills one dollar (or about seventy-five cents of our currency). 
Ten dollars one crown. 

' Note 4, page 122. 



1797.] WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 373 

State, urged the matter upon the attention of Congress. Still there was delay, 
until on the 2d of April, 1792, laws were enacted for the establishment of a 
Mint. During three years from that time, its operations were chiefly experi- 
mental, and long debates were had concerning the devices for the new coins.' 
The Mint was finally put into full operation, in 1795," and has continued to 
increase in its issues of coin, ever since.' 

A bill for the organization of a post-office system, was passed during the 
same session that measures were adopted for the establishment of a ^lint. Very 
soon after the commencement of the first session of the first Congress, a letter 
was received from Ebenezer Hazzard [July 17, 1789], then postmaster-general 
under the old Confederation, suggesting the importance of some new regula- 
tions for that depai-tment. A bill for the temporary establishment of the post 
ofiice was passed soon afterward. The subject was brought up, from time to 
time, until the present system was organized in 1792. The postmaster-general 
was not made a cabinet officer until the first year [1829] of President Jack- 
son's administration.'' 

British agents on the north-western frontier continued to tamper with the 
Indians, and excite them to hostilities against the United States, for several 
years after the peace of 1783."^ And, contrary to the terms of that treaty, the 
British held possession of western posts belonging to the United States. These 
facts caused a prevalent l^elief that the British government yet hoped for an 
opportunity to bring the new Republic liack to colonial dependence. The pub- 
lic mind in America became excited, and the fact, that Sir John Johnston' was 
the British Indian agent on that frontier, and Sir Guy Carleton (then Lord 
Dorchester) was again governor of Canada,' strengthened that opinion and 
apprehension. Finally, in the spring of 1790, the fostered discontents of the 
Indians were developed into open hostilities. Attempts at pacific arrangements 
were fruitless, and General Harmer was sent into the Indian country north of 
the present Cincinnati, with quite a strong force, to desolate their villages and 



' The Senate proposed the head of the President of the United States who should occupy the 
chair at the time of the coinage. In the House, the head of Liberty was suggested, as being less 
aristocratic than that of the President — having less the stamp of royalty. The head of Liberty was 
finally adopted. 

" The first mint was located in Philadelphia, and remained the sole issuer of coin, in the United 
States, until 1835, when a branch was established in each of the States of Georgia, North Carolina, 
and Louisiana — in Charlotte, Dahlonega, and New Orleans. These three branches went into oper- 
ation in theyears 1837-38. 

' From 1793 to 1705, inclusive, the value of the whole issue was less than half a million of 
dollars. Previous to tiie year 183U, almost the entu-e supply of gold for our coinage was fur- 
nished by foreign counti'ies. North ijarolina was the first Slate of the Union that sent gold to 
the Mint from its mines. Since then, ahnost every State has made contributions, some very 
small During the fiscal year ending in June, 1861, when the Civil War was kindling, the value 
of the entire issue of coin, by the Government Mint and its branches, was §84,000,000. The 
discovery of gold in California, in 1848, opened an immense treasury, and, up to the beginning 
of the war, that was tlie only great gold producing region within the Republic. Of the entire 
amount of gold, from domestic mines, deposited in tlie Jlint up to 18G0, valued at $489,311,000, 
$469,406,003 was sent from Cahfornia. Adjacent territories are now [18G7] yielding largely. 

■* Page 459. The operations of the post-office department increased very rapidly year after 
year. In 1795, the number of post-office routes was 45:'.; over 13.207 miles of traveh The 
revenue of the department was $160,620. When tlie Civil War began, in ISGI, the number of 
routes was about 9,000 ; the number of miles traveled, full 260,000; and the revenue nearly 
$9,000,000. ' Page 348. ^ Note 2, page 278. ' Page 240. 



374 T HI? NATION. [1189. 

crops, as Sullivan did those of the Senecas in 1779.' In this he succeeded, but 
in two battles [Oct. 17 and 22, 1790], near the present village of Fort Wayne, 
in Indiana, he was defeated, with considerable loss. The following year, an 
expedition of Kentucky volunteers, under General Scott, marched against the 
Indians on the Wabash. General Wilkinson led a second expedition against 
them, in July following, and in September, General St. Clair," then governor 
of the North-west Territory, marched into the Indian country, with two thou- 
sand men. While in camp near the northern line of Darke county, Ohio, on 
the borders of Indiana, he was surprised and defeated [Nov. 4, 1791] by the 
Indians, with a loss of about nine hundred men, killed and wounded. 

The defeat of St. Clair produced great alarm on the whole north-western 
frontiei-. Even the people of Pittsburg' did not feel secure, and the border 
settlers called loudly for help. Fortunately the Indians did not follow up the 
advantage they had gained, and for a while hostilities ceased. Commissioners 
were appointed to treat with them, but through the interference of British 
officials, their negotiations were fruitless. General Wayne' had been appointed, 
in the mean while, to succeed St. Clair in military command, and apprehend- 
ing that the failure of the negotiations would be followed by an immediate 
attack upon the frontier settlements, he marched into the Indian country in the 
autumn of 1793. He spent the winter at Greenville,'' near the place of St. 
Clair's defeat, where he built Fort Recovery. The following summer [1794] 
he pushed forward to the Maumee River, and built Fort Defiance ;" and on the 
St. Mary's he erected Fort Adams as an intermediate post. On the 16th of 
August he went down the Maumee, with three thousand men, and not far from 
the present Maumee City,' he fought and defeated the Indians, on the 20th of 
the same month. He then laid waste their country, and after a successful 
campaign of about ninety days, he went into winter quarters at Greenville. 
There, the following year, the chiefs and warriors of the western tribes, in all 
about eleven hundred, met [August 8, 1795] commissioners of the United 
States, made a treaty of peace, and ceded to the latter a large tract of land in 
the present States of Michigan" and Indiana. After that, the United States 
had very little trouble with the western Indians until just before the breaking 
out of the war of 1812-15." 

Party spirit, whicli had been engendered during the discussions of the 
National Constitution,'" gradually assumed distinct forms, and during the second 
session of the second Congress, it became rampant among the people, as well as 
in the national legislature. Hamilton and Jefferson, the heads of distinct 
departments" in Washington's cabinet, differed materially concerning important 
public measures, and then, under the respective leadership of those statesmen, 

' Page 304. ' Page 21G. ' Page 205. * Page 29S. ' In Darke county, Ohin. 

° At the junction of the Au Glaize with the Maumee River, in the south-east part of William's 
county, Ohio. 

' In the town of "Waynesfield. The British then occupied a fort at the Maumee Eapids, 
near by. 

° flie British held possession of Detroit, and nearly all Michigan, until 179G. See page 380. 

° Page 409. " Pago 360. " Page 367. 




■Wayxe's Defeat of the Ixmaxs. 



1797.] WASHINGTON'S ADMINISTRATION. 377 

were drawn those lines of party distinction known as Federalist and Repub- 
lican, which continued for a quarter of a century. The Federalist party was ) 
composed of those who favored great concentration of power in the general gov- -^ 
ernment. The Republicans, on the contrary, were for diffusing power among 
the people. Here were antagonistic points of great difference, and the warfare 
between the parties was acrimonious in the e.Ktreme. 

During the summer of 1792, very little of public interest occurred, except 
the admission [June 1] of Kentucky' into the Union, but the marshalling of 
forces for the presidential election, which was to take place in the autumn. 
Washington yearned for the quiet of private life, and had expressed his deter- 
mination to withdraw from public station on the expiration of his presidential 
term ; but it was made evident to his mind, that the great majority of the 
people desired his continuance in office, and that the public safety demanded 
it. Under these circumstances, he consented to be a candidate, and he and 
Adams were re-elected by large majorities. 

Yet the Republican party was daily gaining strength, partly from develop- 
ments within the body politic of the United States, and partly from events then 
transpiring in Europe. A bloody revolution was in progress in France. The 
people thei'e had abolished monarchy, and murdered their king, and the new 
Republic in name (a political chaos in reality), having the avowed sympathies 
of the Republican party in America,^ sent M. Genet^ as its minister to the 
United States, to obtain the co-operation of the American people. The French 
Republic had declared Avar against England, Spain, and Holland, and needed 
transatlantic assistance. Remembering the recent alliance,' and sympathizing 
with all efforts for popular freedom, the Republican party here, and also many 
of the Federalists, received Genet (who arrived at Charleston, South Carolina, 
in April, 1793) with open arms, and espoused his cause. 

But Genet's zeal outstripped his prudence, and defeated his plans. With- 
out waiting for an expression of opinions or intentions from the government of 
the United Si;ates, he began to fit out privateers^ in our ports, to depredate 
upon English, Dutch, and Spanish property ;° and when AVashington prudently 
issued [jMay 9, 1793] a proclamation, declaring it to be the duty and the inter- 



' Kentucky, which had been settled chiefly by Virginians, and was claimed as a part of the 
territory of that State, was now erected into a sovereign member of the confederation. Its first 
settlement, as we have seen [note 2, page 300], was at Boonesboro', by Daniel Boone, in 1775. 

" There was a general burst of enthusiasm in the United States, on receipt of the iutelligence of 
the advent of Liberty in France, and public demonstrations of it were made in several places. In 
Boston, an ox, roasted whole, was placed upon a car drawn by sixteen horses, and with tlie Amer- 
ican and French flags displayed from its horns, was paraded through the streets, followed by carts, 
bearing bread and two hogsheads of punch, which were distributed among the people. A civic 
feast was held at Faneuil Hall, over which Samuel Adams [note 1, page 221] presided. In Pliil- 
adelphia the anniversary of the French alliance [page 283] was celebrated by a pubUc dinner, at 
which General Mifflin [page 352] presided ; and in other places festivals were held. 

' Edmund Charles Genet was the son of a distinguished public man in France. He married, in 
this country, a daughter of Governor George Clinton [note 5. page 350]. and remained in the 
United States. He died at Greenbush, opposite Albany, in 1834, aged about seventy-two years. 

■* Page 283. ^ Note 1, page 246. 

° These cruisers brought captured vessels into our ports, and French consuls actually held 
courts of admiralty, and authorized the sale of the prizes. All this was done before Genet was 
recognized as a minister by tlie American government. 



278 THE NATION. ln89. 

est of the people of the United States to preserve a strict neutrality toward the 
contending powers of Europe, Genet persisted, and tried to excite hostility 
between our people and their government. Washington finally requested and 
obtained his recal, and Fauchet, who succeeded him in 1794, was instructed to 
assure the President that the French government disapproved of Genet's con- 
duct. No doubt the prudence and firmness of Washington, at this time, saved 
our Republic from utter ruin. 

A popular outbreak in western Pennsylvania, known in history as The 
Whiskey Insurrection, gave the new government much trouble in 1794. An 
excise law, passed in 1791, which imposed duties on domestic distilled liquors, 
was very unpopular. A new act, passed in the spring of 1794, was equally 
unpopular ; and when, soon after the adjournment of Congress, officers were 
sent to enforce it in the western districts of Pennsylvania, they were resisted 
by the people, in arms. The insurrection became general throughout all that 
region, and in the vicinity of Pittsburg many outrages were committed. 
Buildings were burned, mails were robbed, and government officers were in- 
sulted and abused. At one time there were between si.x; and seven thousand 
insurgents under arms. The local militia would have been utterly impotent to 
restore order, if their aid had been given. Indeed, most of the militia assem- 
bled in response to a call made by the leaders of the insurgents, and these com- 
posed a large portion of the " rebels." The insurgent spirit extended into the 
border counties of Virginia ; and the President and his cabinet, perceiving, with 
alarm, this imitation of the lawlessness of French politics, took immediate steps 
to crush the growing hydra. The President first issued two prochimations 
[August 7, and September 25], but without effect. After due consideration, 
and the exhaustion of all peaceable means, ho ordered out a large body of the 
militia of Virginia, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey, who marched to 
the insurgent district, in October [1794], under the command of General 
Henry Lee, then governor of Virginia.' This last argument was effijctual ; and 
soon this insurrection, like that of Shays's, of Massachusetts, some years 
earlier," which threatened the stability of the National Government, was 
allayed. 

Another cloud was now rising in the political horizon. While these inter- 
nal commotions were disturbing the puldic tranquillity, a bitter feeling was 
growing up between the American and British governments. Each accused 
the other of infi-actions of the treaty of 1783,^ and the disputes, daily assuming 
a more bitter tone, threatened to involve the two nations in another war. The 
Americans complained that no indemnification had been made for negroes car- 
ried away at the close of the Revolution ;' that the Britisii held military posts 
on their frontiers, contrary to the treaty ;'' that British emissaries had excited 
the hostility of the Indians ;° and that, to retaliate on France, the English had 

■ Page 333. ' Pago 353. ' Page 348. 

* During the last two years of the war in the Carolinas and Georgia, and at the final evacua- 
tion, the British plundered many plantations, and sold the negroes in the West Indies. 

^ Note 8, page 374. " Page 373. 



1797.] 



THE NATION. 



3T9 



captured our neutral vessels, and impressed our seamen into the British service/ 
The British complained that stipulations concerning the property of loyalists,' 
and also in relation to debts contracted in England before the Revolution, had 
not been complied with. In order to avert an event so very undesirable as 
a war with Great Britain, the President proposed to send a special envoy to the 
British court, in hopes of bringing to an amicable settlement, all matters m 
dispute between the two governments. The N.atioiial Legislature approved of it, 




.M^^Jc 



'^zy- 



and on the 19th of April, 1794, John Jay" was appointed an envoy extraordi- 
nary for the purpose. 

The special minister of the United States was received with great courtesy 
in England, where he arrived in June ; and he negotiated a treaty which, at the 
time, was not very satisfactory to a large portion of his countrymen. It hon- 
estly provided for the collection of debts here, by British creditors, which had 

• This practice was one of the causes which finally produced a war between the two nations, 
in 1812. See page 409. 

' The loj'alists, or Tories [note 4, page 226], who had fled from the country during the prog- 
ress, or at tlie close of the War for Independence, and whose property had been confiscated, 
endeavoured to regain their estates, and also indemnity for their other losses. The British govern- 
ment Anally paid to these suSerers more than $15,000,000. 

' John .Jay was a descendant of a H\iguenot family [page 49], and was born in the city of New 
York in 174.3. Ho was early in the ranks of active piitriots, and rendered very important services 
during the Revolution Alter the war he was one of the most efficient of our countrymen in laying 
the foundations of our National Government, and of establishing the civil government of his 
native State, of which he was chief magistrate at one time. He retired from public life In 1801, 
and died in 18211, at the age of eighty-four years. His residence was at Bedforcl 'Westchester 
countv, New York. 



380 



(THE NATION. 



[1789. 



been contracted before tbe Revolution, but it procured no redress for those who 
had lost negroes. It secured indemnity for unlawful captures on the seas, and 
the evacuation of the forts on the frontiers (yet held by the British), by the 1st 
of June, 1796. In order to secure certain points of great importance, Jay was 




compelled to yield others ; and he finally signed a treaty, defective, in some 
things, and objectionable in others, but the best that could then be obtained. 
The treaty gave rise to violent debates in Congress," and in State Legislatures, 
but was ratified by the Senate on the 24th of June, 1795." The wisdom, 

' The debates, on that occasion, developed talent of the highest order, and present a memorable 
epoch in the history of American politics and statesmanship. Albert Gallatin then established 
his title to the leadership of the opposition in the House of Representatives, while Fisher Ames, in a 
speech of wonderful power, in fiivor of the treaty and the Administration, won for himself the 
laurels of an unrivaled orator. He was then in feeble health ; and when he arose to speak, thin 
and pale, he could hardly support himself on his feet, and his voice was feeble. Strength seemed 
to come as he warmed with the subject, and his eloquence and wisdom poured forth a.s from a 
mighty and inexhaustible fountain. So powerful was his speecli, that a member opposed to him 
moved that the question on which he had spoken should be postponed until the next day, " that 
they should not act under the influence of an excitement of which their calm judgment might not 
approve." In allusion to this speech, John Adams bluntly said: "There wasn't a dry eye in the 
House, except some of the jackasses that occasioned the necessity of the oratory." Fisher Ames 
was born in Dedham, Massachusetts, in April, 1756. His health was delicate from infancy. He 
was so precocious that he commenced the study of Latin when six years of age, and was admitted 
to Harvard College at the age of twelve. He chose the law for a profession, and soon stood at the 
head of the bar in his native district. He was a warm advocate of the Federal Constitution. He 
was the first representative of his district in the National Congress. He died on the 4tli ol 
July, 1808, at the age of forty -eight years. 

' Great excitement succeeded. In several cities mobs threatened personal violence to the sup- 



1797.] ■R^ASHINGTOX'S ADMINISTRATION. 381 

and policy, and true patriotism of Mr. Jay were soon made manifest. In Oc- 
tober following, a treaty was concluded with Spain, by which the boundaries be- 
tween the Spanish territories of Louisiana and Florida, and the United States. 
were defined. That treaty also secui-ed to the United States the free naviga- 
tion of the Mississippi, and the use of New Orleans, as a port, for ten years. 

As soon as one excitement was fairly allayed, causes for others appeared ; 
and during the whole time of Washington's administration of eight years, when 
the policy of the new government had to be established, and its machinery put 
in operation, the greatest wisdom, circumspection, and conservative action, on 
the part of officials, were continually demanded. Difficulties appeared like 
little clouds on the distant horizon, sometimes as mere specks, at others, in 
alarming shapes. These were chiefly in connection with trade, especially in 
foreign lands. American commerce was rapidly expanding, and now began to 
find its way into the Mediterranean Sea. There it was met by Algerine 
pirates, who seized the merchandise, and held the seamen in captivity, in order 
to procure ransom-money. These depredations, which finally gave rise to efforts 
to organize a navy, had continued many years before the government took 
active measures to suppress them. President Washington called the attention 
of Congress to the subject, toward the close of 1790 ; and at the same time, 
Jefferson, then Secretary of State, gave many interesting details, in his annual 
report, on the subject of these piracies. A commissioner was sent to treat with 
the Dey, or Governor, of Algiers on the subject, but that semi-barbarian robber 
argued in reply : " If I were to make peace with everybody, what should I do 
with my corsairs ? -what should I do with my soldiers ? They would take off 
my head for the want of other prizes, not being able to live on their miserable 
allowance." 

In the spring of 1794, Congress, on account of these depredations, passed 
an Act to provide for a naval armament, and appi'opriated almost seven hun- 
dred thousand dollars for the purpose. But the United States, in the absence 
of the proposed navy, was compelled to make a treaty of peace in the autumn 
of 1795 [November 28], with the Dey of Algiers, by which an annual 
tribute was to be given for the redemption of captives, in accordance with the 
long-established usages of European nations.' This was humiliating, but could 
not then be avoided. Congress had given the President power to provide by 
purchase or otherwise, and equip, several vessels. To this end he put forth 
his energies immediately, and in July [179-t], he commissioned captains and 
superintendents, naval constructors and navy agents, six each, and ordered the 
construction of six ships. The treaty with the Dey of Algiers caused work on 

pnrters of the treaty. Mr Jay was burned in efBgy [note 6, page 215], Mr. Hamilton was stoned 
at a public meeting, and the British minister at Philadelphia was insulted. 

' Between the years 1785 and 1793, the Algerine pirates captured and carried into Algiers, 
fifteen American vessels, used tlie property, and made one hundred and eiglity officers and seamen 
slaves of the most revolting kind. In 1795, the United States agreed, by treaty, to pay eight hun- 
dred thousand dollars for captives, then alive, and in addition, to make the dey, or governor, a 
present of a frigate worth a hundred thousand dollars. An annual triljute of twenty-three thousand 
dollars was also to be paid. This was complied with until the breaking out of the war of 1812. 
See pages 390 and 445. 



382 THE JTATION. [1789. 

these vessels to be suspended in 1795. Soon the folly of not completing the 
little navy, so well begun, was made manifest, when British cruisers commenced 
the practice of taking seamen from American vessels, and impressing them into 
the English service.' The ships of the French Republic soon afterward com- 
menced depredations upon American commerce ; and in 1797, when war with 
that government seemed inevitable," Congress, on the urgent recommendation 
of President Adams, caused the frigates United States, Constellation, and 
Constitution to be completed, equipped, and sent to sea. This was the com- 
mencement of the American navy,' which, in after years, though weak in num- 
bers, performed many brilliant exploits. From this time the navy became the 
cherished arm of the national defense ; and chiefly through its instrumentality, 
the name and power of the United States began to be properly appreciated in 
Europe, at the beginning of the present century. 

Now [1796J, the administration of Washington was drawing to a close. It 
had been one of vast importance and incessant action. All disputes with 
foreign nations, except France,' had been adjusted ; government credit was 
established, and the nation was highly prosperous.^ The embryos of new em- 
pires beyond the Alleghanies, had been planted ; and the last year of his admin- 
istration was signalized by the admission [June, 1796] of Tennessee into the 
Union of States, making the number of confederated republics, sixteen. 

During the closing months of Washington's administration, the first great 
struggle among the people of the United States, for ascendancy between the 
Federalists and Rcjubl icons," took place. The only man on whom the nation 
now could possibly unite, was about to retire to private life.' He issued his 
admirable Farewe'l Address to his countrymen — that address so full of wis- 
dom, patriotism, and instruction — early in the autumn of 1796 [September 19], 
and then the people were fully assured that some other man must be chosen to 
fill his place. There was very little time for preparation or electioneering, for 
the choice must be made in November following. Activity the most extraordi- 
nary appeared among politicians, in every part of the Union. The Federalists 
nominated John Adams for the high office of Chief Magistrate, and the Repub- 
licans nominated Thomas Jefferson for the same. The contest was fierce, and 
party spirit, then in its youthful vigor, was implacable. The result was a vic- 

" Page 401. ' Page 385. 

° Congress had created the office of Secretary of the Navy, as an executive department, and on 
the 30th of April, 1798, Benjamin Stodert of Georgetown, in the District of Columbia, was 
appointed to that chair. Hitherto the business of the war and navy departments had been per- 
formed by the Secretary of War. 

' The French government was highly displeased because of the treaty made with England, by Mr. 
Jay, and even adopted hostile measures toward the United States. It wanted the Americans to 
show an active participation with the French in hatred of the English, and therefore the strict neu- 
trality observed by Washington, was exceedingly displeasing to the French Committee of Public 
Safety. The conclusion of ihe treaty with Algiers, independently of French intervention, and the 
success of the negotiation with Spain, excited the jealousy of the French rulers. In a word, 
because the United States, having the strength, assumed the right to stand alone, the French were 
offended, and threatened the grown-up child with personal chastisement. 

' Commerce had wonderfully expanded. Tlie exports had, in five years, increased from nine- 
teen millions of dollars to more than fifty -six millions of dollars, and the imports in about the same 
ratio. " Page 377. 



1801.] 



ADAMS'S ADillNISTRATIOX. 



383 



tory for both parties — Adams being elected President, and Jefferson, having 
the next highest number of votes, was chosen Vice-President.' On the 4th of 
March, 1797, Washington retired from office, and Adams was inaugurated the 
second President of the United States. The great leader of the armies in the 
War for Independence was never again enticed from the quiet pursuits of agri- 
culture at jMount Vernon, to the performance of pfiblic duties. 



CHAPTER II. 

ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. [179' 



•18 1.] 



John Adajis' was in the si.xtj-second year of his age when, dressed in a 
full suit of pearl-colored broadcloth, and with powdered hair, he stood in Inde- 
pendence Hall [March 4, 1797J, in Philndclphia, and took the oath of office, 




fif/i^y(^mtJ 



'^ The whole number of electoral votes [see note 1, pa<re 361] was one hundred and tliirty-eight, 
making seventy necessary to a choice. John Adams received seventy-one, and Jefferson sixty-seven. 

^ John Adams was born at Braiiitree, Massachusetts, in October, \'?,h. He cliose the law as a 
profession, but being a good vmXzx and fair speal^er, lie entered tlie political field quite early, and 
with Hancock, Otis, and others, he took an active part in the earlier Revolutionarv movements, in 
Boston and vicinity. Ho was a member of the Continental .Congress, from which he was trans- 
ferred to the important post of a minister to the French and other courts in Errope. He was one 
of the most industrious men m Congress. In the course of the eighteen months preceding his de- 



884 



THE NATION. 



[1T97 



as President of the United States, administered by Ciiief Justice Ellsworth.' 
He was pledged, by his acts and declarations, to the general policy of Washing- 
ton's administration, and he adopted, as his own, the cabinet council left by his 
predecessor.^ He came into office at a period of great trial for the Republic. 
Party spirit and sectional differences were rife in its bosom, and the relations 
cif the United States with Franco were becoming more and more unfriendly. 




Already Charles Coteswortli Pinckncy, the American minister at the French 
court, had been ordered to leave their territory by the Directory, then the su- 
preme executive power in France." Depredations iipon American commerce 
had also been authorized by them ; and the French minister in the United 



parture for Europe, Mr. Adams had been on ninety different committees, and was chairman of 
thirty-five of them. He was, at one time, intrusted with no less than six missions abroad, namely, 
to treat for peace with Great Britain ; to make a commercial treaty with Great Britain ; to negoti- 
ate the same with the States General of Holland ; the same with the Prince of Orange ; to pledge 
the faith of the United States to the Armed Neutrality ; and to negotiate a loan of ten millions of 
dollars. He was a signer of the Declaration of Independence ; and died on tlie fiftieth anniversary 
of that great act [1826], with the words "Independence forever!" upon his lips. He was in the 
ninety-second year of his age. See page 459. ' Page 360. 

^ Timothy Pickering, Secretary of State; Oliver "Wolcott, Secretary of the Treasury; James 
M'Henry, Secretary of AVar ; and Charles Lee, Attorney-General. "Washington's tirst cabinet had 
all resigned during the early part of his second term of office (the President is elected for four years), 
and the above-named gentlemen were appointed during 1795 and 179G. 

' The Republican government of Franco was administered by a council called the Directory. It 
was composed of five members, who ruled in connection with two representative bodies, called, re- 
spectively, the Council of Ancients, and the Council of Five Hundred. The Directory was the head, 
or executive power of tlie government. 



1801.] ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. 385 

States had grossly insulted the government. President Adams perceived the 
necessity of prompt and energetic action, and he convened an extraordinary 
session of Congress, on the 15th of May. With the concurrence of the Senate, 
the President appointed [July] three envoys,' with Pinckney at their head, to 
proceed to France, and endeavor to adjust all diflBculties. They met at Paris, 
in October, but were refused an audience with the Directory, unless they 
should first pay a large sum of money into the French treasury. Overtures 
for this purpose were made by unoiEcial agents. The demand was indignantly 
refused; and then it was that Pinckney uttered that noble sentiment, " Mil- 
lions for defense, but not one cent for ti-ibute !" The two Federalist envoys 
(Marshall and Pinckney) were ordered out of the country, while Mr. Gerry, 
who was a Republican, and whoso party sympathized with the measures of 
France, was allowed to remain. The indignant people of the United States 
censured Mr. Gerry severely for remaining. He, too, soon found that nothing 
could be accomplished with the French rulers, and ho returned home. 

The fifth Congress assembled at Philadelphia, on the 13th of November, 
1797. Perceiving the vanity of further attempts at negotiation with France, 
Congress, and the country generally, began to prepare for war. Quite a large 
standing army was authorized [May, 1798] ; and as Washington approved of the 
measure, he was appointed [July] its commander-in-chief, with General Alex- 
ander Hamilton as his first lieutenant. Washington consented to accept the 
ofiice only on condition that General Hamilton should be the acting commander- 
in-chief, for the retired President was unwilling to enter into active military serv- 
ice again. A naval armament, and the capture of French vessels of war, was 
authorized; and a naval department, as we have observed,^ with Benjamin 
Stoddart at its head, was created. Although there was no actual declaration 
of war made by either party, yet hostilities were commenced on the ocean, and a 
vessel of each nation suffered capture f but the army was not summoned to the 
field. 

The proud tone of the French Directory was humbled by the dignified and 
decided measures adopted by the United States, and that body made overtures 
for a peaceful adjustment of difficulties. President Adams immediately ap- 
pointed [Feb. 26, 1799] three envoys' to proceed to France, and negotiate for 

' Charles Cotesworth Pinckney, Elbridge Gerry, and John Marshall. Pinckney was an aotivo 
patriot in South Carolina during the Revolution. He was born in Charleston, in Febru.ary, 1746, 
and was eduated in England. He studied law there, and on his return to his native country, in 
1769, he commenced a successful professional career in Charleston. He took part early in Repub- 
lican movements, held military ofiices during tlie War for Independence, and when war with France 
seemed certain, in 1797, Wa.shington appointed him next to Hamilton in command. He died, in 
August, 1825, in the eightieth year of his age. Gerry was one of the signers of the Declaration of 
Independence, and Marshall had been an active patriot and soldier. See page 351. The latter, 
as Chief Justice of the United States, administered the oath of ofiice to several Presidents. 

' Page ?,H2. 

' The United States frigate Constellation, captured the French frigate Vlnnirgente, in February, 

1799. That frigate had already taken the American schooner Retaliation. On the 1st of February, 

1800. the Constellation had an action with the Frencli frigate La Vengeance, which escaped cap- 
ture after a loss of one hundred and sixty men, in killed and wounded. 

* W. y. Murray, Oliver Ellsworth, and Patrick Henry. Mr. Henry declined, and William R 
Davie [note 5, page 318], of North Carolina, took his place. 

25 



386 THE NATION. [1197. 

peace, but when they arfivied, the weak Directory was no more. The govern- 
ment was in the hands of Napoleon Bonaparte [Nov. 1799] as First Consul," 
whose audacity and energy now saved France from anarchy and utter ruin. He 
promptly received the United States embassadors, concluded a treaty [Sept. 30, 
1800], and gave such assurances of friendly feelings that, on the return of the 
ministers, the provisional army of the United States, whose illustrious com- 
mander-in-chief had, in the mean while, been removed by death, was disbanded. 

Two unpopular domestic measures were adopted in the summer of 1798, 
known as the Alien and Sedition laws. The first authorized the President to 
expel from the country any alien (not a citizen) who should be suspected of 
conspiring against the Republic. An apology for the law was, that it was com- 
puted that there were more than thirty thousand Frenchmen in the United 
States, all of whom were devoted to their native country, and were mostly asso- 
ciated, by clubs or otherwise. Besides these, there were computed to be in the 
country at least fifty thousand persons who had been subjects of Great Britain, 
some of whom had found it unsafe to remain at home. The Sedition law author- 
ized the suppression of publications calculated to weaken the authority of the 
government. At that period there were two Inmdi-ed newspapers published in the 
United States, of which about one hundred and seventy-five were in favor of the 
National admiuistration ; the remainder were cliiefly under tlie coutrol of alieii.s. 
These measures were unpopular, because they might lead to great abuses. In 
Kentucky and Virginia, the legislatures declared them to be decidedly vmcoii- 
stitutional, and they were finally repealed. 

The nation suffered a sad bereavement near the close of the last year of the 
century. Washington, the greatest and best-beloved of its military and civil 
leaders, died at Mount Vernon on the 14th of December, 1799, when almost 
si.xty-eight years of age. No event since the foundation of the government, 
had made such an impression on the public mind. The national grief was 
sincere, and party spirit was hushed into silence at his grave. All hearts 
united in homage to the memory of him who was properly regarded as the 
Father of his Country. Congress was then in session at Philadelphia, and 
when Judge Marshall' announced the sad event, both Houses' immediately 
adjourned for the day. On re-assembling the ne.xt day, appropriate resolutions 
were passed, and the President was directed to write a letter of condolence to 
Mrs. Washington,' in the name of Congress. Impressive funeral ceremonies were 

* Bonaparte, Cambaceres, and the Abbe Sieyes became the ruling power in France, witli the 
title of Consuls, after the first had overthrown the Directory. Bonaparte was the First Consul, and 
was, in fact, an autocrat, or one who rules by his own will. ' Page 351. ' Note 3, page 366. 

' Martha Dandridge, who first married Daniel Parke Custis, and afterward, while yet a young 
widow, was wedded to Colonel Washington, was born in Kent county. Virginia, in 1732. about 
three months later than her illustrious husband. Her first husband died when she was about 
twenty-five years of age, leaving her with two children, and a large fortune in lands and money. 
She was married to Colonel Washington, in .January, 1759. She was ever worthy of such a hus- 
band ; and while he was President of the United States, she presided with dignity over the execu- 
tive mansion, both in New York and Philadelphia. When her husband died, she said : " 'Tis well ; 
all is now over; I shall soon follow him ; I have no more trials to pass through." In little less 
than tliirty months afterward, she was laid in the family vault at Mount Vernon. Her grandson, 
and adopted son of Washington (also the last surviving executor of his wdl), G. W. P. Custis, 
died at Arlington House, opposite Washington City, October 10, 1857. 



1801.] 



ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. 



387 



observed by that body, and throughout the country." General Henry Lee,' of 
Viro-inia, on the invitation of Congress, delivered [December 26, 1799] an 
eloquent funeral oration before the national legislature ; and the recommenda- 
tion of Congress, for the people of the United States to wear crape on their left 
arms for thirty days, was generally complied with. The whole nation put on 
tokens of mourning. 




The death of Washington also made a profound impression in Europe. To 
the people there, who were aspiring for freedom, it seemed as if a bright star 
had disappeared from the firmament of their hopes. Rulers, also, joined in 
demonstrations of respect. Soon after the event of his death was known in 
France, Bonaparte, then First Consul," rendered unusual honors to his name. 
On the 9th of February [1800], he issued the following order of the day to 
the army : " Washington is dead ! This great man fought against tyranny ; be 
established the liberties of his country. His memory will always be dear to 
the French people, as it will be to all free men of the two worlds ; and especially 
to French soldiers, who, like him and the American soldiers, have combatted 
for liberty and equality." Bonaparte also ordered, that during ten days black 
crape should be suspended from all the standards and flags throughout the 
French Republic. Splendid ceremonies in the Champs de Mars, ijnd a 
funeral oration in the Hotel des Invalides, were also given, at both of which 

" Congress resolved to erect a mausoleum, or monument, at "Washington City, to his memory, 
but the resolution has never been carried into eS'eet. An immense obelisk, composed of white 
marble, is now [1867] in course of erection there, to be paid for by individual subscriptions. 

" Note 2, page 333. ° Note 1, page 395. 



388 THE NATIOHr. [1801. 

the First Consul, and all the civil and military authorities of the capital were 
present. Lord Bridport, commander of a British fleet of almost sixty vessels, 
lying at Torbay, on the coast of France, when he heard of the death of Wash- 
ington, lowered his flag half-mast, and this example was followed by the whole 
fleet. And from that time until the present, the name of Washington has 
inspired increasing reverence at home and abroad, until now it may be said that 
the praise of him fills the whole earth. 

After the close of the difficulties with France, very little of general interest 
occurred during the remainder of Mr. Adams's administration, except the 
removal of the seat of the National Government to the District of Columbia,' in 
the Slimmer of 1800 ; the admission into the Union [May, 1800] of the country 
between the western frontier of Georgia and the Mississippi River, as the Mis- 
sissippi Territory ; and the election of a new President of the United States. 
Now, again, came a severe struggle between the Federalists and Republic- 
ans, for political power.'' The former nominated Mr. Adams and Charles 
Cotesworth Pinckney,' for President ; the latter nominated Thomas Jefferson 
and Aaron Burr, ' for the same office. In consequence of dissensions among the 
Federalist leaders, and the rapid development of ultra-democratic ideas among 
the people, the Republican party was successful. Jefferson and Buir had an 
equal number of electoral votes. The task of choosing, therefore, was trans- 
ferred to the House of Representatives, according to the provisions of the 
National Constitution. The choice finally fell upon Mr. Jefferson, after thirty- 
five ballotings ; and Mr. Burr was proclaimed Vice-President. 

During the year 18U0, the last of Adams's administration, the second enu- 
meration of the inhabitants of the United States took place. The population 
was then five millions, three hundred and nineteen thousand, seven hundred and 
sixty-two — an increase of one million, four hundred thousand in ten years. 
The National revenue, w'hich amounted to four millions, seven hundred and 
seventy-one thousand dollars in 1790, was increased to almost thirteen millions 
in 1800. 

CHAPTER III. 

JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. [1801 — 1809]. 

Thomas Jefferson,' the third President of the United States, was in the 
fifty-eighth year of his age when, on the 4th of March, 1801, he was duly 

' Page 311. The District is a tract ten miles square on each side of the Potomac, ceded to the 

United States by Maryland and Virginia in 1790. The city of Washington was laid out there in 1791, 
and the erection of the Capitol was commenced in 1793, when [April 18] President Washington laid 
the corner stone of the north wing, with Masonic honors. The two wings were completed in 1808, 
and these were Ijurnert by the British in 1814. See page 436. The central portion of the Capitol 
was completed in 1827, tlie wings having been repaired soon after the conflagration. Altogether 
it covered an area of a little more than an acre and a half of ground. In course of time it became 
too small, and its dimensions were greatly extended. These were completed in 1865. The addition 
is in the form of wings, north and south, projecting both east and west beyond the main buildmg. 

'' Page 377. ■' Note 1, page 3S5. ' Note 4, page 241, and page 397. 

' Tliomas Jefferson was born in ^Vlbjmarle county, Virginia, in April, 1743. He was educated 



1809.] 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION'. 



389 



inaugurated the Chief Magistrate of the Republic, in the new Capitol, at Wash- 
ington City. His inaugural speech, which was looked for with great anxiety, 
as a foreshadowing of the policy of the new President, was manly and conserv- 
ative, and it allayed many apprehensions of his opponents. From its tone, they 




imagined that few of the National office-holders would be disturbed ; but in this 
they soon found themselves mistaken. The Federal party, Avliile in power, 
having generally excluded Republicans from office, Jefferson felt himself justi- 
fied in giving places to his own political friends. He therefore made many 
removals from official station throughout the country ; and then was commenced 
the second act in the system of political proscription," which has not always 
proved wise or salutary. He retained, for a short time, Mr. Adams's Secretaries 
of the Treasury and Navy (Samuel Dexter and Benjamin Stoddart), but called 



at "William and Mary College, studied law -n-itli the eminent George Wythe, and had his patriotism 
first inflamed by listening to Patrick Henry's famous speech [note 1, page 214] against the Stamp Act. 
He first appeared in public life in the Virginia Assembly, in 1769, and was one of the most active 
workers in that body, until sent to perform more important duties in the Continental Congress. 
The inscription upon his monument written by himself, tells of the most important of his public 
labors : " Here lies buried Thomas Jeffersox, Author of the Declaration of Independence ; of the 
Statute of Virginia for religious freedom ; and Father of the University of Virginia." He was 
governor of his own State, and a foreign minister. He lived until the fiftieth anniversary of the 
Declaration of Independence [July 4, 1826], and at almost the same hour when the spirit of Adams 
took its flight [page 451], his also departed from the body, when he was at the age of eighty- 
three years. ' Page 461 



390 THE NATION. [1801. 

Republicans to fill the other seats in his cabinet.' He set vigorously at work 
to reform public abuses, as far as was in his power ; and so conciliatory were 
his expressed views in reference to the great body of his opponents, that many 
Federalists joined the Republican ranks, and became bitter denouncers of their 
former associates and their principles. 

President Jefierson's administration was signalized at the beginning by the 
repeal of the Excise Act,^ and other obnoxious and unpopular laws. His sug- 
gestions concerning the reduction of the diplomatic corps, hauling up of the 
navy in ordinary, the abolition of certain offices, and the revision of the 
judiciary, were all taken into consideration by Congress, and many advances 
in jurisprudence were made. Vigor and enlightened views marked his course ; 
and even his political opponents confessed his forecast and wisdom, in many 
things. During his first term, one State and two Territories were added to the 
confederacy. A part of the North-western Territory^ became a State, under 
the name of Ohio,' in the autumn of 1802 ; and in the spring of 1803, Louisi- 
ana was purchased [April] of France for fifteen millions of dollars. This 
result was brought about without much difficulty, for the French ruler was 
desirous of injuring England, and saw in this an excellent way to do it. In 
violation of a treaty made in the year 1795, the Spanish governor of Louisiana 
closed the port of New Orleans in 1802. Great excitement prevailed through- 
out the western settlements ; and a proposition was made ia Congress to take 
forcible possession of the Territory. It was ascertained that, by a secret treaty, 
the country had been ceded to France, by Spain. Negotiations for its purchase 
were immediately opened with Napoleon, and the bargain was consummated in 
April, 1803. The United States took peaceable possession in the autumn of 
that year. It contained about eighty-five thousand mixed inhabitants, and 
about forty thousand negro slaves. When this bargain was consummated, 
Napoleon said, prophetically, "This accession of territory strengthens forever 
the power of the United States ; and I have just given to England a maritime 
rival that will sooner or later humble her pride." Out of it two Territories 
were formed, called respectively the Territory of New Orleans and the Dis- 
trict of Louisiana. 

We have already adverted to the depredations of Algerine corsairs upon 
American commerce. The insolence of the piratical powers on the southern 
shores of the Mediterranean," at length became unendurable; and the United 
States government resolved to cease paying tribute to them. The Bashaw of 
Tripoli thereupon declared war [Juno 10, 1801] against the United States ; 
and Captain Bainbridge was ordered to cruise in the Mediterranean to protect 

' James Madison, Secretary of State ; Henry Dearborn, Secretary of "War ; Levi Lincoln, Attor- 
ney General. Before the meeting of Congress in December, he appointed Albert Gallatin [note 1, 
page 380, and note 6, page 443], Secretary of the Treasury, and Robert Smith, Secretary of the Navy. 
They were both Republicans. ^ Page 378. ^ Page 362. 

* No section of the Union had increased, in population and resources, so rapidly as Ohio. When, 
in 1800, it was formed into a distinct Territory, the residue of the Norih-roestern Territory remained 
as one until 1809. Then the Territories of Jndiana and IlUnois were formed. When Ohio was 
admitted as a State, it contained a population of about seventy-two thousand souls. 

' Morocco, Algiers, Tunis, and Tripoli, in Africa. They are known as the Bar bar y Powers. 



1809.] 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



391 



American commerce.' In 1803, Commodore Preble was sent thither to humble 
the pirates. After bringing the Emperor of Morocco to terms, he appeared 
before Tripoli with his squadron. One of his vessels (the Philadelphia), com- 
manded by Bainbridge," struck on a rock in the harbor, while reconnoitering : 




and before she could be extricated, she was captured [October 31, 1803] by 
the Tripolitans. The officers were treated as prisoners of war, but the crew 
were made slaves. 



' Captain Bainbridge had been on that coast the previous year. 
He arrived at Algiers in September, 1800, in the frigate George Washing- 
ton, with the annual tribute money [page 381]. The dey, or governor, 
demanded the use of his- vessel to carry an ambassador to Constan- 
tinople. Bainbridge remonstrated, when the dey haughtily observed : 
" Tou pay me tribute, by which you become my slaves, and therefore 
I have a right to order you as I think proper." Bainbridge was 
obliged to comply, for the castle gims would not allow him to pass out 
of the harbor. He sailed for the East, and had the honor of first dis- 
playing the American flag before the ancient city of Constantinople. 
The Sultan regarded it as a favorable omen of future friendship, because 
Ais flag bore a crescent or half-moon, and the American a croup of stars. 

' Wilham Bainbridge was born in New Jersey, in 1774. He was captain of a merchant vessel 
at the age of nineteen years, and entered the naval service in 1793. He was distinguished during 
the second War for Independence [page 409], and died in 1833. 




UMTED ST.4.TES FRIGATE. 



392 



THE NATION. 



[1801. 




LIEUTENAXT DECATUR. 



The credit of the American navy was somewhat repaired, early in the 
following year, when Lieutenant Decatur,' with only sev- 
cnty-si.x volunteers, sailed into the harbor of Tripoli, in 
the evening of February 16, 1804, and runing alongside 
the PliUadelpliia (which lay moored near the castle, and 
guarded by a large number of Tripolitans), boarded her, 
killed or drove into the sea all of her turbaned defenders, 
set her on fire, and under cover of a heavy cannonade 
from the American squadron, escaped, without losino- a 
man.' As they left the burning vessel, the Americans 
raised a shout, which was answered by the guns of the 
batteries on the shore, and by the armed vessels at anchor 
near. They went out into the Mediterranean unharmed, sailed for Syracuse, 
and were received there with great joy by the American squadron, under Com- 
modore Preble. This bold act humbled and alarmed the bashaw;^ yet his 
capital withstood a heavy bombardment, and his gun-boats gallantly sustained a 
severe action [August 3] with the vVmerican vessels. 

In the following year, through the aid of Hamet Caramelli, brother of Jes- 
suff, the reigning bashaw (or governor) of Tripoli, favorable terms of peace 
were secured. The bashaw was a iisurper, and Hamet, the rightful heir to the 
throne,' was an e.xile in Egypt. He readily concerted, with 
Captain William Eaton, American consul at Tunis, a plan 
for humbling the bashaw, and obtaining his own restoration to 
rightful authority. Captain Eaton acted under the sanction of 
his government ; and early in Rlarch [jMarch 6, 1805], he left 
Ale.xandria, with seventy United States seamen, accompanied 
by Hamet and his followers, and a few Egyptian troops. They 
made a journey of a thousand miles partly across the Barcan 
desert, and on the 27th of April, captured Derne, a Tripolitan 
city ou the Mediterranean. Three weeks later [May 18], they 
had a successful battle with Tripolitan troops ; and on the 1 8th 
of June they again defeated the forces of the bashaw, and 




M0HAM3IEDAN 
SOLUIER. 



' Stephen Decatur \ras born in Maryland in 1779. He entered the navy at tlio ago of nineteen 
ycar.s. After his last cruise in the Mediterranean, he superintended the building of the gun-boats. 
He rose to the rank of commodore; and during the second War for Independence [page 409], lie 
was distinguished for his skill and bravery. He afterward humbled the Barbary Powers [note 5, 
page 390] ; and was esteemed as one among the choicest flowers of the navy. He was killed, at 
Bladensburg, in a duel with Commodore Barron, in March, 1820, when forty-one years of age. 

" While the American squadron was on its way to Syracuse, it captured a small Tripolitan ves- 
sel, bound to Constantinople, with a present of female slaves for the Sultan. This was taken into 
service, and named the Intrepid, and was the vessel with which Decatur performed his bold exploit 
at Tripoli. This act greatly enraged the Tripolitans, and the American prisoners were treated with 
the utmost severity. The annals of that day give some terrible pictures of white slavery on the 
southern shores of the Mediterranean Sea. 

' Ba.shaw, or Pacha [Pas-shaw], is the title of the governor of a province, or town, in the do- 
minions of the Sultan (or emperor) of Turkey. The Barbary States [note 5, page 390] are all under 
the Sultan's rule. 

* The ba.shaw, who was a third son, had murdered his father and elder brother, and compelled 
Hamet to fly for his life. With quite a large number of followers, he fled into Egypt. 




Decatur Burning the Philadelphia. 



1809.] 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



395 



pressed forward toward Tripoli. The terrified ruler had made terms of peace 
[June 4, 1805] with Colonel Tobias Lear, American consul-general' in the 
Mediterranean, and thus disappointed the laudable ambition of Eaton, and the 
hopes of Hamet.'' 

While these hostile movements were occurring in the East, the President 




had, in a confidential message to Congress, in January, 1803, proposed the first 
of those peaceable conquests which have opened, and are still opening, to civil- 
ization and human industry, the vast inland regions of our continent. He rec- 
ommended an appropriation for defraying the expenses of an exploring expedi- 
tion across the continent from the Mississippi to the Pacific Ocean. The 
appropriation was made, and presently an expedition, consisting of thirty indi- 
viduals, under Captains Lewis and Clarke, was organized. They left the banks 
of the Mississippi on the 14th of May, 1804, and were absent about twenty-seven 
months. It was very successful, particularly in geographical discoveries, and 

' A consul is an officer appointed by a government to reside in a foreign port, to hnre a general 
supenrigion of the commercial interests of liis country there. In some cases tliey have powers almost 
equal to a minister. Such is tlie case with consuls within the ports of Mohammedan countries. The 
word consul was apphed to Napoleon [page 387] in the ancient Roman sense. It was the title of 
the chief magistrate of Rome during the Republic. The treaty made by Lear provided for an ex- 
change of prisoners, man for man, as far as they would go. jessufF had about two hundred more 
prisoners than the Americans held, and for the.se. a ransom of §60,000 was to be paid. It was also 
stipulated that the vASe and children of Hamet should be given up to him. 

' Hamef afterward came to the United States, and applied to Congress for a remuneration for 
his services in favor of the Americans. He was unsuccessM ; but Congress voted $2,400 for his 
temporary relief 



396 THENATION. [1801. 

furnished the first reliable information respecting the extensive country between 
the Mississippi and the Pacific Ocean. During the same year, the election for 
President of the United States recurred. Aaron Burr, having lost the confi- 
dence of the Democratic party,' was not re-nominated for Vice-President. 
George Clinton^ was put in his place ; and Jefiijrson and Clinton were elected 
by a great majority' over their Federal opponents, Charles Cotesworth Pinck- 
ney,' of South Carolina, who was nominated for President, and Rufus King,' 
of New York, for Vice-President. 

A serious difficulty commenced in the West during the second year [1805] 
of Mr. Jefierson's second administration. The fertile valleys of the Ohio and 
Mississippi were then very rapidly filling with adventurers, and the materials 
for new States, strong and ample, were gathering. Michigan was erected into 
a Territory in 1805 ; and all along the Jlississippi, extensive settlements were 
taking root and flourishing. The tide of population was full and unceasing, and 
was composed, chiefly, of adventurous characters, ready for any enterprise that 
should oifer the result of great gain. Taking advantage of the restless spirit 
of these adventurers, and the general impression that the Spanish population of 
Louisiana would not quietly submit to the jurisdiction of the United States," 
Aaron Burr' thought to make them subservient to his own ambitious purposes. 
His murder of Hamilton in a duel,^ on the 12th of July, 1804, made him 
everywhere detested ; and, perceiving his unpopularity in the fact of his having 
been superseded in the oflSce of Vice-President of the United States, by George 
Clinton, ° he sought a new field for achieving personal aggrandisement. In 
April, 1805, he departed for the West, with several nominal objects in view, 
but chiefly in relation to pecuniary speculations. These seemed to conceal his 
real design of effecting a sti'ong military organization, for the purpose cf invjd- 
ing the Spanish possessions in ^Mexico. General 'Wilkinson,'" then in the West, 
and the commander-in-chief of the National army, became his associate. Wil- 

" Page 377. ' Page 350. 

° The great popularity of Jefferson's administration was sho-wn by the result of tliis election. He 
received in the electoral college [note 1, page 3G1] one hundred and sixty-two votes, and Mr. 
Pinckncy only fourteen. * Page 38i. 

' Rufus King was bom in 1755, and was in Harvard College in 1775, when hostihties with 
Great Britain commenced, and the students were dispersed. He cliose the law for a profession, and 
became very eminent as a practitioner. He was in SulUvan's army, on Rhode Island [page 289], 
in 1778 ; and in 1784, the people, appreciatmg his talents and his oratorical powers, elected liim to a 
seat in the Legislature of Massachusetts. He was an efficient member of the National Convention, 
in 1787, and nobly advocated the Constitution afterward. He removed to New York, was a mem- 
ber of the State Legislature, was also one of the first United States Senators from New Tork, and 
in 1790 was appointed minister to Great Britain. From 1813 to 1826 he was a member of the 
United States Senate, and in 1825 was again sent to England as minister plenipotentiary. He 
died, near Jamaica, Long Island, in April, 1827, at the age of seventy-two .years. ° Page 390. ' 

' Aaron Burr was bom in New Jersey, in 1756. In his twentieth year he joined the conti- 
nental army, and accompanied Arnold [note 4, page 241] in his expedition against Quebec, in 1775. 
His health compelled him to leave tlie army in 1779, and he became a distinguished la-nyer and 
active public man. He died on Staten Island, near New York, in 1836, at the age of eighty years. 

° Note 2, page 360. A political quarrel led to fatal results. Burr had been informed of some 
remarks made by Hamilton, in public, derogatory to his character, and he demanded a retraction. 
Hamilton considered his demand unreasonable, and refused compliance. Burr challenged him to 
fight, and Hamilton rehictantly met him on the west side of the Hudson, near Hoboken, where they 
fought with pistols. Hamilton discharged his weapon in the air, but Burr took fatal aim, and hia 
antagonist fell Hamilton died the next day. " Page 350. '" Page 410. 



1809.] 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION". 



397 



kinson had just been appointed governor of Louisiana, and his official position 
secured precisely the advantage which Burr sought. 

Burr went down the Ohio ; and one beautiful morning at the close of April 
[1805J, he appeared at the house of Blenuarhasset, an Irishman possessed of 




fine education, a large fortune, and an accomplished and enthusiastic wife.' To 
him he unfolded his grand military scheme ; and the imaginations of Blennar- 
hasset and his wife were fired. Dreams of immense wealth and power filled 
their minds ; and when Burr had departed from the quiet home of this 
gentleman, the sunshine of his house faded. Blennarhasset was a changed man. 
He placed his wealth and reputation in the keeping of an unprincipled dema- 
gogue, and lost both. At that time, the brave and noble Andrew Jackson" was 
in command of the militia of Tennessee. In May, Burr appeared at the door 
of that stern patriot, and before he left it, he had won Jackson's confidence, and 
his promise of co-operation. He also met Wilkinson at St. Louis, and there 
gave him some hints of a greater scheme than ho had hitherto unfolded, which, 
that officer alleged, made him suspicious that Burr's ultimate aim was damage 



■ His residence was upon an island a little below the mouth of the Muskinpn^m River. There 
he had a fine library, beautiful conservatories, and a variety of luxuries hitherto unseen in that 
wilderness region. His home was an earthly paradise, into which the vile political serpent crawled, 
and despoiled it with his slime. Blennarhasset became poor, and died in 1831. His beautiful and 
accompli.5hed wife was buried by the Sisters of Charity, in the city of New York, m the year 1842. 

' Page 460. 



398 



THK NATION. 



[1801. 



to the Union. However, the schemer managed the whole matter with great 
skill. He made friends with some of the dissatisfied military and naval officers, 
and won their sympathies;' and in the summer of 1806, he was very active in 
the organization of a military expedition in the West. The secresy with 




which it was carried on, e.\cited tiie suspicions of many good men beyond the 
mountains, among whom was Jackson. Burr was suspected of a design to dis- 
member the Union, and to establish an independent empire west of the Alleg- 
hanies, with himself at the head. Those suspicions were communicated to the 
National Government, which, having reason to suspect Burr of premeditated 
treason, put forth the strong arm of its power, and crushed the viper in its egg. 
Burr was arrested [February, 1807], near Fort Stoddart, on the Tombigbee 
River, in the present State of Alabama, by Lieutenant (afterward Major-Gen- 
eral) Gaines,^ taken to Richmond, in Virginia, and there tried on a charge of 
treason. He was acquitted. The testimony showed that his probable design 
was an invasion of Mexican provinces, for the purpose of establishing there an 
independent government. 

While Burr's scheme was ripening, difficulties with Spain were increasing, 
and the United States were brought to the verge of a war with that country. 

' Many in the TVest supposed the government was sscretly tavoring Burr's plans against Mex- 
ico, and, having no suspicions of any other designs, some of the truest men of that region became, 
Bome more and some less, involved in the meshes of his scheme. ' Page 4G7. 



1809.] JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 399 

At the same time, the continued impressment of American seamen into the. 
English navy, and the interruptions to American commerce by the British gov- 
ernment, irritated the people of the United States, and caused the President to 
recommend partial non-intercourse with Great Britani. This policy was 
adopted by Congress [April 15, 1806], the prohibition to take effect in Novem- 
ber following. This was one of the first of the retaliatory measures of the 
American government toward that of Great Britain. 

The following year [1807] is i-emarkable in American history as the era 
of the commencement of successful steamboat navigation. E.xperiments in that 
direction had been made in this country many years before, but it was 
reserved for Robert Fulton' to bear the honor of success. He spent a 
long time in France, partly in the pursuit of his professional a portrait-painter, 
and in the study of the subject of steam navigation. Through the kindness of 
Joel Barlow, then [1797] in Paris (in whose family he remained seven years), 
he was enabled to study the natural sciences, modern languages, and to make 
experiments. There he became acquainted with Roltert R. Livingston,'' and 
through his influence and pecuniary aid, on his return 
to America, he Avas enabled to construct a steamboat, 
and to make a voyage on the Hudson from New York 
to Albany, "against wind and tide,"' in thirty-six 
hours." He took out his first patent in 1809. Within 
fifty years, the vast operations connected with steam- 
boat navigation, have been brought into existence. 
Now the puff of the steam-engine is heard upon the •'^""''"^ sie.vmuu.vt. 
waters of every civilized nation on the face of the globe. 

And now the progress of events in Europe began to disturb the amicable 
relations which had subsisted between the governments of the United States and 
Great Britain since the ratification of Jay's treaty.' Napoleon Bonaparte was 
upon the throne of France as emperor ; and in 1806 he was King of Italy, and 
his three brothers were made ruling monarchs. He was upon the full tide of 
his success and conquests, and a large part of continental Europe was now 

' Robert Pulton was bom in Pennsylvania, in 1165, and was a student of "West, the great 
painter, for several years. He had more genius for mechanics than the fine arts, and when he 
turned his eftbrts in that direction, he liecame very successful. He died in 1815, soon after launch- 
ing a steamship of war, at the age of fifty years. At that time there were sis steamboats afloat on 
the Hudson, and he was building a steamship, designed for a voyage to St. Petersburg, in Russia. 
" Page 366. 

° This was the Clermont, Fulton's experimental boat. It was one hundred feet in length, twelve 
feet in width, and seven in depth. The engine was constructed by Watt and Bolton, in England, 
and the hull was made liy David Brown, of New York. The following advertisement apjjeared in 
the Albany Gazette, September 1st, 1807; "The North River Steamboat v.-i\l leave Paulus's Hook 
[Jersey City] on Friday, the 4th of September, at 9 in the morning, and an-ive at Albany on Satiir- 
day, at 9 in the afternoon. Provisions, good berths, and accommodations are provided. The 
charge to each passenger is as follows : 

'■ To Newburg, dollars, 3, time, 14 hours. 
" Poughkeepsie, " 4, " 17 " 
" Esopus, " 5, " 20 " 

" Hudson, " 5+, '• 30 " 

" Albany, " 7," '• 36 " 

* Page 380. 




400 



THE NATION. 



[1801. 



prostrate at his feet. Although England had joined the continental powers 
against him [1803], in order to crush the Democratic revolution commenced in 
France, and the English navy had almost destroyed the French power at sea, 
all Europe was yet trembling in his presence. But the United States, by 




^^.y^^^ 



maintaining a strict neutrality, neither coveted his fiivors nor feared liis power; 
at the same time American shipping being allowed free intercourse between 
English and French ports, enjoyed the vast advantages of a profitable carrying 
trade between them. 

The belligerents, in their anxiety to damage each other, ceased, in time, to 
respect the laws of nations toward neutrals, and adopted measures at once 
destructive to American commerce, and in violation of the most sacred rights 
of the United States. In this matter, Great Britain took the lead. By an 
order in council,' that government declared [May 16, 1806] the whole coast of 
Europe, from the Elbe, in Germany, to Brest, in France, to be in a state of 
blockade. Napoleon retaliated by issuing [November 21] a decree at Berlin, 
which declared all the ports of the British islands to bo in a state of blockade. 
This was intended as a blow against England's maritime superiority, and it was 

' Tho British privy council consists of an indefinite number of gentlemen, chosen by the sover- 
eign, and having no direct connection with the cabinet ministers. The sovereign may, under tho 
advice of tliis council, issue orders or proclamations wliich, if not contrary to existing laws, are 
binding upon tlie subjects. These are for temporary purposes, and are called Orders in Council. 




1809.] JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 401 

the beginning of what he termed the continental system, the chief object of 
which wa.s the ruin of Great Britain. The latter, by another order [January 
7, 1807J, pi'ohibited all coast trade with France; and 
thus the gamesters played with the world's peace and 
prosperity. In spite of pacific attempts to put an 
end to these ungenerous measures, American vessels 
were seized by both English and French cruisers, and 
American commerce dwindled to a domestic coast trade.' 
The United States lacked a navy to protect her commerce 
on the ocean, and the swarms of gun-boats'' which Con- 
gress, from time to time, had authorized as a substitute, ^ felucca gun-boat. 
were quite inefficient, even as a coast-guard. 

The American merchants and all in their interest, so deeply injured by the 
"orders" and "decrees" of the warring monarchs, demanded redress of griev- 
ances. Great excitement prevailed throughout the country, and the most bitter 
feeling was beginning to be felt against Great Britain. This was increased by 
her haughty assertion and offensive practice of the doctrine that she had the 
right to search American vessels for suspected deserters from the British navy, 
and to carry away the suspected without hinderance.'' This right was strenu- 
ously denied, and its policy vehemently condemned, because American seamen 
might be thus forced into the British service, under the pi-etense that they were 
deserters. Indeed this had already happened.' 

Clouds of difficulty now gathered thick and Idack. A crisis approached. 
Four seamen on board the United States frigate Chesapeake, were claimed as 
deserters from the British armed ship MelampusJ' They were demanded, but 
Commodore Barron, of the Chesapeake, refused to give them up. The 

' In May, 1806, James Monroe [page 447] and 'William Pinkney, were appointed to assist in 
the negotiation of a treaty with Great Britain, concerning the rights of neutrals, the imprisonment 
of seamen, right of search, &c. A treaty was tinally signed, l)ut as it did not offer security to 
American vessels against the aggressions of British ships in searching them and carrying off seamen, 
Mr. Jefferson refused to submit it to the Senate, and rejected it. The Federalists condemned tlio 
course of the President, but subsequent events proved his wisdom. Mr. Pinkney, one of the special 
envoys, wag a remarkable man. He was born at Annapolis, Maryland, in March, 1764. He was 
admitted to the bar, at the age of twenty-two years, and became one of the most profound states- 
men and brilliant orators of the age. He was a member of the Maryland Senate, in 1811, when 
President Madison appointed him Attorney-General for the United States. Ho was elected a 
member of Congress, and in 1816 was appointed United States minister to St. Petersburg. After 
a short service in the Senate, his health gave way, and he died in February, 1822, in the lifty-nintli 
year of his age. 

'' These were small sailing vessels, having a cannon at the bow and stern, and manned by fully 
armed men, for the purpose of boarding other vessels. 

^ England maintains the doctrine that a British subject can never become an alien. At the 
time in question, she held that she had the right to take her native-l)om subjects wherever found, and 
place them in the army or navy, even though, by legal process, they had become citizens of another 
nation. Our laws give equal protection to the native and adopted citizen, and would not allow 
Great Britain to exercLse her asserted privilege toward a Briton who had become a citizen of the 
United States. 

' During nine months, in the years 1796 and 1797, Mr. King [page 395], the American minis- 
ter in London, had made application for the release of two hundred and seventy-one seamen (a 
greater portion of whom were Americans), who had been seized on the false charge of being desert- 
ers, and pressed into the British service. 

* A small British squadron, of which the Mdampus was one, was lying in Lynn Haven Bay, at 
the mouth of the Chesapeake Bay, at this time. It was commanded by Admiral Berkeley. 

26 



402 THE NATION. [ISOl. 

Chesapeake left the capes of Virginia on a cruise, on the 22d of June, 1807, 
and on the same day she was chased and attacked by the British frigate 
Leopard. Unsuspicious of danger and unprepared for an attack, Barron sur- 
rendered his vessel, after losing three men killed and eighteen •vNOunded. The 
four men were then taken on board the Leopard, and the Chesapeake 
returned to Hampton Roads.' Investigation proved that three of the seamen, 
who were colored men, were native Americans, and that the fourth had been 
impressed into the British service, and had deserted. 

Forbearance was no longer a virtue. The outrage upon the Chesapeake 
aroused the nation, and provoked retaliatory measures. All parties joined in 
one loud voice of indignation, and many were very anxious for a declaration of 
war with England. The President, however, proposed a pacific course, as long 
as any hope for justice or reconciliation remained. He issued a proclamation, 
in July [1807], ordering all British armed vessels to leave the waters of the 
United States immediately, and forbidding any one to enter until full satisfac- 
tion for the present insult, and security against future aggressions, should be 
made. Although the British government understood the attack on the Chesa- 
peake as an outrage, yet diplomacy, which is seldom honest, was immediately 
employed to mistify the plain question of law and right." In the mean while, 
France and England continued to play their desperate game, to the detriment 
of commerce, unmindful of the interests of other nations, or the obligations 
of international law. A British order in counciP was issued on the 11th 
of November, 1807, forbidding neutral nations to trade with France or her 
allies, except upon payment of tribute to Great Britain. Napoleon retaliated, 
by issuing, on the 17th of December, a decree at Milan, forbidding all trade 
with England or her colonies ; and authorizing the confiscation of any vessel 
found in his ports, which had submitted to English search, or paid the exacted 
tribute. In other words, any vessel having goods upon which any impost 
whatever should have been paid to Great Britain, should be denationalized, 
and subject to seizure and condemnation. These edicts were, of course, destruct- 
ive to the principal part of the foreign commerce of the United States. In 
this critical state of afi'airs, the President convened Congress several weeks 
[Oct. 25, 1807] earlier than usual ; and in a confidential message [December 
18], he recommended to that body the passage of an act, levying a commercial 
embargo. Such an act was passed [December 22], which provided for the de- 
tention of all vessels, American and foreign, at our ports ; and ordered Ameri- 
can vessels abroad to return home immediately, that the seamen might be 

' Page 297. 

' The President forwarded instructions to Mr. Monroe, our minister to England, to demand im- 
mediate satisfaction for the outrage, and security against similar events in future. Great Britain 
thereupon dispatched an envoy extraortUnary (Mr. IJose) to the United States, to settle the- diffi- 
culty in question. The envoy would not enter into negotiations until the President sliould with- 
draw his proclamation, and so the matter stood until November, 1811 (more than four years), when 
the British government declared the attack on the Chesapeake to have been unauthorized, and pro- 
raised pecuniary aid to the famihes of tliose who were killed at that time. But Britain would not 
relinquish the right of search, and so a cause for quarrel remained. 

' Note 1, page 400. ' ' 



JEFFERSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



403 



trained for the inevitable war. Thus the chief commerce of the world was 
brought to a full stop. 

The operation of the embargo law was the occasion of great distress, especi- 
ally in commercial communities, yet it was sustained by the great body of the 




American people. It put patriotism and firmness to a severe test. It bore 
extremely hard upon seamen and their employers, for it spreaxi ruin throughout 
the shipping interest. It was denounced by the Federal party, chiefly for polit- 
ical effect ;' and as it failed to obtain from England and France any acknowl- 
edgment of American rights, it was repealed on the 1st of Mai-ch, 1809, three 
days before Mr. Jefferson retired from ofiice. Congress, at the same time, 
passed [March 1, 1809] a law which forbade all commercial intercourse with 
France and England, until the "orders in council"' and the "decrees"' should 
be repealed. 

■ Mr. Jefferson truly -wrote to a friend : " The Federalists are now playing a game of the most 
mischievous tendency, without, perhaps, being themselves aware of it. They are endeavoring 
to convince England that we suffer more from the embargo tlian they do, and that, if they will 
hold out awhile, we must abandon it. It is true, the time will come when we must abandon it : 
but if this is before the repeal of the orders in council, we must abandon it only for a state of war." 
John Quincy Adams, who had resigned his seat in the Senate of the United States, because he dif- 
fered from the majority of his constituents in supporting tlie measures of the administration, wrote 
to the President to the effect, that from information received by him, it was the determination of 
the ruUng party (Federalists) in Massachusetts, and even throughout New Enflland, if the embargo 
was persisted in, no longer to subrqit to it. but to separate themselves from the Union ; and that such 
was the pressure of the embargo upon the community, that they would be supported by the people. 
This was explicitly denied, in after years, by the Federalist leaders. 



404 THE NATION'. [1809. 

In the midst of the excitement on account of the foreign relations of the 
United States, another Presidential election was held. Who should be the Dem- 
ocratic candidate ? was a question of some difficulty, the choice lying between 
Messrs. Madison and Monroe, of Virginia. For some time, a portion of the Dem- 
ocratic party in that State, under the leadership of the eminent John Randolph," 
of Roanoke, had diifered from the Administration on some points of its foreign 
policy ; yet, while they acted with the Federalists on many occasions, they 
studiously avoided identification with that party. Mr. Madison was the firm 
adherent of Jefierson, and an advocate and apologist of his measures, while Mr. 
Monroe' rather favored the views of Mr. Randolph and his friends. The strength 
of the two candidates was tried in a caucus of the Democratic members of the 
Virginia Legislature, and also in a caucus of the Democratic members of Con- 
gress. Mr. Madison, having a large majority on both occasions, was nominated 
for the office of President, and George Clinton for that of Vice-President. 
Charles Cotesworth Pinckney and Rufus King were the Federalist candidates. 
Madison and Clinton were elected. At the close of eight years' service, as 
Chief Magistrate of the United States, Mr. Jefferson left office [March 4, 1809], 
and retired to his beautiful Monticello, in the bosom of his native Virginia. 



CHAPTER IV. 

MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION, [1809 — 1817.] 

When James Madison, the fourth President of the Republic, took the 
chair of state, the country was overspread with gloom and despondency. 
Although somewhat highly colored, the report of a committee of the Massachu- 
setts Legislature, in January, 1809, gives, doubtless, a fair picture of the con- 
dition of affairs. It. said: "Our agriculture is discouraged; the fisheries 
abandoned ; navigation forbidden ; our commerce at home restrained, if not 

• John Randolph was seventh in descent from Pocahontas [page 66], the beloved daughter of 
the emperor of the Powhatans. He wa-s bom at Petersburg, in Virginia, in June, 1Y73. He was 
in delicate health from infancy. He studied in Columbia College, New York, and William and 
Mary College, in Virginia. Law was his chosen profession ; yet he was too fond of literature and 
politics to be confined to its practice. Ho entered public life in 1799, when he was elected to a 
seat in Congress, where he was a representative of his native State, in tlie lower House, for thirty 
years, with the exception of three intervals of two years each. During that time he was a member 
of the Senate for two years. He opposed the war in 1812. His political course was erratic. 
Jackson .appointed him minister to St. Petersburg in 1830. His Iiealth would not permit him to 
remain there. On his return he was elected to Congress, but consumption soon laid him in the 
grave. He died at Philadelphia, in May, 1 833. Mr. Randolph w.ns a strange compound of moral 
and intellectual qualities. He was at times almost an atheist ; at otliers, he was imbued with the 
deepest emotions of piety and reverence for Deity. It is said that, on one occasion, he ascended a 
lofty spur of the Blue Ridge, at dawn, and from that magnificent observatory saw the sun rise. As 
its light burst in beauty and glory over the vast panorama before liim, he turned to his servant and 
said, witli deep emotion, "Tom, if any body says there is no God, tell them they liel" Thus ho 
expressed the deep sense which his soul felt of the presence of a Great Creator. 

' Page. 447. 



1817.] MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 405 

annihilated ; our commerce abroad cut off; our navj sold, dismantled, or 
degraded to the service of cutters, or gun- boats;' the revenue extinguished; 
the course of justice interrupted; and the nation weakened by internal animos- 
ities and divisions, at the moment when it is unnecessarily and improvidently 
exposed to war with Great Britain, France, and Spain." This was the Ian-* 
guage of the opponents of the administration, and must be taken with some 
allowance. That party was strongly opposed to Mr. Madison, because they 




/ 



X ^^^^ ^^^^<^^^0^Z^ 



believed that he would perpetuate the policy of Isix. Jefferson. But when, 
dressed in a suit of plain black, he modestly pronounced his inaugural address 
[March 4, 1809], the tone and sentiment of which fell like oil upon the 
troubled waters, those of his most implacable political enemies who heard him, 
could not refrain from uttering words of approbation ; and hopes were enter- 
tained by the whole nation, that his measures might change the gloomy aspect 
of affairs. 

To all unbiassed minds, no man appeared better fitted for the office of Chief 
Magisti-ate of the Republic, at that time of general commotion, than Mr. Mad- 
ison." He had been Secretary of State during the wl ile administration of Mr. 



' Page 401. 

'^ James Madison was born in Virtrinia, in March, 1151. He was educated at Princeton, New 
Jersey, and was diverted from the intended practice of the law liy the cliarms and excitements of 
poUtical life. He assisted in framing- tlie lirst Constitution of YirRinia, in 1776. He was a mem- 
ber of his State Legislature and of the Executive Council, and in 1780 was a delegate in tlie Conti- 
nental Congress. In public life, there, and in his State councils, he was ever the champion of 
popular libfiMy. As a member of the National Convention, and supporter of the Constitution, he 



406 THE NATION. [1800. 

Jefferson, and was familiar with every event which had contributed to produce 
the existing hostile relations between the United States and Great Britain. 
His cabinet was composed of able men,' and in the eleventh Congress, which 
convened on the 22d of May, 1809, in consequence of the critical state of 
affairs,' there was a majority of his political friends. Yet there was a powerful 
party in the country (tlie Federalists) hostile to his political creed, and opposed 
to a war with England, which now seemed probable. 

At the very beginning of Madison's administration, light beamed upon the 
future. Mr. Erskine, the British minister, assured the President, that such 
portions of the orders in counciP as affected the United States, should be 
repealed by the 10th of June. He also assured him that a special envoy would 
soon arrive, to settle all matters in dispute between the two governments. 
Supposing the minister to be authorized by his government to make these 
assurances, the President, as empowered by Congress, issued a proclamation 
[April 19, 1809], permitting a renewal of commercial intercourse with Great 
Britain, on that day. But the government disavowed Erskine's act, and the 
President again [August 10] proclaimed non-intercourse. The light had 
proved deceitful. This event caused great excitement in the public mind ; and 
had the President then declared war against Great Britain, it would doubtless 
have been very popular. 

Causes for irritation between the two governments continually increased, 
and, for a time, political intercourse was suspended. France, too, continued 
its aggressions. On the 23d of March, 1810, Bonaparte issued a decree at 
Rambouillet, more destructive in its operations to American commerce, than any 
measures hitherto employed. It declared forfeit every American vessel which 
had entered French ports since March, 1810, or that might thereafter enter ; 
and authorized the sale of the same, together with the cargoes — the money to 
be placed in the French treasury. Under this decree, many American vessels 
were lost, for which only partial remuneration has since been obtained.' Bona- 
parte justified this decree by the plea, that it was made in retaliation for the 
American decree of non-intercourse." Three months later [May, 1810], Con- 
gress offered to resume commercial intercourse with cither France or England, 
or both, on condition that they should repeal their obnoxious orders and 
decrees, before the 3d of March, 1811.° The French emperor, who was always 
governed by expediency, in defiance of right and justice, feigned compliance, 
and by giving assurance [August] that such repeal should take effect in Novem- 



was one of the wisest and ablest; and his voluminous writings, purchased b^ Congress, display the 
most sagacious statesmanship. As a Bepublican, he was conservative. For eight years he was 
President of the United States, when he retired to private life. lie died in June, 18.36, at the age 
of eiglity-hve years. 

' Robert Smith, Secretary of State; Albert Gallatin, Secretary of the Treasury ; "William Eustis, 
Secretary of War; Paul Hamilton, Secretary of the Navy; Caesar Rodney, Attorney-General. 

' Its session lasted only about five weeks, because peace seemed probable. 

' Note 1, page 400. ' Page 468. ' Page 402. 

' Tlie act provided, that if either government sliould repeal its obnoxious acts, and if the other 
government should not do the same within tlirce montlis tlicrealter. then the first should enjoy 
commercial intercourse with the United States, but the other should not. 



3817.] MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 407 

ber, caused the President to proclaim such resumption of intercourse. It was 
a promise intended to be broken at any moment when policy should dictate. 
American vessels continued to be seized by French cruisers, as usual, and con- 
fiscated ; and in March, 1811, Napoleon declared the decrees of Berlin' and 
Milan^ to be the fundamental laws of the empire. A new envoy from France, 
who arrived in the United States at about this time, gave official notice to the 
government, that no remuneration would be made for property seized and con- 
fiscated. 

The government of Great Britain acted more honorably, though wickedly. 
She continued her hostile orders, and sent ships of war to cruise near the prin- 
cipal ports of the United States, to intercept American merchant vessels and 
send them to England as lawful prizes. While engaged in this nefarious busi- 
ness, the British sloop of war' Little Belt, Captain Bingham, was met [May 
16, 1811], off the coast of Virginia, by the American frigate President, Com- 
modore Rogers.* That officer hailed the commander of the sloop, and received 
a cannon shot in reply. A brief action ensued, when Captain Bingham, after 
having eleven men killed and twenty-one wounded, gave a satisfactory answer 
to Rogers. The conduct of both officers was approved by their respective gov- 
ernments. That of the United States condemned the act of Bingham as an 
outrage without palliation ; and the government and people felt willing to take 
up arms in defense of right, justice, and honor. Powerful as was the navy of 
Great Britain, and weak as was that of the United States, the people of the 
latter were willing to accept of war as an alternative for submission, and to 
measure strength on the ocean. The British navy consisted of almost nine 
hundred vessels, with an aggregate of one hundred and forty-four thousand 
men. The American vessels of war, of large size, numbered only twelve, with 
an aggregate of about three hundred guns. Besides these, there were a great 
number of gun-boats, but these were hardly sufficient for a coast-guard. Here 
was a great disparity ; and for a navy so weak to defy a navy so strong, 
seemed madness. It must be remembered, however, that the British navy was 
necessarily very much scattered, for that government had interests to protect in 
various parts of the globe. 

The protracted interruption of commercial operations was attended with 
very serious effijct upon the trade and revenue of the United States, and all 
parties longed for a change, even if it must be brought about by war with 
European governments. The Congressional elections in 1810 and 1811, proved 
that the policy of Mr. Madison's administration was sustained by a large ma- 
jority of the American people, the preponderance of the Democratic party 
being kept up in both branches of the National Legislature. The opposition, 
who, as a party, were unfavorable to hostilities, were in a decided minority , 
and the government had more strength in its councils than at any time during 
Jefierson's administration. 

For several years war with England had seemed mevitable, and now [1811] 

' Page 400. " Page 402. ' Page 415. 

* He died in the Naval Asylum, Philadelphia, in August, 183S. 



408 THE NATION. [1809. 

many causes were accelerating the progress of events toward such a result. 
Among these, the hostile position of the Indian tribes on the north-western 
frontier of the United States, was one of the most powerful. Tliey, too, had 
felt the pressure of Bonaparte's commercial system. In consequence of the 
exclusion of their furs from the continental markets, the Indian hunters found 
their traific reduced to the lowest point. The rapid extension of settlements 
north of the Ohio was narrowing their hunting-grounds, and producing a rapid 
diminution of game ; and the introduction of whiskey, by the white people, was 
spreading demoralization, disease, and death among the Indians. These evils, 
combined with the known influence of British emissaries, finally led to open 
hostilities. 

In the spring of 1811, it was known that Tecumtha, a Shawnoe' chief, 
who was crafty, intrepid, unscrupulous, and cruel, and who possessed the qual- 
ities of a great leader, almost equal to those of Pontiac," was endeavoring to 
emulate that great Ottawa by confederating the tribes of the north-west in a 
war against the people of the United States. Those over whom Iiimself and 
twiu-brother, tlie Prophet,' exercised the greatest control, were the Delawares, 
Shawnoese, Wyandots, Mianiie>:, Kickapoos, Winnebagoes, and Chippewas. 
During the summer, the frontier settlers became so alarmed by the continual 
military and religious e.xercises of the savages, that General Harrison," then 
governor of the Indiana Territory," marched, with a considerable force, toward 
the town of the Prophet, situated at the junction of the Tippecanoe and 
Wabash Rivers, in the upper part of Tippecanoe county, Indiana. The 
Prophet appeared and proposed a conference, but Harrison, suspecting treach- 
ery, caused his soldiers to sleep on their arms [Nov. 6, 1811] that night. At 
four o'clock the next morning [Nov. 7] the savages fell upon the American 
camp, but after a bloody battle until dawn, the Indians were repulsed. The 
battle of Tippecanoe was one of the most desperate ever fought with the Indians, 
and the loss was heavy on both sides.' Tecumtha was not present on this occa- 
sion, and it is said the Prophet took no part in the engagement. 

These events, so evidently the work of British interference, aroused the 
spirit of the nation, and throughout the entire West, and in the Middle and 
Southern States, there was a desire for war. Yet the administration fully 
appreciated the deep responsibility involved in such a step ; and having almost 
the entire body of the New England people in opposition, the President and his 
friends hesitated. The British orders in council^ continued to be rigorously 
enforced ; insult after insult was oiFcred to the American flag ; and the British 
press insolently boasted that the United States "could not be kicked into a 

' Page 19. ' Page 204. 

' In 1809, Governor Harrison had negotiated a treaty with the Miamies [page 19] and other 
tribes, by which they sold to the United States a largo tract of land on botli sides of the ^^'abasli; 
The Prophet was present and made no objection ; but Teeumtlia, who was absent, was greatly 
dissatisfied. The British emissaries took advantage of tliis dissatisfaction, to inflame him and his 
people against the Americans. 

■■ Page n. ' Page 474. " Note 4, page 390. 

' Harrison had upward of sixty killed, and more than a hundred wounded. 

° Note 1, page 400. 



JSn.] MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 409 

war." Forbearance became no longer a virtue ; and on the 4th of April, 1812, 
Congress laid another embargo' upon vessels in American waters, for ninety 
days. On the 1st of June, the President transmitted a special message to 
Congress, in which he reviewed the difficulties with Great Britain, strongly 
portrayed the aggressions inflicted upon us by that nation, and intimated the 
necessity of war. The message was referred to the Committee on Foreign 
Relations, in the House of Representatives, a majority of whom' agreed upon, 
and reported a manifesto [June 3], as the basis of a declaration of war. On 
the following day [June 4, 1812], a bill, drawn up by Mr. Pincbney, the 
Attorney-General of the United States,' declaring war to exist between the 
United States and Great Britain, was presented by Mr. Calhoun. During the 
proceedings on this subject, Congress sat with closed doors. The measure was 
finally agreed to, by Ijoth Houses, by fair majorities. It passed the House of 
Representatives by a vote of 79 to 49. On the 17th it passed the Senate by a 
vote of 19 to 13, and on that day it received the signature of the President.* 
Two days afterward [June 19], the President issued a proclamation which 
formally declared war against Grjat Britain." This is known in history as The 
War OF 1812; or 

THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE." 

Congress, having authorized the President to declare war, took immediate 
measures to sustain that declaration. It passed an act which gave him author- 
ity to enlist twenty-five thousand men, to accept fifty thousand volunteers, and 
to call out one hundred thousand militia for the defense of the sea-coast and 
frontiers. Fifteen millions of dollars were appropriated for the army, and 
almost three millions for the navy. But at the very threshhold of the new order 

' Pago 402. Four days after this [April 8] Louisiana was admitted into tlie Union as a State. 

^ Jolin C. Calhoun, of South Carolina ; Felix Grundy, of Tennessee ; John Smilie, of Pennsyl- 
vania ; John A. Harper, of New Hampshire ; Joseph Desha, of Kentucky ; and Ebenezer Seaver, 
of Massachusetts. ' Page 400. 

* The following are the words of that important bill : " Be it enacted, etc., That war be, and the 
same is hereby declared to exist between tlie United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and 
the dependencies thereof and the United States of America and their Territories; and that the 
President of the United States is hereby authorized to use the whole land and, naval force of the 
United States to carry the same into effect, and to issue to private armed vessels of the United 
States, commissions, or letters of marque, and general reprisal, in such form as he shall think proper, 
and under the seal of the United States, against the vessels, goods, and effects of the government 
of the said United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, and the subjects thereof" 

' The chief causes for this act were the impressment of American seamen by the British ; the 
bBckade of French ports mthout an adequate force to sustain the act ; and the British Orders in 
Council. The Federalists in Congress presented an ably-written protest, which denied the necessity 
or the expediency of war. 

° This is an appropriate title, for, until the termination of that war, the United States were only 
nommally free. Blessed with prosperity, the people dreaded war, and submitted to many acts of 
tyranny and insult from Great Britain and France, rather than become involved in another conflict. 
Socially and commercially, the United States were dependent upon Europe, and especially upon 
England ; and the latter was rapidly acquiring a dangero\i3 political interest here, when the war 
broke out. The war begun in 1775 was really only the first great step toward independence; the 
war begun in 1812, first thoroughly accoraplLshed it. Franklin once heard a person speaking of 
the Revolution as the War of Independence, and reproved him, saying, " Sir, you mean tlie Revolu- 
tion; the war of Independence is yet to come. It was a war for Independence, but not of Inde- 
pendence." 



410 THE NATION. [1809. 

of things, the administration was met by determined opposition. The Federal 
members of the House of Representatives published an address to their con- 
stituents, in -which they set forth the state of the country at that time, the 
course of the administration and its supporters in Congress, and the reasons of 
the minority for opposing the war. This was fair and honorable. But outside 
of Congress, a party, composed chiefly of Federalists, with some disalTected 
Democrats, was organized under the name of the Peace jtarty. Its object was 
to cast such obstructions in the way of the prosecution of the war, as to compel 
the government to make peace. This movement, so unpatriotic, the offspring 
of the lowest elements of faction, was frowned upon by the most respectable 
members of the Federal party, and some of them gave the government their 
hearty support, when it was necessary, in order to carry on the war with vigor 
and eifect. 

The first care of the government, in organizing the army, was to select 
efficient officers. Nearly all of the general officers of tlie Revolution were in 
their graves, or Avere too old for service, and even those of subordinate rank in 
that war, who yet remained, were far advanced in life. 
Yet upon them the chief duties of leadership were 
devolved. Henry Dearborn' was appointed major- 
genei'al and commander-in-chief; and his principal 
lirigadiers were James Wilkinson," Wade Hampton,' 
William Hull,* and Joseph Bloomficld — all of them 
esteemed soldiers of the Revolution. 

Hull was governor of the Territory of Michigan, 
and held the commission of a brigadier-general. When 
war was declared, he was marching, with a little more 
GENERAL DEARBORN. than two thousand troops, from Ohio, to attempt the 

subjugation of the hostile Indians.^ Congress gave 
him discretionary powers for invading Canada; but caution and preparation 
were necessary, because the British authorities, a long time in expectation of 
war, had taken measures accordingly." Feeling strong enough for the enemy, 
Hull, on the 12th of July, 1812, crossed the Detroit River with his whole 
force, to attack Fort Maiden, a British post near the present village of Amherst- 
burg. At Sandwich, he encamped, and by a fatal delay, lost every advantage 
which an immediate attack might have secured. In the mean while, Fort 

' Henry Dearborn was a native of New Hampshire, antl a meritorious officer in tlie continental 
army. He accompanied Arnold to Quebec, and was distinguislied in the battles which ruin^ 
Burgovne [page 281]. He held civil offices of trust after the Revolution. Ho returned to private 
life in 1815, and died at Roxbury, near Bo.ston, in 1829, at the age of seventy-eight years. 

" Pages 396 and 426. ^ Note 3, page 427. ' Note"4, page 411. ' Page 408. 

° Canad.i then consisted of two province.';. The old French settlements on the St. Lawrence, 
with a population of about three hundred thousand, constituted Lower Canada; while the more 
recent settlements above Montreal, and chietty upon the nortliern shore of Lake Ontario, including 
about one hundred thousand inhabitants, composed Upper Canada. These were principally the 
families of American loyalists, who were com]iplled to leave the States at the dose of the Revolu- 
tion. Then each province had its own governor and Legislature. The regular military force, which 
was scattered over a space of more than a thousand miles, did not exceed two thousand men; 
hence the British commanders were compelled to call for volunteers, and they used the Indians 
to good effect, in their favor. 




isn.] MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 411 

Mackinaw, one of the strongest posts of the United States in the north-west," 
was surprised and captured [July 17, 1812] by an allied force of British and 
Indians ; and on the 5th of August, a detachment under ]Ma,jor Van Home, 
sent by Hull to escort an approaching supply-party to camp, were defeated by 
some British and Indians near Brownstown, on the Huron River." Thes3 
events, and the reinforcement of the garrison at Maiden, by General Brock, 
the British commander-in-chief, caused Hull to recross the river on the 7th of 
August, abandon the e.xpedition against Canada, and take post at Detroit, much 
to the disappointment of his troops, who were anxious to measure strength with 
the enemy. 

On the 9th of August, General Brock crossed the river with seven hundred 
British troops and six hundred Indians, and demanded an instant surrender of 
Detroit, threatening at the same time to give free rein to Indian cruelty in the 
event of refusal. Hull's excessive prudence determined him to surrender, 
rather than expose his troops to the hatchet. When the assailants approached, 
and at the moment when the Americans were hoping for and expecting a com- 
mand to fire, he ordered his troops to retire within the fort, and hung a white 
flag upon the wall, in token of suljmission. The army, fort, stores, garrison, 
and Territory, were all surrendered [August 16, 1812], to the astonishment of 
the victor himself, and the deep mortification of the American troops. Hull 
was afterward tried by a court-martiaP [1811], on charges of treason and cow- 
ardice. He was found guilty of the latter, and sentenced to be shot, but was 
pardoned by the President on account of his revolutionary services. The whole 
country severely censured him ; and the rage of the war party, increased by 
the taunts of the Federalists, because of the disastrous termination of one of the 
first expeditions of the campaign, was unbounded. The difiiculties with which 
Hull was suri'ounded — his small force (only about eight hundred eSectivo men) ; 
the inexperience of his ofiicers, and the rawness of his troops ; his lack of infor- 
mation, because of the interception of his communications ; and the number and 
character of the enemy — were all kept out of sight, while bitter denunciations 
were poured upon his head. In after years, he was permitted fully to vindicate 
his character, and the sober judgment of this generation, guided by historic 
truth, mu5t acquit him of all crime, and even serious error, and pity him as a 
victim of untoward circumstances.' 

' Formorly spelled Michilimackinae. It was situated upon an island of that name, near tlio 
Straits of Mackinaw or Michilimakinac. 

' On the 8th, Colonel Miller and several hundred men, sent by HuU to accomplish the object of 
Van Home, met and defeated Tecumtha [page 408] and his Indians, with a party of British, near 
the scene of Van Home's failure. 

3 He was taken to Montreal a prisoner, and was afterward exchanged for thirty British cap- 
tives. He was tried at Albany, New York. 

* Hull published his Vindication in 1824; and in 1848, his grandson published a large octavo 
volume, giving a full and thorough vindication of the character of the general, the material for 
which was drawn from official records. Hull's thorough knowledge of the character of the foe who 
menaced him, and a humane desire to spare his troops, was doubtless his sole reason for surrender- 
ing the post. A good and brave man has too long suffered the reproaches of history, ^'illiam 
Hull was born in Connecticut in l'J53. He rose to the rank of major in the continental army, and 
was distinguished for his bravery. He was appointed governor of the Michigan Territory in 1805. 
After the close of his unfortunate campaign, he never appeared in pubho life. He died near Boston 
in 1825. 



412 T H E X A T I N . [1809. 

At about this time, a tragedy occurred near the head of Lake Michigan, 
which sent a thi-ill of horror through the land. Captain Ileald, with a com- 
pany of fifty regulars, occupied Fort Dearborn, on the site of tho present 
large city of Chicago.' Hull ordered him to evacuate that post in the deep 
wilderness, and hasten to Detroit. He left the public property in charge of 
friendly Indians, but had proceeded only a short distance from the fort, along 
the beach, when he was attacked by a body of Indians. Twenty-six of the reg- 
ular troops, and all of the militia, were slaughtered. A number of women and 
children were murdered and scalped ; and Captain Heald, with his wife, though 
severely wounded, escaped to IMichilimackinac.^ His wife also received six 
wounds, Ijut none proved mortal. This event occurred on the day before Hull's 
surrender [Aug. 15, 1812] at Detroit, and added to the gloom that overspread, 
and the indignation that flashed through, the length and breadth of the land. 

AVhile these misfortunes were befalling the Army of the North-west, ° the 
opponents of the war were casting obstacles in the way of the other divisions of 
the American troops operating in the State of New York, and preparing for 
another invasion of Canada.'' The governors of Massachusetts, New Hamp- 
shire, and Connecticut, refused to allow the militia of those States to march to 
the northern frontier on the requisition of the President of the United States. 
They defended their unpatriotic position by the plea that such a requisition was 
unconstitutional, and that the war was unnecessary. The British government, 
in the mean time, had declared the whole American coast in a state of block- 
ade, except that of the New England States, whose apparent sympathy with 
the enemies of their country, caused them to be regarded as ready to leave the 
Union, and become subject to the British crown. But there was sterling 
patriotism sufficient there to prevent such a catastrophe, even if a movement, 
so fraught with evil, had been contemplated. Yet the eflfect was chilling to the 
best friends of the country, and the President felt the necessity of extrenie cir- 
cumspection. 

Unmindful of the intrigues of its foes, however, tho administration perse- 
vered ; and during the summer of 1812, a plan was matured for invading Can- 
ada on the Niagara frontier. The militia of the State of New Yoyk were 
placed, by Governor Tompkins, under the command of Stephen Van Rensselaer,* 

' Chicago is built upon the verge of Lake Michigan and the boriiers of a great prairie, and is 
one of the wonders of the material and social progress of the United States. The Pottawatomie 
Indians [page 18], by treaty, left that spot to the white people in 1833. The city wa.s laid out in 
1830, and lots were first sold in 1831. In 1840, the population was 4,470. Now [1867] it can not 
be less thanlso.OOOl ' Page 411. 

' The forces under General Harrison were called the Army of the North-west ; those under Gen- 
eral Stephen Van Rensselaer, at Lewiston, on the Niagara River, the Army of the Center ; and 
those under General Dearborn, at Plattsburg and at Greenbush, near Albany, the Army of the 
North. ' Page 410. 

' Stephen Tan Rensselaer, a lineal descendant of one of the earliest and best known of the 
Patroons [note 10, page 139] of the State of New York, was born at the manor-house, near Albany, 
in November, 1764. Tlie War for Independence had just closed when he came into possession of 
his immense estate, at the age of twenty-one years. He engaged in politics, was a warm supporter 
of the Xational Constitution, and was elected Lieutenant-Governor of New York in 1795. He was 
very little engaged in politics after the defeat of tlie Federal party in 1800 [page 388]. After 
the Second AVar for Independence, he was elected to a seat in Congress; and. by his casting vote 
in the New York delegation, he gave the Presidency of tho United States to John Quincy Adams. 



MADISON'S ADJIINISTRATIOIT. 



413 



who was commissioned a Major-General. Intelligence of the surrender of Hull' 
had inspired the Americans with a strong desire to wipe out the disgrace ; and 
the regiments were filled without much difficulty. These forces were concen- 
trated chiefly at Lewiston, on the Niagara frontier, under Van Rensselaer, and 
at Plattsburg, on Lake Champlain, and Greenbush, near Albany, under General 
Dearborn. 




The first demonstration against the neighboring province was made on the 
Niagara, in mid-autumn. In anticipation of such movement, British troops 
were strongly posted on the heights of Queenstown, opposite Lewiston ; and on 
the morning of the 13th of October [1812], two hundred and twenty-five men, 
under Colonel Solomon Van Rensselaer," crossed over to attack them. The 
commander was severely wounded, at the landing ; but his troops pressed for- 
ward, under Captains Wool' and Ogilvie, successfully assaulted a battery near 

Here closed his political life, and he passed the remainder of his days in the performance of social 
and Christian duties. He was for several years president of the Board of Canal Commissioners, 
and, while in that office, he died in January, 1840, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. 

' Page 411. 

^ Solomon Van Rensselaer was one of the bravest and best men of his time ; and to his efforts, 
more than to those of any other man, the salvation of the American army on the northern frontier, 
at tins time, was due. He died at Albany on the 3d of April, 1852. 

' John E. Wool, now [1856] Major-General in the army of the United States. 



414 THE NATION. [1809. 

the summit of the hill, and gained possession of Queenstown Heights. But the 
victory was not yet complete. General Sir Isaac Brock had come from Fort 
George, and with six hundred men attempted to regain the battery. The 
British were repulsed, and Brock was killed.' In the mean while, General 
Stephen Van Rensselaer, who had crossed over, returned to Lewiston, and was 
using his most earnest eflbrts to send reinforcements ; but only about one thou- 
sand troops, many of them quite undisciplined, could be induced to cross the 
river. These were attacked in the afternoon [Oct. 13, 1812] by fresh troops 
from Fort George, and some of their Indian allies. Many were killeil and the 
rest were made prisoners, while at least fifteen hundred of their companions-in- 
arms cowardly refused to cross to their aid. The latter excused their conduct by 
the plea, put into their mouths by the opponents of the war, that they considered 
it wrong to invade the enemy's country, the war being avowedly a defensive one. 
The enemies of the administration applauded them for their conscientiousness, 
while a victory that might have led to reconciliation and peace, was lost at the 
winning moment. General Van Rensselaer, disgusted with the inefficiency 
everywhere displayed, left the service, and was succeeded by General Alex- 
ander Smyth, of Virginia This oiBcer accomplished nothing of importance 
during the remainder of the season ; and when the troops went into winter 
quarters [Dec], there appeared to have been very few achievements made by 
the American army worthy of honorable mention in history. 

While the army was suffering defeats, and became, in the mouths of the 
opponents of the administration, a staple rebuke, the little navy had acquitted 
itself nobly, and the national honor and prowess had been fully vindicated upon 
the ocean. At this time the British navy numbered one thousand and sixty 
vessels, while that of the United States, exclusive of gun-boats," numbered only 
twenty. Two of these were unseaworthy, and one was on Lake Ontario. Nine 
of the American vessels were of a class less than frigates, and ail of them could 
not well compare in appointments with those of the enemy. Yet the Americans 
were not dismayed by this disparity, but went out boldly in their ships to meet 
the war vessels of the proudest maritime nation upon the earth. ^ Victory after 
victory told of their skill and prowess. On the 19th of August, 1812, the 
United States frigate Constitution, Commodore Isaac Hull,* fought the British 
frigate Guerricre,^ Captain Dacres, off the American coast, in the present track 
of ships to Great Britain. The contest continued about forty minutes, when 

' Sir Isaac Brook was a brave and generous officer. There is a fine monument erected to his 
memory on Queenstown Heights, a short distance from the Niagara River. ' Page iO\. 

° At the time of the declaration of war, Commodore Rogers [page 407] was at Sandy Hook, 
New York, witli a small squadron, consisting of the fngates President, Congrcs, United Stalef, and 
the sloop-of-war Hornet. He put to sea on the 21st of June, in pursuit of a British squadron wliich 
had sailed as a convoy of the West India fleet. After a slight engagement, and a chase of several 
hours, the pursuit was abandoned at near midnight. The frigate Essex [page 430] went to sea on 
the 3d of July; the Constitution, on the 12th. The brigs Nautilus, Viper, and V,xen were then 
cruising off the coast, and the sloop Wasp was at sea on her return from France. 

' Isaac Hull was made a lieutenant in the navy in 1798, and was soon distinguished for skill 
and braverv. He rendered important service to his countiy, and died in Philadelphia in February, 
1843. 

' This vessel had been one of a British squadron which gave the Constitution a long and close 
chase about a month before, during which the nautical skill of Hull was most signally displayed. 




1817.] MADISON'S ADMINISTRATION. 415 

Dacres surrendered;' and his vessel was such a complete wreck, that the victor 
burned her. The Constitution, it is said, was so little damaged, that she was 
ready for action the following day. This victory had a powerful effect on the 
public mind in both countries. 

On the 18th of October, 1812, the United States sloop-of-war. Wasp. 
Captain Jones, captured the British brig Frolic, off the 
coast of North Carolina, after a very severe conflict for 
three-quarters of an hour. The slaughter on board the 
Frolic was dreadful. Only three officers and one seaman, 
of eighty-four, remained unhurt. The others were killed 
or badly wounded. The TFas/j lost only ten men. Her 
term of victory was short, for the same afternoon, the 
British seventy-four gun ship Poictiers captured both 
vessels. A week afterward [October 25], the frigate sloop-uf-war. 

United States, Commodore Decatur," fought the British 

frigate Macedonian, west of the Canary Islands, for almost two hours. After 
being greatly damaged, and losing more than one hundred men, in killed and 
wounded, the Macedonian surrendered. Decatur lost only five killed and 
seven wounded; and his vessel was very little injured. A few weeks after- 
ward [December 29, 1812], the Constitution, then commanded by Commodore 
Bainbridge,^ became a victor, after combatting the British frigate Java for 
almost three hours, off San Salvador, on the coast of Brazil. The Java had 
four hundred men on board, of whom almost two hundred were killed or 
wounded. The Constitution was again very little injured ; but she made such 
havoc with the Java, that Bainbridge, finding her incapable of floating long, 
burned her [January 1, 1813], three days after the action. 

The Americans were greatly elated by these victories. Nor were they con- 
fined to the national vessels. Numerous privateers, which now swarmed upon 
the ocean, were making prizes in every direction, and accounts of their exploits 
filled the newspapers. It is estimated that during the year 1812, upward of 
fifty British armed vessels, and two hundred and fifty merchantmen, with an 
aggregate of more than three thousand prisoners, and a vast amount of booty, 
were captured by the Americans. Those achievements wounded British pride 
in a tender part, for England claimed the appellation of "mistress of the seas." 
They also strengthened the administration ; and at the close of the year, naval 
armaments were in preparation on the lakes, to assist the army in a projected 
invasion of Canada the following spring. 

At the close of these defeats upon land, and these victories upon the ocean, 
the election of President and Vice-President of the United States, and also of 
members of Congress, occurred. The administration was strongly sustained by 
the popular vote. Mr. Madison was re-elected, with Elbridge Gerry' as Vice- 
President — George Clinton having died at Washington in April of that year.' 

' On the Guerriere were seventy-nine killed and wounded. The Constitui on lost seven killed 
and seven yvounded. " Pnge 392. 

' Page 391. " * Note 1, page 385. ' Note 5, page 350. 



416 THE NATION. [1813. 

A fraction of the Democratic party, and most of the Federalists, voted for De 
Witt Clinton' for President, and Jared Ingersoll, for A^ice-President. Not- 
withstanding the members of Congress then elected, were chiefly Democrats, it 
was evident that the opposition was powerful and increasing, particularly in the 
eastern States, yet the President felt certain that the great body of the people 
were favorable to his war policy. 



CHAPTER V. 

THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. [1813.] 

During the autumn of 1812, the whole western country, incensed by 
Hull's surrender, seemed filled with the zeal of the old Crusaders." Michigan 
had to be recovered," and the greatest warlike enthusiasm prevailed. Volun- 
teers had gathered under local leaders, in every settlement. Companies were 
formed and equipped in a single day, and were ready to march the next. For 
several weeks the volunteers found employment in driving the hostile Indians 
from post to post, in the vicinity of the extreme western settlements. They 
desolated their villages and plantations, after the manner of Sullivan, in 1779,* 
and the fiercest indignation against the white people was thus excited among 
the tribes, which, under the stimulus of their British allies, led to terrible 
retaliations.^ So eager were the people for battle, that the snows of winter in 
the great wilderness, did not keep them from the field. The campaign of 1813 
opened with the year. Almost the entire northern frontier of the United 
States was the chief theatre of operations. The army of the West," under 
General Harrison,' was concentrating at the head of Lake Erie ; that of the 
Centre," now under Dearborn, was on the banks of the Niagara Eiver ; and 
that of the North," under Hampton, was on the borders of Lake Champlain. 
Sir George Prevost was the successor of Brock'" in command of the British 
army in Canada, assisted by General Proctor in the direction of Detroit," and 
by General Sheaffe in the vicinity of ]\Iontreal and the lower portions of Lake 
Champlain. 

Brave and experienced leaders had rallied to the standard of Harrison in 
the north-west. Kentucky sent swarms of her young men, from every social 

' Pago 456. " Note 5, page 38. = Page 411. * Page 304. 

' Harrison early took steps to relieve the frontier posts. These were Fort Harrison, on the 
Wabash; Fort Wayne, on the Miami of the lakes; Fort Defiance [Note 6, page 374]; and Fort 
Deposit, to wliich tlie InJians laid siege on the 12th of September. Generals Winchester, Tupper, 
and Payne, and Colonels Wells, Scott, Lewis, Jennings, and AUen, were the chief leaders against 
the savages. Operations were carried on vigorously, further west. Early in October, almost four 
thousand volunteers, chiefly mounted riflemen, under General Hopkins, had collected at Vincennes 
[page 303] for an expedition against the'towns of the Peoria and other Indjpns, in the Wabash 
country. It was this formidable expedition, sanctioned by Governor Shelby, which produced the 
greatest devastation in the Indian country. ° Note 3, page 412. ' Page 474. 

° Note 3, page 412. ° Note 3, page 412. '° Page 411. • " Page 412. 



1813.] 



THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



417 



rank, led by the veteran Shelby,' and the yeomanry of Ohio and its neighbor- 
hood hastened to the field. So numerous were the volunteers, that Harrison 
was compelled to issue an order against further enlistments, and many a warm 
heart, beating with desire for military glory, was chilled by disappointment. 
General Harrison chose the west end of Lalie Erie as his chief place of muster, 




with the design of making a descent upon the British at Maiden and Detroit," 
and by securing possession of those posts, recover Michigan and the forts west 
of it. Early in January [10th, 1813], General Winchester, on his way from 
the southward, with eight hundred young men, chiefly Kentuckians, reached 
the Maumee Rapids." There he was informed [January 13, 1813] that a 
party of British and Indians had concentrated at Frenchtown, on the river 
Raisin,* twenty-five miles south of Detroit. He immediately sent a detachment, 

' Isaa3 Shelliy wns born in ItarylanJ, in ITSO. He entered militan- life in 1774, and wont to 
Kentucky as a land-surveyor, in 1775. He eno:ao;ed in the War of the Revolution, and was dis- 
tinguished in the battle on Kind's Mountain [page 319] in 1780. He was made governor of Ken- 
tucky in 1792, and soon afterward retired to private life, from which he was drawn, first in 1812, to 
the duties of Chief Magistrate of his State, and again, in 1813, to lead an army to the field against 
his old enemy. He died in 1826, when almost seventy-six years of age. ' Page 412. 

' Note 7, page 374. 

' Now a portion of the flourishing village of Monroe, Michigan, two or three miles I'rom Lake 
Erie. The Raisin derived its name from the fact, that in former years great quantities of grapes 
clustered upon its banks. 



418 



THE NATION. 



[1813. 



under Colonels Allen and Lewis, to protect the inhabitants in that direction. 
Finding Frcnchtown in the possession of the enemy, they successfully attacked 
[January 18J and routed them, and held possession until the arrival of Win- 
chester [January 20], with almost three hundred men, two days afterward. 

General Proctor, who was at Maiden, eighteen miles distant, heard of the 
advance of Winchester, and proceeded immediately and secretly, with a com- 
bined force of fifteen hundred British and Indians, to attack him. They fell 
upon the American camp at dawn, on the morning of the 22d of January. 
After a severe battle and heavy loss on both sides, Winchester,' who had been 
made a prisoner by the Indians, suiTcndered his troops on the condition, agreed 
to by Proctor, that ample protection to all should bo given. Proctor, fearing 
the approach of Harrison, who was then on the Lower Sandusky, immediately 
marched for Maiden, leaving the sick and wounded Americans behind, without 
a guard. After following him some distance, the Indians turned back [.January 
23], murdered and scalped' the Americans who were unable to travel, set fire 
to dwellings, took many prisoners to Detroit, in order to procure exorbitant 
ransom prices, and reserved some of them for inhuman torture. The indiifer- 
ence of Proctor and his troops, on this occasion, was criminal in the highest 
degree, and gave just ground for the dreadful suspicion, that they encouraged 
the savages in their deeds of blood. Oftentimes after that, the war-cry of the 
Kentuckians was, "Remember the River Raisin!" The tragedy was keenly 
felt in all the western region, and especially in Kentucky, for the slain, by bul- 
let, arrow, tomahawk, and brand, were generally of the most respectable fam- 
ilies in the State ; many of them young men of fortune and distinction, with 
numerous friends and relations. 

Harrison had advanced to the Maumee Rapids, when the intelligence of the 
affair at Frenchtown reached him. Supposing Proctor would 
press forward to attack him, he fell back [January 23, 1813] ; 
but on hearing of the march of the British toward IMalden, he 
advanced [February 1] to the rapids, with twelve hundred men, 
established a fortified camp there, and called it Fort Meigs," in 
honor of the governor of Ohio. There he was besieged 
by Proctor several weeks afterward [iMay 1], who was 
at the head of more than two thousand British and Indians. 
On the fifth day of the siege, General Clay* arrived [ilay 5] 
with twelve hundred men, and dispersed the enemy. A largo 
portion of his troops, while unwisely pursuing the fugitives, were 
surrounded and captured ; and Proctor returned to the siege. 
The impatient Indians, refusing to listen to Tecumtha,' their leader, deserted 

" James Winchester was bom in Maryland in 175G. lie was made brigadier-general in 1812; 
resigned liis commission in 1815; and died in Tennessee in 1826. " Note 4, page 14. 

' Fort Meigs was erected on the south side of the Maumee, nearly opposite tlie former British 
post [note 8, page 374], and a short distance from the present village of Perrysburg. 

' Green Clay was bom in Virginia in 1757, was made a brigadier of Kentucky volunteers early 
in 1813, and died in Octolser, 1826. 

' Pago 408. Teoumtha came with the largest body of Indians ever collected on the northern 
frontier. 




FORT MEIGS. 



1813.] THE SECOND WAR FOR !:■? D E P ENDENOE. 419 

the British on the eighth day [May 8] ; and twenty-four hours afterward, 
Proctor abandoned the siege and returned to Maiden [May 9], to prepare for 
a more formidable invasion. Thus terminated a siege of thirteen days, during 
which time the fortitude and courage of the Americans were wonderfully dis- 
played in the presence of the enemy. The Americans lost in the fort, eighty- 
one killed, and one hundred and eighty-nine wounded. 

For several weeks after the siege of Fort Meigs, military operations were 
suspended by both parties. Here, then, let us take a brief retrospective glance. 
Congress assembled on the 2d of November, 1812, and its councils were divided 
by fierce party spirit, which came down from the people. The Democrats had 
a decided majority, and therefore the measures of the administration were sus- 
tained. The British government now Ijegan to show some desire for reconcilia- 
tion. Already the orders in council had been repealed, and the Prince Regent' 
demanded that hostilities should cease. To this the President replied, that being 
now at war, the United States would not put an end to it, unless full provisions 
were made for a general settlement of differences, and a cessation of the practice 
of impressment, pending the negotiation. At about the same time a law was 
passed, prohibiting the employment of British seamen in American vessels. The 
British also proposed an armistice, but upon terms whict the Americans could 
not accept. Indeed, all propositions from that quarter were inconsistent with 
honor and justice, and they were rejected. When these attempts at reconcilia- 
tion had failed, the Emperor Alexander of Russia offered his mediation. The 
government of the United States instantly accepted it," but the Brjtish govern- 
ment refused it ; and so the war went on. Congress made provision for prose- 
cuting it with vigor ; and the hope lighted by Alexander's offer, soon faded. 

The American troops in the West had remained at Fort Meigs and vicinity. 
Toward the close of July [July 21, 1813], about four thousand British and 
Indians, under Proctor and Tecumtha,' again appeared before that fortress, then 
commanded by General Clay. Meeting with a vigorous re- 
sistance. Proctor left Tecumtha to watch the fort, while he fr'"'''"'~' — -^ 
marched [July 28], with five hundred regulars and eight !i "_ , pf 

hundred Indians, to attack Fort Stephenson, at Lower San- fg^ ■'''■"'■' ''i' ■ '-.■.i I 

dusky,' which was garrisoned by about one hundred and fifty ^= 

voung men, commanded by Major Ci'oghan, a brave soldier, 



' When, in consequence of mental infirmity, George the Third became incompetent to reign, in 
February, 1811, his son, George, Prince of Wales, and afterward George the Fourth, was made 
regent, or temporary ruler of the realm. He retained the office of king, pro tempore, until the deatli 
of his father, in 1820. 

' The President appointed, as commissioners, or envoys extraordinary, to negotiate a treaty of 
peace with Great Britain, under the Russian mediation, Albert Gallatin, John Quincy Adams, and 
James A. Bayard. Mr. Adams was then American minister at the Russian court, and was joined 
by Messrs. Gnllatin and Bayard in June following. ' Page 408. 

* On the west bank of the Sandusky River, about fifteen miles south from Sandusky Bay. The 
area within the pickets [note 1, page 127] was about an acre. The fort was made of regular em- 
bankments of earth and a ditch, with bastions and block-houses [note 3, page 192] and some rude 
log buildings within. The site is in the village of Fremont, Ohio. 

'' The greater portion of the garrison were very young men, and some of them were mere 
youths 




420 THE NATION. [1813. 

then only twenty-one years of age.' Proctor's demand for surrender was accom- 
panied by the usual menace of Indian massacre ; but it 
did not intimidate Croglian.' After a severe cannonade' 
bad made a breacb, about five hundred of the besiegers 
attempted to rush in and take the place by assault [Aug. 
2, 1813] ; but so terribly were they met by grape-shot' 
from the only cannon in the fort, that they recoiled, panic- 
stricken, and the whole body fled in confusion, leaving 
one hundred and fifty of their number killed or wounded. 
The Americans lost only one man killed, and seven 
wounded. This gallant defense was universally ap- 
plauded,'' and it had a powerful eifect upon the Indians. 
Proctor and Tecumtlia left for Detroit, after this noble defense of Fort 
Stephenson, and the British abandoned all hope of capturing these western 
American posts, until they should become masters of Lake Erie. But while 
the events just narrated were in progress, a new power appeared in the conflict 
in the West and North, and complicated the diSiculties of the enemy. In the 
autumn of 1812, Commodore Chauncey had fitted out a small naval armament 
at Sackett's Harbor, to dispute the mastery, on Lake Ontario, with several 
British armed vessels then afloat." And during the summer of 1813, Commo- 
dore Oliver Hazzard Perry had prepared, on Luke Erie, an American squadron 
of nine vessels,' mounting fifty-four guns, to co-operate with the Army of the 
West. The British had also fitted out a small squadron of six vessels, carrying 
sixty-three guns, commanded by Commodore Barclay. Perry's fleet was ready 
by the 2d of August, but some time was occupied in getting several of his ves- 
sels over the bar in the harbor of Erie. The hostile fleets met near the west- 
ern extremity of Lake Erie on the morning of the 10th of September, 1813, 
and a very severe battle ensued. The brave Perry managed with the skill of 
an old admiral, and the courage of the proudest soldier. His flag-ship, the 
Laicrence, had to bear the brunt of the battle, and very soon she became an 
unmanageable wreck, having all her crew, except four or five, killed or 
wounded. Perry then left her, in an open boat, and hoisted his flag on the 
Niagara at the moment when that of the Laxcrence fell. With this vessel he 

' Georjje Croghan was a nephew of George Rogers Clarke [page 300]. He afterward rose to 
the rank of colonel, and held the office of inspector-general. He died at New Orleans in ] 849. 

" In reply to Proctor's demand and threat, he said, in substance, that when the fort should be 
taken there would be none left to massacre, as it would not be given up while there was a man left 
to fight. 

° The British employed six six-pounders and a howitzer, in the siege. A howitzer is a piece 
of ordnance similar to a mortar, for hurling bomb-shells. * Note 4, page 242. 

' Major Croghan was immediately promoted to the rank of lieutenant- colonel; and the ladies 
of Chillicothe gave hiiu an elegant sword. 

° Chauncey's squadron consisted of sis vessels, mounting thirty-two guns, in all. The British 
squadron consisted of the same number of vessels, but mounting more than a hundred guns. Not- 
withstanding this disparity, Chauncey attacked them near Kingston [note 5, page 180] early in 
November, damaged them a good deal, and captured and carried into Sackett's Harbor, a schooner 
belonging to the enemy. He then captured anotlier schooner, which had $12,000 in specie on boariL 
and the baggage of the deceased General Brock. See page 414. 

' iaiereKce (flag-ship), 20 guns; Niagara, 20; Caledonian^ 3; shooner Ariel, i; Scorpion. 2; 
Somcrs, 2 gans and 2 swivels ; sloop Tripjie, and schooners Tigress and Porcupine, of 1 gun eacu. 




Perky on Lake Erie. 



1813.] THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 423 

passed through the enemy's line, pouring broadsides, right and left, at half 
pistol-shot distance. The remainder of the squadron followed, with, a fair wind, 
and the victory was soon decided. At four o'clock in the afternoon, every 
British vessel had surrendered to him ;' and before sunset, he had sent a mes- 
senger to General Harrison with the famous dispatch, " We have met the 
enemy, and they are ours." This victory was hailed with unbounded demon- 




a^ih^%->y 



strationr, of joy. For a moment, party rancor was almost forgotten ; and bon- 
fires and illuminations lighted up the whole country. 

Perry's victory was followed by immediate and energetic action on the part 
of Harrson. The command of Lake Erie now being secured, and a reinforce- 
ment of four thousand Kentucky volunteers, under Governor Shelby, the old 
hero of King's Mountain," having arrived [Sept. 17, 1813], the general pro- 
ceeded to attack Maiden and attempt the recoveiy of Detroit. The fleet con- 
veyed a portion of the troops across the lake [Sept 27], but on their arrival at 
Maiden, it had been deserted by Proctor, who. was fleeing, with Tecumtha and 
bis Indians, toward the Moravian village, on the Thames, eighty miles from 

' The camaije was very ^eat, in proportion to the numbers engjaged. The Americans lost 
twenty-seven killed, and ninetv-six wounded. The British lost about" two hundred in killed and 
wounded, and six hundred prisoners. Perry's treatment of his prisoners received the higliest ap- 
plause. Commodore Barclay declared tliat his humane conduct was sufficient to immortalize him. 
That brave commander was born at Newport, Rhode Island, in 1785. He entered the service as 
midshipman, in 1798. He continued in active service after the close of the Second War for Inde- 
pendence, and died of yeUow fever, in tlie West India Seas, in 1819. It was Ms brother, Ccm- 
modore M. C. Perry, who, as we shall observe, effected a treaty with Japan. '■' Page 417. 



424 THE NATION. ri813. 

Detroit.' A body of Americans took possession of Detroit on the 29th of Sep- 
tember ; and on the 2J of October, Harrison and Shelby, with Colonel Richard 
M. Johnson and his cavalry (thirty-five hundred strong), started in pursuit of 
the enemy.'' They overtook them [Oct. 5] at the Moravian town, when a des- 
perate battle ensued. Tecumtba was slain ;' and then his dismayed followers, 
who had fought furiously, broke and fled, Almost the whole of Proctor's com- 
mand were killed or made prisoners, and the general himself narrowly escaped, 
with a few of his cavalry. Here the Americans recaptured si.x brass field- 
pieces which had been surrendered by Hull, on two of which were engraved the 
words, " Surrendered by Burgoyne at Saratoga.'" These pieces are now at 
the United States military post of West Point, on the Hudson.'' 

The battle on the Thames was a very important one. By that victory, all 
that Hull' had lost was recovered ; the Indian confederacy' was completely 
broken up, and the war on the north-western borders of the Union was termi- 
nated. The name of Harrison was upon every lip ; and throughout the entire 
Republic, there was a general outburst of gratitude. He was complimented by 
Congress, and by various public bodies ; and a member of the House of Repre- 
sentatives asserted, in his place, that his victory was "'such as would have 
secured to a Roman general, in the best days of the republic, the honors of a 
triumph." Security now being given to the frontier. General Harrison dis- 
missed a greater portion of the volunteers ; and leaving General Cass, with 
about a thousand regulars, to garrison Detroit, proceeded [Oct. 23, 1813] to 
Niagara, with the remainder of his troops, to join the Army of the Center,' 
which had been making some endeavors to invade Canada. In the mean while, 
an Indian war had been kindled in the South f and on the ocean, the laurel 
wreaths of triumph won by the Americans during 1812,'° had been interwoven 
with garlands of cypress on account of reverses. Let us turn a moment to the 
operations of the Army of the North." 

Hostilities were kept up on portions of the northern frontier, durinc the 
■winter, as well as in the West. In February [1813], a detachment of British 
soldiers crossed the St. Lawrence on the ice, from Prescott to Ogdensburg, and 
under pretense of seeking for deserters, committed robberies. Major Forsyth, 
then in command of riflemen there, retaliated. This was resented, in turn, by 



' In the present town of Orforcl, West Canada. 

'' Commodore Perry .iiid Gt-neral Cass (late United States Senator from Michigan) accom- 
panied General Harrison as volunteer aids. The Americans moved -Bith such rapidity that 
they traveled twenty-six miies tlie first day. 

' Tecumtha was then ouly about forty years of age. He was a man of great ability, and had 
he been born and educated in civilized society, his powerful intellect would have made him one of 
the most distinguished characters of the age. He possessed great dignity, and .always maintained 
it in his deportment. On one occasion he was to attend a conference held witli Harrison. A circle 
of the company had been formed ; and when he came and entered it, there was no seat for him, 
Harrison's aid having t.iken the one by the side of the general, intended for him. Harrison per- 
ceived that Tecumtha was offended, and told his aid to invite the chief to the seat near him. The 
aid politely said to TecuratliM, " Tour father requests you to fake a se.at by his side." The offended 
chief drew his blanket around him, and. with an air of great dignity, said, "Tlie Great Spirit is my 
father, and I will repose on the bosom of mv mother;" and then sat down upon the ground. 

■* Page 281. • ' Note 2, page 324 ° Pago -111. ' Page 408. 

° Page 412. " Page 428. '" Page 415. " Page 412. 



1813.] THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 425 

a British force of twelve hundred men, who crossed on the 21st of February, 
and after a conflict of an hour, drove out the few military defenders of Ogdens- 
burg, plundered and destroyed a large amount of property, and then returned 
to Canada.' These events accelerated the gathering of the militia in that quar- 
ter. Bodies of new levies arrived, almost daily, at Sackett's Harbor, but these, 
needing discipline, were of little service, as a defense of the country between 
that point and Ogdensburg. 

Being unable to aiford assistance to the exposed points in that region, Gen- 
eral Dearborn, the commander-in-chief," resolved to attempt the capture of 
York (now Toronto), the capital of Upper Canada, and the principal depository 
of British militaiy stores for the supply of western garrisons. He embarked 
seventeen hundred troops on board the fleet of Commodore Chauncey,' at Sack- 
ett's Harbor, on the 25th of April ; and two days afterward [April 27], they 
landed on the beach at York, about two miles west from the British works, in 
the face of a galling fire from regulars and Indians, 
under General SheaSe. These were soon driven back to 
their fortifications, and the Americans, under General 
Pike,' pressed forward, captured two redoubts, and were 
advancing upon the main work, when the magazine of the 
fort blew up,' hurling stones and timbers in every direc- 
tion, and producing great destruction of life among the 
assailants. General Pike was mortally wounded, but he 
lived lonrr enough to know that the enemy had fled, and 

1 1 » n 1 • • 1 1 r- OliJiEBAL PIKE. 

that the American flag waved in triumph over the fort 

at York." The command then devolved on Colonel Pearce; and at four o'clock 
in the afternoon, the town was in possession of the Americans. General Dear- 
born, who had remained with the fleet, landed soon after the fall of Pike, but 
did not assume the immediate command until after the surrender of the town. 

When the victory was completed, the fleet and troops returned [jNIay 1] to 
Sackett's Harbor, but soon afterward proceeded to attack Fort George, on the 
western shore of Niagara River, near its mouth. After a brief defense [May 
27, 1813], the garrison fled to Burlington Heights, at the western extremity of 
Lake Ontario,' thirty-five miles distant, closely pursued by a much larger force, 

' The Americans lost, in killed and wounded, twenty men. The British loss was about double 
that number. ■ Page 410. ^ Page 420. 

* General Dearborn had given the command of this expedition to Brigadier-General Zehulon M. 
Pike, a brave and useful officer, who had been at the head of an expedition, a few years earlier, to 
explore the country around the head waters of the Mississippi. He was born in New Jersey, in 
1779. He died on board the flag-ship of Commodore Chauncey, with the captured British flag 
under his head, at the age of thirty-four years. In the burial-ground attached to Madison barracks, 
at Sackett's Harbor, is a dilapidated wooden monument erected over the remains of General Pike 
and some of his companions in arms. When the writer visited the spot, in 1860, it was wasting 
with decay, and falling to the earth. Such a neglect of the burial-place of the illustrious dead, is a 
disgrace to our government. 

' The British had laid a train of wet powder communicating with the magazine, for the purpose, 
and when they retreated, they fired it. 

^ General Sheafie escaped, with the principal part of the troops, but lest all his baggage, books, 
papers, and a large amount of public property. 

' At the head of Burlington Bay, in Canada. 




426 TEE NATION. [1813. 

under Generals Chandler' and Winder.' In this affair, Colonel (now Lieutenant- 
General) Scott was distinguished for his skill and bravery. On the night of 
the 6th of June, the British fell upon the American camp, at Stony Creek,^ but 
were repulsed. It was very dark, and in the confusion both of the American 
generals were made prisoners. 

A British squadron appeared before Sackett's Harbor on the same day 
[May 27] that the Americans attacked Fort George : and two days afterward 
[May 29] Sir George Prevost and a thousand soldiers landed in the face of a 
severe fire from some regulars' stationed there. The regular force of the Amer- 
icans consisted of only a few seamen, a company of artillery, and about two 
hundred invalids — not more than five hundred men in all. General Jacob 
Brown, the commander at that station, rallied the militia, and their rapid 
gathering, at and near the landing-place, back of Horse Island, so alarmed 
Prevost, lest they should cut off his retreat, that he hastily re-embarked, leaving 
almost the whole of his wounded behind. Had he been aware of the condition 
of his opposers, he could have made an easy conquest of Sackett's Harbor. The 
raw militia had become panic-stricken at the first, and when Prevost retreated, 
they, too, were endeavoring to make their way to places of safety in the 
country. 

A change in the administration of military affairs occurred soon after the 
event at Sackett's Harbor. For some time, the infirmities of General Dearborn, 
the commander-in-chief,'' had disqualified him for active participation in the 
operations of the army, and in June [1813] he withdrew from the service. He 
was succeeded in command by General James Wilkinson," who, like Dearborn, 
had been an active young ofiicer in the War for Independence. General John 
Armstrong,' then Secretary of War, had conceived another invasion of Canada, 
by the united forces of the armies of the Center and North." For this purpose 
a little more than seven thousand men were concentrated at French Creek on 
the 5th of November, 1813, and on that morning went down the St. Lawrence 
in boats, with the intention of co-operating with about four thousand troops 
under Hampton,' in an attack upon Montreal. They landed the same evening, 
a few miles abave the British fort at Prescott, opposite Ogdensburg. It being 
foggy, Wilkinson attempted to pass down the river upon the flotilla commanded 
by General Brown. The fog cleared away, and the moon revealed the Amer- 

' John Chandler was a native of Massachusetts. Some years after the war he was United 
States Senator from Maine. He died at Augusta, in that State, in 1841. ' Page 436. 

^ In the present township of Saltfleet, Canada West. In this affair the Americans lost, in killed, 
wounded, and missing, one hundred and fifty-four. 

' Note 6, page 185. ' Page 410. 

" James Wilkinson was bom in Maryland, in 1757, and studied medicine. He joined the con- 
tinental army at Cambridge, in 1775, and continued in sers'ice during the war. He commanded 
the western division of the United States army at the beginning of the century, and became some- 
what involved, as we have seen [page 396], in Burr's scheme, in 1806. He died near the city of 
Mexico, in 1825, at the age of sixty-eight years. 

' Note 4, page 349. John Armstrong was a son of Colonel John Armstrong, of Pennsylvania 
[page 191], and was bom at Carlisle, in that State, in 1758. He served in the War of the Ilevolu- 
tion; was Secretary of the State of Pennsylvania; minister to France in 1804; Secretary of War 
in 1813 ; and died in Duchess county, New York, in 1843. ° Note 3, page 412. 

' Page 410. 



1813.] THE SECOND "WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 427 

icans to the garrison of the fort. The latter immediately opened a heavy fire, 
and being thus annoyed by the enemy on shore, and by gun-boats' in his rear, 
Wilkinson landed Brown and a strong detachment to go forward and disperse 
quite a large force near Williamsburg, and to cover the descent of the boats. 
A severe battle ensued [November 11] in which the Americans lost more than 
three hundred men in killed and wounded, and the British about two liundred. 
This is known as the battle of Chrysler's Field. The locality is on the northern 
shore of the St. Lawrence, a little more than thirty miles below Ogdensburg, 
and about ninety above Montreal. 

General Wilkinson arrived at St. Regis' the next day, with the main body, 
when he was informed that no troops from the army of the North would join 
him.' He therefore abandoned the expedition against Montreal, and went 
into winter quarters at French Mills (now Fort Covington, in St. Lawrence 
county), about nine miles east of St. Regis. A little later, some stirring events 
occurred on the Niagara frontier. General M'Clure, commander at Fort 
George,' burnt the Canadian village of Newark on the 10th of December. 
Two days later [December 12, 1813] he was 
compelled by the British to abandon Fort 
George. A strong force of British and Indians 
then surprised and captured [December 10] 
Fort Niagara, on the east side of the Niagara 

River, near its mouth;' and in retaliation for pq^t i;iag.\r.\, 1813. 

the burning of Newark, they laid Youngstown, 

Lewiston, ^Lanchester (now Niagara Falls), and the Tuscarora Indian village, 
in Niagara county, in ashes. On the 30th, the little villages of Black Rock 
and BuSivlo'' were also consumed, and a large amount of public and private 
property was destroyed. With these events ended the campaign of 1813, in 
the North. 

Affairs in the extreme South assumed a serious aspect during the summer 
of 1813. In the spring of that year, Tecumseh (who was slain on the Thames 
a few months later)' went among the Southern tribes, to arouse them to wage 
war upon the white people. The powerful Creeks' yielded to his persuasions ; 
and late in August [30th], a large party of them surprised and captured Fort 
Mimms, on the Alabama River," and massacred about four hundred men. 




' Pajre 401. I 

' This is an old French and Indian settlement on the St. Lawrence, at the mouth of the St. 
Regis River, about fifty miles below Ogdensburg. The dividing line (45th degree) between the 
United States and Canada, passes through the center of the village. 

' There was an enmity between Wilkinson and Hampton, and Armstrong resolved to command 
the expedition Iiimself, to prevent trouble on account of precedence. He joined the army at 
Sackett's Harbor, but soou returned to Washington, for lie and Wilkinson could not agree. To the 
jealousies and bickerings of these old ofBcers, must the disasters of the land troops be, in a great 
degree, attributed. General Hampton did move forward toward Canada, but finally fell back to 
Plattsburg, and leaving the command with General Izard, returned to South Carolina. He died at 
Columbia. South Carolina, in 1835, aged eighty-one years. ' Page 414. ' Page 200. 

' Buffiilo was then a small village, containing about fifteen hundred inhabitants, and was utterly 
destroyed. It is now [1867] one of the stateliest commercial cities on the continent, with a popu- 
lation of not much less than one hundred thousand. ' Page 424. * Page 30. 

" On the east side of the Alabama, about ten miles above its junction with the Tombigbee. 



428 THENATIOX. [1813. 

■women, and children. This event aroused the whole South. General Andrew 
Jackson,' accompanied by General Coffee, marched into the Creek country, with 
twenty-five hundred Tennessee militia, and prosecuted a subjugating war against 
them, with great vigor. 

On the 3d of November, General Coffee,' with nine hundred men, sur- 
rounded an Indian force at Tallushatchee, ' and killed two hundred of them. 
Not a warrior escaped. Within ten weeks aftft-ward, bloody battles had been 
fought at Talladega' [November 8], Autossee' [November 29], and Emucfau" 
[January 22d, 1814], and several skirmishes had also taken place. The 
Americans were always victorious, yet they lost many brave soldiers. At 
length the Creeks estabhshed a fortified camp at the Great Horseshoe Bend of 
the Tallapoosa River,' and there a thousand warriors, with their women and 
children, determined to make a last defensive stand. The Americans sur- 
rounded them, and Jackson, with the main body of his army, attacked them on 
the 27th of March, 1814. The Indians fought desperately, for they saw no 
future for themselves, in the event of defeat. Almost six hundred warriors 
were slain, for they disdained to surrender. Only two or three were made 
prisoners, with about three hundred women and children. This battle crushed 
the power and spirit of the Creek nation, and soon afterward the chiefs of the 
remnant signified their submission.^ It was a sad scene to the eyes of the 
benevolent and good, to see these ancient tribes of our land, who were then 
making rapid strides in the progress of civilization, so utterly ruined by the 
(destroying hand of war. They found that inlrjht made ri(jhf, in the view of 
their subjugators, and they were compelled to make a treaty of peace upon the 
terms dictated by their conquerors. Thus, time after time since the advent of 
the white people here, have the hands of the stronger been laid upon the weaker, 
until now nothing but remnants of once powerful nations remain. 

The naval operations upon the ocean, during the year 1813, were very im- 
portant. Many and severe conflicts between public and private armed vessels 
of the United States and Great Britain, occurred ; and at the close of the year, 
the balance-sheet of victories showed a preponderance in fiivor of the former." 
Toward the end of February, the United States sloop of war Hornet, Cap- 

' Page 460. 

" John Coffee wag a native of Tirginia. He did good service during tlio second War for Inde- 
pendence, and in subsequent campaigns. He died in 1834. 

' Soutli side of Tallushatchee Creek, near the village of Jacksonville, in Benton county, Ala- 
bama. 

* A little east of the Coosa River, in the present TaUadega county. 

' On the bank of the Tallapoosa, twenty miles from its junction witli the Coosa, in Macon 
county. 

' Gn the west bank of the Tallapoosa, at the mouth of Emucfau Creek, in Tallapoosa county. 

^ Called Tohopeka by the Indians. Near the north-east corner of Tallapoosa county. 

' Among those who bowed in submission was "VVeathersford, their greatest leader. He appeared 
suddenly before Jackson, in his tent, and standing erect, he said: "I am in your power; do with 
me what you please. I have done the white people all the harm I could. I have fought them, 
and fouffht them bravely. My warriors are all gone now, and I can do no more. When there was 
a chance for success, I never asked for pe^ce. There is none now, and I ask it for the remnant of 
my nation." 

" More than seven hundred British vessels were taken by the American navy and privateers, 
during the years 1812 and 1813. 




1S13.] THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 429 

tain Lawrence, fought [Feb. 24, 1813] the British brig Peacock, off the 
mouth of Demarara River, Soutli America. The Peacock surrendered, after a 
fierce conflict of fifteen minutes, and a few moments afterward she sank, carry- 
ing down with her nine British seamen and tlireo Americans. The loss of the 
Peacock, in killed and wounded, was thirty-seven ; of the Hornet only five. 
The generous conduct of Captain Lawrence, toward his enemy on this occasion, 
drew from the officers of the Peacock, on their arrival in New York, a public 
letter of thanks.' This, of itself, was a wreath of honor for the victor, more 
glorious than his triumph in the sanguinary conflict. 

On his return to the United States, Captain Lawrence was promoted to the 
command of the frigate Chesapeake ; and on the 1st 
of June, 1813, he sailed from Boston harbor, in search 
of the British frigate. Shannon, which had recently 
appeared ofi' the New England coast, and challenged 
any vessel, of equal size, to meet her. Lawrence 
found the boaster the same day, about thirty miles 
from Boston light; and at five in the afternoon, a 
furious action began. The two vessels soon became 
entangled. Then the Britons boarded the Chesapeake, 
and after a desperate hand-to-hand struggle, hoisted t'APiAiN l-iwuekce. 
the British flag. Lawrence was mortally wounded at the beginning of the 
action ; and when he was carried below, he uttered those brave words of com- 
mand, which Perry afterward displayed on his flag-ship on Lake Erie, " Don't 
rj'ive up the ship .''' The combat lasted only fifteen minutes ; but in that time, 
the Chesapeake had forty-eight killed and ninety-eight wounded ; the Shannon 
twenty-three killed, and fifty-si.^ wounded. The body of Lawrence," with that 
of Ludlow, the second in command, was carried to Halifax, in the victorious 
Shannon, and there buried with the honors of war. This event caused great 
sadness in America, and unbounded joy in England.' 

Another disaster followed the loss of the Chesapeake. It was the capture 
of the American brig Anjus, Captain Allen, in August. The Argus, in the 
spring [1813], had conveyed Mr. Crawford, United States minister, to Fi'ance, 
and for two months had greatly annoyed British shipping in the English Chan- 

' They said, " So much was done to alleviate the uncomfortable and distressing situation in 
which we were placed, when received on board the ship you command, that we can not better 
express our feelings than by saying, we ceased to consider ourselves prisoners ; and every thing 
that friendship could dictate, was adopted by you and the officers of the Hornet, to remedy the 
inconvenience we otherwise should have experienced, from the unavoidable loss of the whole of 
our property and clothes, by the sudden sinking of the Peacock." The crew of the Hornet divided 
their c!othing with the prisoners. 

- Captain James Lawrence was a native of New Jersey, and received a midshipman's warrant 
at the age of sixteen years. He was with Decatur at Tripoli [page 392]. He died four days after 
receiving the wound, at the age of thirty-one years. A beautiful monument, in the form of a trun- 
cated column and pedestal, was erected to his memory in Trinity churen-yard. New York. Tliia, in 
time became dilapidated, and, a few years ago, a new one, of another form, was erected near the 
south entrance to the church, a few feet from Broadway. 

' A WTiter of the time observed: "Never did any victorj- — not those of Wellington in Spain, 
nor even those of Nelson — call foitli such expressions of joy on the part of the British ; a proof 
that our naval character had risen somewhat in their estimation." 



430 THE NATION. [1£]3. 

nel. Several vessels were sent out to capture her ; and on the 14th of August, 
the sloop of Tvar' Pelican, after a brief, but severe action, defeated the Argus. 
In less than a month afterward [Sept. 10], Perry gained his great victory on 
Lake Erie ;' and the British brig Boxer, Captain Blythe, had surrendered 
[Sept. 5, 1813], to the United States brig Enterprise, Lieutenant Burrows, 
after an engagement of forty minutes, off the coast of Maine. Blythe and Bur- 
rows, young men of great promise, were both slain during the action, and their 
bodies were buried in one grave at Portland, with military honors. 

A distressing warfare upon the coast between Delaware Bay and Charleston, 
was carried on during the spring and summer of 1813, by a small British 
squadron under the general command of Admiral Cockljurn. His chief object 
was to draw the American troops from the northern fi-ontier to the defense of 
the seaboard, and thus lessen the danger that hung over Canada. It was a sort 
of amphibious warfare — on land and water — and was marked by many acts of 
unnecessary cruelty. The British had talked of " chastising the Americans 
into submission," and the method now employed was the instrument. On the 
4th of February, 1813, two ships of the line, three frigates, and other British 
vessels, made their appearance iit the capes of Virginia.' At about the same 
time, another British squadron entered the Delaware River, destroyed the 
American shipping there in March, and in April cannonaded the town of 
Lewiston. In May, Frenchtown, Havre de Grace, Georgetown, and Frederick- 
town, on the Chesapeake, were plundered and burned ; and then the combined 
British fleet entered Hampton Roads,* and menaced Norfolk. While attempt- 
ing to go up to that city, the enemy were nobly repulsed [Jan. 22, 1813] by 
the Americans upon Craney Island,' under the command of Major Faulkner, 
assisted by naval officers. The British then fell upon Hampton [Jan. 25] ; and 
having surfeited themselves with plunder, withdrew. Cockburn" sailed down 
the North CaroUna coast, marauding whenever opportunity offered, and carried 
away a large number of negroes and sold them in the West Indies. In pleas- 
ant contrast to this, was the deportment of Commodore Hardy, whose squadron 
was employed during the same season, in blockading the New England coast. 
Although he landed upon our shores frequently, yet his conduct was always 
that of a high-minded gentleman and generous enemy.' 

During the year 1813, the United States frigate Essex, Captain Porter, 
made a long and successful cruise in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. It oc- 
cupied the time from April until October. The Essex carried at her mast- 
head the popular motto, "Free Trade and Sailor^ s Rights;^' and, while in 

'Page 415. = Page 423. = Page 64. * Note 3, page 297. 

' Craney Island is low and bare, and lies at tiie mouth of tlie Elizabeth River, about five 
miles below Norfolk. At the time in question, there were some unfinished fortifications upon 
it. These were strengthened and added to by tlie insurgents during the late Civil War. 

' Coekburn died in England in 1853, at an advanced atre. 

' Congress had passed an act, offering a reward of half their value for the destruction of British 
ships, by other means than those of the armed vessels of the United States. This was to encourage 
the use of torpedoes. The cruel forays upon tlie southern coasts seemed to warrant this species 
of dishonorable warfare. It was employed agamst Hardy's squadron. He was justly indignant, 
and protested against it as unmanly. 




1814.] THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 431 

the Pacific, she captured twelve British -whale-ships, with an aggregate of 
three hundred and two men, and one hundred and seven guns. The Essex 
was finally captured in the harbor of Valparaiso [March, 
28, 1814J, on the western coast of South America, by 
the British frigate Phoebe, and sloop of war Cherub, 
after one of the most desperately fought battles of the 
war. It is said that thousands of the inhabitants of 
Valparaiso covered the neighboring heights as spectators 
of the conflict. Perceiving the overpowering advantage 
of the British, their sympathies were strongly elicited 
in favor of the Essex. When any thing in her favor 
appeared, loud shouts went up from the multitude ; and £.'■ 
when slie was finally disabled and lost, they expressed comhudore porter. 
their feelings in groans and tears. The Essex lost one hundred and fifty- 
four, in killed and wounded. Captain Porter' wrote to the Secretary of the 
Navy, " We have been unfortunate, but not disgraced." 



CHAPTER VI. 

SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE, CONTINUED. [1814, 1815.] 

During the year 1814, the war was prosecuted by both parties with more 
zeal and vigor than hitherto. The means for supporting it were much aug- 
mented by the government of the United States, notwithstanding the public 
credit was much depreciated, and treasury notes fell as low aa seventeen per 
cent, below par. At the same time. Great Britain seemed to put forth increased 
energy, and her vessels of war hovered along our entire coast, and kept the sea- 
port towns in a state of continual alarm. Early in that year, the victorious 
career of Napoleon, in Europe, was checked by the allied powers. Almost all 
of the governments of continental Europe, with that of England, had combined 
to crush him, and sustain the sinking Bourbon dynasty. Their armies were 
allied in a common cause. These, approaching from different directions, reached 
Paris, at the close of March, 1814, when the Russian and Prussian emperors 
entered the city." Hoping to secure the crown to his son. Napoleon abdicated 
in his favor on the 4th of April, and retired to Elba. Peace for Europe 

' Commodore David Porter was among the most distinguished of the American naval com- 
manders. He was a resident minister of tlie United States in Turkey, and died, near Constantin- 
ople, in March, 1843. 

" Russians, one hundred and fifty thousand strong, advanced from Switzerland; Blucher led 
one hundred and thirty thousand Prussians from Germany ; Bemadotte, the old companion-in-arms 
of Napoleon, was at the head of one hundred thousand Swedes, and marched through Holland ; and 
the English, in great power, advanced from Spain, under Wellington. A battle at Montmartre left 
Paris exposed to the enemy, and Alexander and Frederic took possession of the capital on the Slat 
of March. 




432 TUE NATION. 11814. 

seemed certain. British troops were ■withdrawn from the continent, and early 
in the summer of 1814, fourteen thousand of Wellington's veterans were sent 
to Canada' to operate against the United States. Considering the moral and 
material weakness of the American army, hitherto, the circumstance of the 
continual employment of the British troops on the continent, was highly favor- 
able to the United States. Had Europe been at peace, the result of this second 
War for Independence might have been quite different. 

The fivorite project of the public authorities continued to be the invasion of 
Canada ;° and to oppose it, was the chief solicitude of the British officers on 
our northern frontiers. The principal force of the enemy in Upper Canada, 
was placed under the chief command of Lieutenant-General Drummond, late in 
the season ; while the American army on the Niagara 
frontier was commanded by General Brown, at the 
same time. General Wilkinson was still in the 
vicinity of the St. Lawrence, and toward the close of 
February, he broke up his camp at French Mills," and 
retired to Plattsburg ; w hile General Brown, with two 
thousand men, marched to Sackett's Harbor, prepara- 
tory to his departure for the Niagara. Late in March, 
Wilkinson proceeded to erect a battery at Rouse's 
Point, at the foot of Lake Champlain; and at La 
GENEEVL BROWN. Colle, tlirce miles below, he had an unsuccessful 

engagement [^larch 30] with the British. The disas- 
trous result of this affair brought Wilkinson into disrepute, and he was tried by 
a court-martial, but acquitted of all charges alleged against him. He had been 
suspended from all command, in the mean while, and the charge of the troops 
was given to General Izard. 

Preparations had been making on Lake Ontario, during the winter and 
spring, by both parties, to secure the control of that inland sea. Sir James 
Yeo was in command of a small British squadron, and on the 5th of May 
[1814], he appeared before Oswego, accompanied by about three thousand land 
troops and marines.* Oswego was then defended by only about three hundred 
troops under Colonel Mitchell, and a small flotilla under Captain Woolsey. 
The chief object of the expedition was to capture or destroy a large quantity of 
naval and military stores, deposited at Oswego Falls,'' but the gallant band of 
Americans at the harbor defeated the project. They withstood an attack, by 
land and water, for almost two days, before they yielded to a superior force. 
Afraid to penetrate the country toward the Falls, in the face of such deter- 
mined opponents, the British withdrew on the morning of the 7th [May, 1814], 

' These were embarked at Bourdeaux, in France, and sailed directly for the St. Lawrence, 
without even touching the shores of England. 

' Page 410. ' Page 427. 

* The fort on the east side of the river w.a3 then in quite a dilapidated state, and formed but a 
feeble defense for the troops. It was strengthened after this attack. 

' At the present village of Fulton, on the east side of Oswego River, and about twelve miles 
from the harbor. 



1815.] THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 433 

after losing two hundred and thirty-five men, in killed and •wounded. The 
Americans lost sixty-nine. 

Toward the close of June, General Brown marched from Sackett's Harbor' 
to the Niagara frontier ; and on the morning of the 3d of July, Generals Scott 
and Ripley" crossed the river, with a considerable force, and captured Fort 
Erie, which was situated on the Canada side of the Niagara River, nearly 
opposite Black Rock. The garrison withdrew to the intrenched camp of the 
British General Riall, then at Chippewa,' a few miles below. On the morning 
of the 4th [July, 1814], Brown advanced, and on the 5th the two armies had a 
sanguinary battle in the open fields at Chippewa. The British were repulsed, 
with a loss of about five hundred men, and retreated to Burlington Heights,' 
where they were reinforced by troops under General Drummond, who assumed 
the chief command in person. The Americans lost a little m6rc than three 
hundred. 

General Drummond was mortified by this discomfiture of his veteran troops 
by what he considered raw Americans, and ho resolved to wipe out the stain. 
Collecting every regiment from Burlington and York, with some from Kingston 
and Prescott, he prepared for a renewal of combat. With a force about one 
third greater than that of Brown,' he immediately advanced to meet the Amer 
icans. The latter had encamped at Bridgewater, near Niagara Falls ; and 
there, at the close of a sultry day, and within the sound of the great cataract's 
thunder, one of the most destructive battles of the war began." It commenced 
at sunset and ended at midnight [July 25, 1814], when the Americans had 
lost eight hundred and fifty-eight men in killed and wounded, and the British 
twenty more than that. The Americans were left in quiet possession of the 
field, but were unable to carry away the heavy artillery which they had cap- 
tured.' Brown and Scott being wounded," the command devolved on Ripley, 
and the following day [July 26] he withdrew to Fort Erie, where General 
Gaines,' a senior officer, who arrived soon afterward, assumed the chief com- 
mand. 

Having recovered from his wound, Drummond again advanced, with five 



' Page 432. 

" The late Winfield Scott was Lieutenant-General, and commander-in-chief of the army of tlie 
United States, in 1861, when he retired from the service. General James Bipley remained iu 
the army after the war, and died on the 2d of March, 1839. 

' On the Canada sliore^ about two miles above Niagara Falls. ' Page J25. 

' Jacob Brown was born in reniisylvania, in 1775. He engaged in his country's service in 
1813, and soon became distinguished. He was made Major-General iu lf*14. He was General- 
in-chief of the United States army iu 1821, and held that rank and oflBce when he died, iu 1828. 

' The hottest of the fight was in and near an obscure road known as Lundy's Lane. This battle 
is known by the respective names of Bridgeieater, Lundy's Lane, and Niagara Falls. 

' After the Americans had withdrawn, a party of the British returned and carried off their 
artillery. This event was so magnified, in the ilnglish accounts of the battle, as to make the victory 
to appear on the side of the British. 

' The British Generals Drummond and Riall were also wounded. General Scott led the advance 
in the engagement, and for an hour maintained a most desperate conflict, when he was reinforced. 
It was quite dark, and General Riall and his suite were made prisoners by the gallant Major Jesup. 
A British battery upon an eminence did terriljle execution, for it swept the whole field. This was 
assailed and captured by a party under Colonel Miller, who replied, when asked by General Brown 
if he could accomplish it, " I'U try, sir" Three times the British attempted to recapture this ba'j- 
tery. In the last attempt, Drummond was wounded. ' Pags 398. 

28 




434 THE X AT I ox. [1814 

thousand men, and on the 4th of August appeared before Fort Erie, and com- 
menced preparations for a siege. From the 7th until the 
14th, there was an almost incessant cannonade between 
the besiegers and the besieged. On the 15th, Drummond 
made a furious assault, but was repulsed, with a loss of 
almost a thousand men. Very little was done hy either 
party for nearly a month after this affair, when General 
Brown, who had assumed command again, ordered a sor- 
tie [Sept. 17] from the fort. It was successful ; and the 
Americans pressed forward, destroyed the advanced works 
of the besiegers, and drove them toward Chippewa. Id- 
mag iev FEOMiEK formed, soon afterward, that General Izard was approach- 
ing,' with reinforcements for Brown, Drummond retired 
to Fort George.'' The Americans abandoned and destroyed Fort Erie in No- 
vember [November 5], and, crossing the river, went into winter-quarters at 
Buffalo, Black Rock, and Batavia. 

Let us consider the military operations in northern New York, for a mo- 
ment. Very little of interest transpired in the vicinity of Lake Champlain 
until toward the close of summer, when General Izard' marched [August, 
1814] from Plattsburg, with five thousand men, to reinforce General Brown on 
the Niagara frontier, leaving General Macomb' in command, with only fifteen 
hundred men. Taking advantage of this cii'cumstance, General Prevost, who 
led an army of fourteen thousand men, chiefly Wellington's veterans, to the 
invasion of the United States, marched for Plattsburg. During the spring and 
summer, the British and Americans had each constructed a small fleet on Lake 
Champlain, and those were now ready for operations ; the former under Com- 
modore Downie, and the latter under Commodore IMacdonough.' 

General Prevost arrived near Plattsburg on the 6th of September, when 

' Note 3, page 427. ' Page 425. 

' George Izard was born in South Carolina, in 17 TV, and made military life his profession. 
After the war he left the arniv. He was governor of Arkansas Territory in 1825, and died at 
Little Rock, Arkansas, in 1828. 

■' Alexander ilaconib was Ijorn in the fort in Detroit, in 1782, and entered the army at the age 
of seventeen years. He was made a brigadier in 1814. In 1835, he was General-in-chief of the 
armies of the United States, and died in 1841. 

' Thomas Macdonough was a native of Delaware. He was twenty-eight years of age at the 
time of the engagement at Plattsburg. The State of New York gave him one thousand acres of 
land on Plattsburg Bay, for his services. He died in 1825, at the age of thirty-mne years. Mac- 
donough was always remarkable for cool courage. On one occasion, while first lieutenant of a 
vessel lying in the'harbor of Gibraltar, an armed boat from a British man-of-war boarded an Amer- 
ican b'ri<r anchored near, in the absence of the commander, and carried off a seaman. See page 
401 Macdonough manned a gig, and with an inferior force, made chase and recaptured the 
seaman The ca'ptain of the man-of-war came aboard Macdonough's vessel, and, in a great rage, 
asked him how he dared to take the man from his majesty's boat. " He was an American seam.an, 
and I did mv duty," was the reply. "I '11 bring my ship alongside, and smk you, angrily cried 
the Briton ' "That you can do," cooUy responded Macdonough ; "but whUe she swims, that man 
you wiU not have." The captain, roaring with rage, said, "Supposing / had been m the boat, 
would you have dared to commit such an act?" "I should have made the attempt, su-, was the 
calm reply "Whatl" shouted the captain, "if I were to impress men from that brig, would you 
interfere'" "You have only to try it, sir." was Macdonougn's tantahzing reply. The haughty 
Briton was over-matched, and he did not attempt to try the metal of such a brave young man. 
There were cannon-balls in bis coolness, full of danger. 



THE SECOND Vf AU FOR INDEPENDENCE. 



435 



Macomb's little army, and quite a large body of militia under General Mooers, 
retired to the south side of the Saranac, and prepared to dispute its passage by 
the invaders. On the morning of the 11th. the British fleet came around 
Cumberland Head, with a fair wind, and attacked jMacdonough's squadron in 
Plattsburg Bay.' At the same time, the British land troops opened a heavy 
cannonade upon the Americans. After a severe engagement of two hours and 




twenty minutes, filacdouough became victor, and the whole British fleet was 
surrendered to him." The land forces fought until dark, and every attempt of 
the British to cross the Saranac; was bravely resisted. During the evening, 
Prevo.st hastily retreated, leaving his sick and wounded, and a large quantity 
of military stores, behind him. The British loss, in killed, wounded, and de- 
serted, from the 6th to the 11th, was about twenty-five hundred ; that of the 
Americans, only one hundred and twenty-one. The victory was applauded with 
the greatest enthusiasm throughout the land, and gave emphasis to the effect 
of another at Baltimore, which had been recently achieved. 

' When the British squadron appeared off Cumberland Head, Macdonough knelt on the deck of 
the Saratoga (his flag-ship), in the midst of his men. and prayed to the God of Battles for aid. A 
furious incident occurred during the engagement that soon followed. A British Ijall demolished a 
hen-coop on board the Saratncja. A cock, released from his prison, flew into the rigging, and 
crowed lustily, at the same time flapping his wings with triumphant vehemence. The seamen re- 
garded the event as a good omen, and they fought hke tigers, while the cock cheered them on with 
his crowings, until the British flag was struck and the firing ceased. 

^ The iVmericans lost, in killed and wounded, one hundred and sixteen ; the British, one hun- 
dred and ninety-Ibur. Among them was Ci'mmodore Downie, whose remains lie under a monu- 
ment in a cemetery at Plattsburg, with those of several of his comrades. 



436 THE NATION. [1814. 

So wide was the theater of war, that in our rapid view of it, the shifting 
scenes carry us alternately from the northern frontier to the western and south- 
ern borders, and then upon the Atlantic and its coasts. The latter were expe- 
riencing much trouble, while the whole frontier from the Niagara to the St. 
Lawrence was in commotion. The principal ports from New York to Maine 
were blockaded by British war-vessels ; and early in the spring, a depredating 
warfare again' commenced on the shores of the Chesapeake. These were but 
feebly defended by a small flotilla, ° under the veteran, Commodore Barney f and 
when, about the middle of August, a British squadron, of almost sixty sail, 
arrived in the bay, with six thousand troops, under General Ross, destined for 
the capture of Washington city, it proved of little value. Ross landed [Aug. 
19, 1814] at Benedict, on the Patuxent (about twenty-five miles from its 
mouth), with five thousand men, and marched toward Washington city.* Bar- 
ney's flotilla, lying higher up the stream, was abandoned and burned, and his 
marines joined the" gathering land forces, under General Winder. Ross was 
one of Wellington's most active commanders, and Winder had only three thou- 
sand troops to oppose him, one half of whom were undisciplined militia. A 
sharp engagement took place [Aug. 24] at Bladensburg,' a few miles from 
Washington city, when the militia fled, and Barney, fighting gallantly at the 
head of his seamen and marines, was made prisoner." Ross pushed forward to 
Washington city the same day, burned the capitol. President's house, and 
other public and private buildings [August 24], and then hastily retreated 
[August 25] to his shipping.' 

The British ministry were greatly elated by the destruction of the public 
buildings and property at Washington, but their jubilant feelings were not 
shared by the best of the English people at large. The act was denounced, in 
severe terms, on the floor of the British House of Commons ; and throughout 
civilized Europe, it was considered a disgrace to the perpetrators and abettors. 
General Ross, however, seemed to glory in it as heartily as did the marauder, 
Cockburn ; and, flushed with success, he proceeded to attack Baltimore, where 
the veteran, General Smith,' was in command. That officer, in connection with 

' Page 430. 

" It consisted of a cutter (a vessel with one mast), two gvm-boats [page 401], and nine barges, 
or boats propelled by oars. 

' He was bom in Baltimore in 1759. He entered the naval service of the Revolution in 1775, 
and was active during the whole war. He bore the American flag to the French National Con- 
vention in 1796, and entered the French sen'ice. He returned to America in 1800, took part in 
the War of 1812, and died .at Pittsburg in 1818. 

* Another small squadron was sent up the Potomac, but effected little else than plunder. 
' Note 1, page 392. 

• Until the latest moment, it was not known whether Washington or Baltimore was to be at- 
tacked. Winder's troops, employed for the defense of both cities, were divided. The loss of the 
British, in killed, wounded, and by desertion, was almost a thousand men ; that of the Americans 
was about a hundred killed and wounded, and a hundred and twenty taken prisoners. The Pres- 
ident and his Cabinet were at Bladcnsburg when tlie British approached, but returned to the city 
when the conflict began, and narrowly escaped capture. 

' Washington then contained about nine hundred houses, scattered, in groups, over a surface 
of three miles. The Great Bridge across the Potomac was also burnt. The light of the conflagra- 
tion was distinctly seen at Baltimore, forty miles distant. 

' Samuel Smith, the brave commander of Fort Mifflin [page 275] in 1777. Ho was bom in 



1815.] THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 437 

General Strieker, rallied the militia of the city and vicinity, and soon almost fif- 
teen thousand men were under arms, to defend the town. Ross landed [Sept. 12, 
1814], with almost eight thousand troops, at North Point, fourteen miles from 
the city, while a portion of the fleet went up the Patapsco to bombard Fort 
M'Henry. He immediately pressed forward, but was soon met by the advanced 
corps of General Strieker, and a slight skirmish ensued. Ross was killed, and 
the command devolved on Colonel Brooke, who continued to advance. A severe 
battle now commenced, which continued an hour and a quarter, when the 
Americans fell back, in good order, toward the city. In this engagement the 
British lost about three hundred men ; the Americans, one hundred and sixty- 
three. Both parties slept on their arms that night ; and the following morn- 
ing [Sept. 13], the British advanced, as if to attack the city. The fleet, in the 
mean while, had opened its bombs and cannons upon the fort, whose garrison, 
under Major Armistead, made a most gallant defense. The bombardment con- 
tinued most of the day and night, and no less than fifteen hundred bombshells 
were thrown. The people in the city felt in immediate danger of an attack 
from the land troops; but toward the morning of the 14th, these silently em- 
barked, and the disheartened and discomfited enemy withdrew.' This defense 
was hailed as an important victory.' 

The whole Atlantic coast, eastward from Sandy Ilook,' was greatly annoyed 
by small British squadrons, during the summer of 1814. These captured 
many American coasting vessels, and sometimes menaced towns with bombard- 
ment. Finally, in August, Commodore Hardy' appeared before Stonington, 
and opened a terrible storm of bombshells and rockets' upon the town. The 
attack continued four successive days [August 9-12], and several times land 
forces attempted to debark, but were always driven back by the militia. The 
object of this unprovoked attack seems to have been, to entice the American 
forces from New London, so that British shipping might go up the Thames, 
and destroy some American frigates, then near Norwich. The expedient sig- 
nally failed, and no further attempt of a similar kind was made on the Connecti- 
cut coast. 

Further eastward, that part of Maine which lies between the Penobscot 
River and Passamaquoddy Bay, became a scene of stirring events. On the first 



Pennsylvania in 1752 ; entered the revolutionary army in IT^G ; afterward represented Baltimore 
in Congress many years; and died in April, 1839. 

' General Smith estimated the entire loss of the British, in their attack upon Baltimore, at 
" between six and seven hundred." 

" An event, connected witli this attack on Baltimore, was the origin of the stirring song. The 
Star- Spangled Banner, which was written by Francis S. Key, of Georgetown, to the air of 
" Anacreon in Heaven." With another gentleman, Key went, with a flag of truce, to attempt 
the release of a friend on board the British fleet. They were not allowed to return, leet they 
should disclose the intended attack on the city. From a British vessel they saw the bom- 
bardment of Fort McHenry. They watched the American flag over the fort, all day, with great 
anxiety, until the darkness of the night hid it from view. With eager eyes, they looked in that 
direction at dawn, and, to their great joy, they saw the star-spamjhd banner yet waving over 
the ramparts. It inspired the poet. " Page 289. ■■ Page 430. 

' Rockets used for setting fire to towns and shipping, are made similar to the common " sky- 
rockets," but filled with inflammable substances, which are scattered over buildings and the 
rigging of ships. 



438 THE NATION. [1814. 

of September [1814], the governor of Nova Scotia and Admiral Griffith 
entered the Penobscot River, seized the town of Castine, and, by proclamation, 
took possession of the country, then inhabited by about thirty thousand people. 
A few days afterward, the United States frigate John Adams entered the 
Penobscot after a successful cruise, and ran upon the rocks. While having 
her injuries repaired, she was attacked by several of the British sailing vessels 
and barges, manned by about a thousand men. Finding resistance to be vain, 
Captain Morris, her commander, fired her magazine, and blew her up. 

Difficulties again appeared in the south-west. We have already considered 
Jackson's successful warfare upon the Creek Indians.' In the course of the 
summer of 1814, he wrung from them a treaty, which completed their downfall, 
as'a nation, and the war at the South was considered ended. They agreed to 
surrender a large portion of their beautiful and fertile country, as indemnity 
for the expenses of the war ; to allow the United States to make roads through 
the remainder ; and also not to hold intercourse with any British or Spanish 
posts. But the common enemy, favored by the Spaniards at Pensacola, soon 
appeared, and the Creeks again lifted their heads in hope, for a moment. A 
British squadron, cruising in the Gulf of Mexico, took possession of the forts 
at Pensacola, by permission of the Spanish authorities, and there fitted out an 
expedition against Fort Bower (now Fort Morgan), at the entrance to Mobile 
Bay," then commanded by Major Lawrence. General Jackson then had his 
head-quarters at Mobile. The enemy appeared off Mobile Point on the 15th 
of September, and commenced the attack, by land and water, at about four 
o'clock in the afternoon. Fort Bower was garrisoned by resolute men, and was 
armed with twenty pieces of cannon. Lawrence and his little band made a 
gallant defense ; and soon the British were repulsed, with the loss of a ship 
of war and many men. Among the British land troops on the occasion, were 
two hundred Creek warriors. 

Jackson, now a Major-General in the army, and commander of the south- 
western military district, assuming all the authority he was entitled to, held 
the Spanish governor of Florida responsible for the act of giving shelter to the 
enemies of the United States. Failing to obtain any satisfactory guaranty for 
the future, he marched from Mobile with about two thousand Tennessee militia 
and some Choctaw warriors, against Pensacola. On the 7th of November 
[1814J he stormed the town, drove the British to their shipping, and finally 
from the harbor, and made the governor Ijeg for mercy, and surrender Pensa- 
cola and all its military works, unconditionally. The British fleet disappeared 
the next day [November 8], and the victor retraced his steps [Novemljer 9]. 
His return was timely, for he was needed where-extreme danger was menacing 
the whole southern country. On his arrival at Mobile, he found messages from 
New Orleans, begging his immediate march thither, for the British in the Gulf 
of Mexico, reinforced by thousands of troops from England, were about to 
invade Louisiana. Jackson instantly obeyed the summons, and arrived there 

■ Page 427. ' On tho cast side, about thirty miles south from Mobile. 



1815.] THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 439 

on the 2d of December. He found the people of New Orleans in the greatest 
alarm, but his presence soon restored quiet and confidence. By vigorous, and 
even rigorous measures (for he declared martial law),' he soon placed the city 
in a state of comparative security,' and when the British squadron, bearing 
General Packenham and about twelve thousand troops, many of them Welling- 
ton's veterans, entered Lake Borgne, he felt confident of success, even against 
such fearful odds. 

On the 14th of December, a British fleet of barges, about forty in number, 
and conveying twelve hundred men, captured a flotilla of five American gun- 
boats, in Lake Borgne, which were under the command of Lieutenant (late Com- 
modore) Thomas Ap Catesby Jones. In the engagement the Americans lost, 
in killed and wounded, about forty ; the British loss was about three hundred. 
The destruction of these gun-boats gave the enemy power to choose his point of 
attack ; and eight days afterward [Dec. 22], about twenty-four hundred of the 
British, under General Keane, reached the Mississippi, nine miles below New 
Orleans. An American detachment, led by Jackson in person, fell upon tlieir 
camp the following night [Dec. 23, 1814], but withdrew to a stronger position, 
after killing or wounding four hundred of the British. The Americans lost 
about one hundred. 

And now preparations were instantly made for the great battle which soon 
afterward ensued. Jackson concentrated his troops (about three thousand in 
number,, and mostly militia) within a line of intrench ments' cast up four miles 
below the city of New Orleans, where they were twice cannonaded by the Brit- 
ish, but without much eifect. Finally, on the morning of the 8th of January, 
1815, General Packenham, the Brit- 
ish commander-in-chief, advanced with 
his whole foi'ce, numbering more than 
twelve thousand men, to make a gen- 
eral assault. Having been reinforced 
by about three thousand militia (chief- 
ly Kentuckians), Jackson now had 
six thousand expert marksmen con- 
cealed behind his intrenchments, or 
stationed at the batteries on his ex- 
tended line. A deep and ominous 
silence prevailed behind these defenses, until the British had approached within 
reach of the batteries, when the Americans opened a terrible cannonade. Yet 
the enemy continued to advance until within range of the American muskets 
and rifles. Volley after volley then poured a deadly storm of lead upon the 

' Note 8, page 170. 

' All the inlets, or bayous, were obstructed, and the Imnks of the Mississippi were so fortified 
as to prevent the ascent of vessels. A battery was erected on Chef Menteur, at the entrance to 
Lake Pontchartrain. 

^ These intrenchments were a mile in length, extending fi-om the river so far into the swamp, 
as to be uupassable at the extremity. Along this line were eight distinct batteries, with heavy 
cannons ; and on the opposite side of the river was a battery with fifteen cannons. 



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440 THK NATION. [1814. 

invaders. The British column soon wavered ; General Packenham fell in front 
of his troops, with not less than a thousand dead and wounded lying around 
him ; and, utterly amazed by the terrible fire of the Americans, the entire 
army fled in confusion, leaving seven hundred dead, and more than a thousand 
wounded, on the field. The fugitives hastened to their encampment [Jan. 9], 




^^^^:.^:^f^>4at5»^ ^^ ^^ -^ ^^/^^-Vc>=^c^ 

and finally to their ships [Jan. 18], and escaped.' The Americans were so 
safely intrenched, that they lost only seven killed and six wounded^ in this 
victorious battle. It was the crowning victory,' and last land battle of moment, 
of the Second War for Independence.' 

While the victory of the Americans at New Orleans saved that city from 
plunder and destruction,^ and the whole Southern country from invasion, the 

' While these operations \^'e^e in progress on the Mississippi, the British fleet had not been in- 
active. Some vessels bombarded Fort St. Philip, below New Orleans, on the 11th of January, and 
coDtinued the attack for eight days without success. In the mean while, Admiral Cookbum [page 
480] was pursuing his detestable warfare along the Carolina and Georgia coasts, menacing Charles- 
ton and Savannah with destruction, and landing at obscure points to plunder the inhabitants. 

' During 1814, the war continued on the ocean, yet there were no battles of great importance. 
The Pearock captured the British brig Epemier, on the 29th of April, off the coast of Florida. The 
Wasp, Captain Blakely, also made a successful cruise, but after capturing her thirteenth prize, dis- 
appeared, and was never h?ard of again. Probably lost in a storm. The President, Commodore 
Decatur, was captured off Long Island, on the 16th of January, 1815; and on the 20th of February 
following, the Constitution, Commodore Stewart, had a severe action ^'th the British frigate Oyane, 
and sloop-of-war Levant, and captured both. Soon after this, the British hngPenguin was captured, 
but the proclamation of peace had then ended the war. ' Page 409. 

' It is asserted, upon good authority, that Packenh'am's watchword, as he led his troops toward 
the city, was "Booty and Beauty," thereby indicating that plunder and ravishment should be the 
soldiers' reward I We can hardly believe Sir Edward really contemplated such barbarity. 



1815.] THE SECOND "n^AR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 443 

brave Jackson, whose skill and prowess bad been chiefly instrun[iental in pro- 
ducing that result, was mercilessly assailed by some persons in official station, 
who could not appreciate his pure motives and sturdy patriotism. Perceiving 
the necessity of prompt and vigorous action, Jackson bad taken all power into 
his hands, on his arrival at New Orleans, and declared martial law. ' Governor 
Claiborne^ wisely and generously seconded the measure, and surrendering all 
authority into the hands of General Jackson, led a large body of the militia of 
his State to the field. Three days after the battle, the news of peace arrived ; 
and Judge Hall immediately ordered the arrest of Jackson, on a charge of con- 
tempt of court.' lie was tried ; and the judge fined him a thousand dollars. 
The people hissed the official ; bore the brave general upon their shoulders from 
the court-room to the street, and then the immense crowd sent up a shout, such 
as went over the land with emphasis thirteen years later, when he was a candi- 
date for the Chief Magistracy of the nation' — "Hurrah for Jackson!" The 
blow aimed at him recoiled with fearful force upon his persecutors. 

The country was made vocal with rejoicings on account of the victory 
at New Orleans ; and Congress honored General Jackson with thanks and a 
gold medal. A little more than a month after the battle, a proclamation by 
the President [Feb. 18, 1815], that peace had been secured by treaty, spread a 
smile of tranquillity and happiness over the whole Union.' For more than a 
year, efforts toward that end had been put forth. As early as December, 1813, 
the British government had sent overtures of peace to that of the United 
States. They were forwarded by the British schooner Bramble, which arrived 
at Annapolis, in Maryland, on the 1st of January, 1814, bearing a flag of 
truce. The President at once informed Congress of the fact, and immedi- 
ate action was had. The overtures were promptly met, in a conciliatory 
spirit, by the government of the United States, and commissioners were ap- 
pointed by the two powers to negotiate a treaty." For a long time the Amer- 
ican commissioners were treated with neglect by the British government. They 

' Note 8, page 170. 

' ■William C. C. Claiborne was born in Virginia in 1175, and was educated at William and Mary 
College. He became an assistantclerk of the National House of Representatives at the age of six- 
teen years; and at the age of twenty-nine, President Jeflerson appointed him governor of the 
Louisiana Territory. He had already become conspicuous as a lawyer in the West ; and at the age 
of twency-two he was a judge of the Supreme Court of Tennessee. He was elected to Congress the 
following year, and was a distinguished man in that body. He was elected governor of Louisiana 
when it became a State in 1812, and was acting in that capacity when the British menaced New 
Orleans. He left that ofiice in 1817, when he was elected to the United States Senate. But his 
death was near, and he never entered that assembly. He died in November, 1817, in the forty- 
second year of his age. 

' A member of the Louisiana Legislature assailed Jackson by a newspaper publication. Jack- 
son ordered his arrest. Judge Hall granted a writ of habeas corpus. Jackson, in tlie proper exer- 
cise of his power under martial law, not only refused obedience to the mandates of the writ, but 
arrested the judge, and sent him out of the city. For this " contempt of court" Jackson himself 
was arrested. His noble defense was written by Edward Livingston. * Page 459. 

' As we have observed, intelligence of the signing of the treaty reached New Orleans three 
days after the battle. It was not formally proclaimed until more than a month afterward. 

° The United States commissioners were John Quincy Adams, James A. Bayard, Henry Clay, 
John Russel, and Albert Gallatin. Those of Great Britain were Admiral Lord Gambler, Henry' 
rTOulljourn, and William Adams. These commissioners are aU dead. Mr. Clay, who died in 1852, 
was the last survivor. 



444 THE NATION. [1814. 

•were suflfered to remain in England unnoticed, for months, and then the ministry, 
proposing first one place, and then another, for the negotiations, exhibited a trifling 
spirit, derogatory to true dignity. For half a year the treaty was prolonged 
in this way, until, finally, the commissioners of the two governments met in the 
city of Ghent, in Belgium, in the month of August, 1814. On the 24th of 
December following, a treaty was signed, which both governments speedily 
ratified. It stipulated a mutual restoration of all places and possessions taken 
during the war, or which might be taken after signing the treaty ; declared that 
all captures at sea should be relinquished, if made within specified times there- 
after, in different parts of the world ; and that each party should mutually put 
a stop to Indian hostilities, and endeavor to extinguish the traffic in slaves. 
The boundaries, imperfectly adjusted by the treaty of 1783,' wer^all settled; 
but the subject of impressment of seamen, which was the chief cause of the war,' 
of paper blockades,' and orders in council,* were all passed by without specific 
notice, in the treaty. With this treaty ended the war, which had been in prog- 
ress for two years and eight months ; and the proclamation of the fact was an 
occasion of the most sincere rejoicing throughout the United States and Great 
Britain, for it was an unnatural contest — a conflict between brethren of the 
same blood, the same religion, the same laws, and the same literature. 

During these negotiations, the war, as we have seen, was vigorously prose- 
cuted, and the opposition of the Federalists grew more intense.'^ It reached its 
culmination in December, when delegates, appointed by several New England 
Legislatures," met [Dec. 15, 1814] in convention at Hartford, for the purposes 
of considei'ing the grievances of the people, caused by a state of war, and to de- 
vise speedy measures for its termination.' This convention, whose sessions were 
secret, was denounced as treasonable by the administration party ; but patriot- 
ism appears to have prevailed in its councils, whatever may have been the de- 
signs of some. Its plans for disunion or secession, if any were formed, were 
rendered abortive soon after its adjournment, by the proclamation of peace, fol- 
lowed by the appointment of a day for national thanksgiving to the Almighty 
for the blessed event. That day was observed throughout the Union. 

The short time which remained of the session of Congress, after the proclam- 
ation of peace, was occupied by that body in adapting the affairs of the govern- 
ment to the new condition of things. The army was reduced to a peace ostab- 
ment of ten thousand men, and various acts, necessary for the public good 
during a state of war, were repealed. The naval establishment, however, was 
kept up ; and the depredations of Algerine cruisers caused Congress to author- 

■ Pawe 348. " Note 5, page 409. 

' A port being blockaded by proclamation, without ships of war being there to maintain it. 
This practice is no longer in rogue. ' Note 1, pase 400. ' Page 410.- 

° New Hampshire and Vermont were unrepresented, except by three county delegates. The 
Federalists in Vermont, especially, were now in a weak majority ; and Governor Gilman, of New 
Hampshire, the members of whose council were Democratic, could not call a meeting of the Legis- 
lature to appoint delegates. 

' George Cabot was appointed President of the Convention, and Theodore Dwight, a former 
member of Congress from Connecticut, and then editor of the Eartfurd Union, was its secretaiy. 
The Convention was composed of twenty-sis members. 



1815.] THE SECOND WAR FOR INDEPENDENCE. 445 

ize the President to send a squadron to the Mediterranean Sea. The results of 
the war, though apparently disastrous to all concerned at the time, were seen, 
subsequently, to have been highly beneficial to the United States, not so much 
in a material as in a moral aspect. The total cost of the war to the United 
States was about one hundred millions of dollars, and the loss of lives, by bat- 
tles and other casualties incident to the war, has been estimated at thirty thou- 
sand persons. The cost of blood and treasure to the British nation was much 
greater. During the war, the Americans captured, on the ocean and on the 
lakes, fifty-six British vessels of war, mounting 886 cannons ; and 2,360 mer- 
chant vessels, mounting 8,000 guns. There were also lost on the American 
coast, during the war, by wreck or otherwise, twenty-nine British ships of war, 
mounting about 800 guns. The Americans lost only twenty-five vessels of war, 
and a much less number of merchant-ships than the British.' 

The clouds of an almost three years' war had scarcely disappeared from the 
firmament, when others suddenly arose. The contest with England had but 
just ended, when the United States were compelled to engage in a brief 

WAR WITH ALGIERS. 

As we have observed," the United States had paid tribute to Algiers since 
1795. Every year, as his strength increased, the ruler of that Barbary State 
became more insolent,' and, finally, believing that the United States navy had 
been almost annihilated by the British in the late contest, he made a pretense 
for renewing depredations upon American commerce, in violation of the treaty. 
The American government determined to pay tribute no longer, accepted the 
challenge, and in May, 1815, Commodore Decatur* proceeded with a squadron 
to the Mediterranean, to humble the pirate. Fortunately, the Algerine fleet 
was cruising in the Mediterranean, in search of American vessels. On the 17th 
of June [1815], Decatur met and captured the flag-ship (a frigate) of the Al- 
gerine admiral, and another vessel with almost six hundred men, and then sailed 
for the Bay of Algiers. He immediately demanded [June 28] the instant sur- 
render of all American prisoners, full indemnification for all property destroyed, 
and absolute relinquishment of all claims to tribute from the United States, in 
future. Informed of the fate of a part of his fleet, the Dey' yielded to the 
humiliating terms, and signed a treaty [June 30] to that effect. Decatur then 
sailed for Tunis, and demanded and received [July, 1815] from the bashaw, 
forty-six thousand dollars, in payment for American vessels which he had 
allowed the English to capture in his harbor. The same demand, on the same 
account, was made upon the bashaw of Tripoli," and Decatur received [August] 
twenty-five thousand dollars from him and the restoration of prisoners. This 
cruise m the Mediterranean gave full security to American commerce in those 



' For details, see Lossing'a Pictorial Fidd-Book of Ihe War o/1812. 

' Page 381. 

= Page 381. In 1812, the Dey compelled Mr. Lear, the American consul [page 395], to pay 
him S27,000 for the safety of himself, family, and a few Americans, under the penalty of -.'w 
hpino- mario oIotoo * Page 392. ' Notc 3, page 392. '' Page 302. 



446 THE NATION., I [1817. 

seas, and greatly elevated the character of the government of the United States 
in the opinion of Europe. Now was accomplished, during a single cruise, what 
the combined powers of Europe dared not to attempt. 

Now the eventful administration of Mr. Madison drew to a close, and very 
little of general interest occurred, except the chartering of a new United States 
Bank,' with a capital of $35,000,000, to continue twenty years ; and the admis- 
sion of Indiana [December, 1816] into the union of States. On the 16th of 
March, 1816, a caucus of Democratic members of Congress, nominated James 
Monroe of Virginia (who had been Madison's Secretary of War for a few months), 
for President of the United States, and Daniel D. Tompkins'^ of New York, 
for Vice-President. The FederaJisis, whose power, as a party, was now 
rapidly passing away, nominated Rufus King^ for President, and votes were 
given to several persons for Vice-President. Monroe and Tompkins were elected 
by large majorities. Mr. Monroe's election was by an almost unanimous vote 
of the electoral college.' Only one (in New Hampshire) was cast against him. 



CHAPTER VII. 

MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. [1S17 — 1825]. 

On the 4th of March, 1817, James Monroe,' the fifth President of the 
United States, was inaugurated at Washington City. The oath of office was 
administered by Chief Justice Marshall," in the presence of Mr. Madison, the 
judges of the Supreme Court, and a large congi-egation of citizens. His address 
on that occasion was liberal and temperate in its tone, and gave general satis- 
faction to the people. The commencement of his administration was hailed as 
the dawn of an era of good feeling and national prosperity.' He selected his 
cabinet from the Republican party, and never since the formation of the gov- 

■ Page 372. 

" Daniel D. Tompkins was born in 1774. He was a prominent Democrat when Jefferson was 
elected [page 389] President of the United States. He was chief justice of New York and also 
Governor of the State. He died on Staten Island, in 1825. 

= Page 395. * Note 1, p.nge 361. 

' James Monroe was bom in ATestmoreland count}-, Virginia, in April, 1759. He was edu- 
cated at William and Mary College, and his youth was spent amid the political excitements, when 
the "War for independence wa.s kindling. He joined the Continental army, under Washington, in 
1776, and during the campaigns of 1777 and 1778, he was aid to Lord Stirling. After the battle 
of Monmouth, he left the army and commenced the stpdy of law under Jefferson. He was again 
in the field when Arnold and Phillips invaded his State, in 1781 [page 330]. The next year, 
he was a member of the Virginia Legislature, and at the age of twenty-flve, was elected a delegate 
to the Continental Congress. He was in active life as a legislator, foreign minister, Governor of 
Virginia, and President of the United States, until his retirement from the latter ofiice in 1825. 
He died in tlie city of New York, on the 4th of July, 1831, when in the seventy-second year ofhis 
age. His remains lie unmarked by any monument, except a simple slab, in a cemetery on the 
north .side of Second-street, in the city of New York. ° Page 351. 

' President Monroe, soon after his inauguration, made a long tour of observation, extending to 
Portland, in Maine, on the east, and to Detroit, on the west, in which he was occupied more than tlireo 
months. Tip was everywhere received with the kindest attentions and highest honors, and his 
journey was conducive to the national good. 



1825.] MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. 447 

eminent, had a President been surrounded with abler counselors.' Monroe 
was a judicious and reliable man ; and when we reflect upon the condition of the 
country at that time — in a transition state from war and confusion to peace and 
order — his elevation to the presidency seems to have been a national blessing. 




The administration of Mr. Monroe was marked by immense expansion in 
the material growth of the United States. During the war, a large number of 
manufacturing establishments had been nurtured into vigorous life by great 
demands and high prices ; but when peace returned, and European manufac- 
tures flooded the country at very low prices, wide-spread ruin ensued, and 
thousands of men were compelled to seek other employments. The apparent 
misfortune was a mercy in disguise, for the nation. Beyond the Alleghanies, 
millions of fertile acres, possessing real wealth, were awaiting the tiller's indus- 
try and skill." Agriculture beckoned the bankrupts to her fields. Homes in 

' His cabinet consisted of John Quincv Adams, Secretary of State ; William- H. Crawford, Sec- 
retary of the Treasury; John C. Calhoun," Secretary of War; Benjamin Crowninshield, Secretary of 
the Navy ; and William Wirt, Attorney-Reneral, He offered the War Department to the venerable 
Governor Shelby, of Kentucky [page 417], who declined it, Calhoun was appointed in December, 
1817. Crowninshield, who was in Madison's cabinet, continued in ofBce until the close of Novem- 
ber, 1318, when Smith Tliompson, of Xcw York, was appointed in his place. 

" The progress of the States and Territories west of the Alleghanies [note 3, page 1!>], in wealth 
and population, is truly wonderfnl. A little more than sisty years ago, those immense lakes, Onto- 
rio, Erie, Michigan, Huron, and Superior, were entirely without commerce, and an Indian's eanoi' 
was almost the only craft seen upon them. In 18IJ7, the value of traffic upon these waters and th-^ 
navigable rivers, is probably not less than eight hundred millions of dollars. See note 4, page 
537. Tliirty-^ix years ago [1831] there were less than five thousand white people in the vast 



448 THE NATIOi;. [1817. 

the East were deserted ; emigration flowed over the mountains in a broad and 
vigorous stream ; and before the close of Monroe's administration, four new 
sovereign States had started into being' from the wilderness of the great West, 
and one in the East.'^ 

The first year of Monroe's administration was chiefly distinguished by the 
admission [December 10, 1817] of a portion of the ^lississippi Territory into 
the Union, as a State, ^ and the suppression of two piratical and slave-dealing 
establishments near the southern and south-western borders of the Republic. 
One of them was at the mouth of the St. Mary's, Florida, and the other at 
Galveston, Texas. In addition to a clandestine trade in slaves, these bucca- 
neers,' under pretense of authority from some of the Spanish repuldics of 
South America,^ were endeavoring to liberate the Floridas from the dominion 
of Spain. In November, 1817, United States troops proceeded to take pos- 
session of Amelia Island, the rendezvous of the pirates on the Florida coast, and 
the Galveston establishment soon disappeared for want of support. 

Other serious difiiculties arose at about the same time. A motley host, 
composed chiefly of Seminole Indians,' Creeks dissatisfied with the treaty of 
1814,' and runaway negroes, commenced murderous depredations upon the 
frontier settlements of Georgia and the Alabama Territory, toward the close of 
1817. General Gaines' was sent to suppress these outrages, and to remove 
every Indian from the territory which the Creeks had ceded to the United 
States, in 1814. His presence arousal the fiercest ire of the Indians, who, it 
was ascertained, were incited to hostilities by British subjects, protected by the 
Spanish authorities in Florida. Gaines was placed in a perilous position, when 
General Jackson, with a thousand mounted Tennessee volunteers, hastened 
[December, 1817J to his aid. In March, 1818, he invaded Florida, took pos- 
session [April] of the weak Spanish post of St. Mark, at the head of Apa- 
lachee Bay,' and sent the civil authorities and troops to Pensacola.'" At St. 
Mark he secured the persons of Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert C. Ambrister, 
W"ho, on being tried [April 26] by a court martial, were found guilty of being 
the principal emissaries among the southern Indians, inciting them to hostilities. 

region between Lake Michigan and the Pacific Ocean ; now [18G7] the number is probably live 
millions. Chicago was then a mere hamlet; now [ISOT] it is a fine city, witli not les.'i. probably, 
than one hundred and eighty thousand inhabitants. And never was the growth of the Great 
West more rapid than at tlie present. 

''Mississippi, December 10, 1817; Illinois, December 3, 1818; Alabama, December 14, 1819; 
and Missouri, March 2, 1821. " Maine, March 3, 1820. 

^ The Territory was divided. The western portion was made ii State, and the eastern w.as 
erected into a Territory, named Alabama, after its principal river. It included a portion of GcorgLi, 
given for a consideration. See page 455. * Note G, page 149. 

' During the first quarter of the present century, nearly all of the countries in Central and South 
America, which, since the conquests of Cortez [page 43] and Pizarro [note 4, page 44], had been 
under the Spanish yoke, rebelled, and forming republics, became independent of Spain. It was llio 
policy of our goveriiment to encourage these republics, by preventing the establishment of monarch- 
ical power on the American continent. This is known as the " Monroe doctrine," a term frequently 
used in political circles. 

• Page 30. ' Note 8, page 428. 

' Page 398. Edmund P. Gaines was bom in Virginia, in 1777. Re entered the army in 1799, 
nnd rose gradually until he was made Major-General for his gallantry at Fort Erie [page 433] in 
1814. He remained in the army until hia death, in 1849. ' Page 44. '" Page 438. 



1825.] MONROE'S ADMINI STR ATI OK. 451 

They were both executed on the 30th of the same month.' Jackson soon after- 
ward marched for Pensacola, it being known that the Spanish authorities there 
had encouraged the Indians in making depredations in Alabama. The Spanish 
governor protested against this invasion of his territory ; but J ackson, satisfied 
of his complicity with the Indians, pushed forward and seized Pensacola on the 
24th of May. The governor and a few followers fled on horseback to Fort 
Barrancas, at the entrance to Pensacola Bay. This fortress was captured by 
Jackson three days afterward [May 27], and the Spanish authorities and troops 
were sent to Havana. 

For this invasion of the territory of a friendly power, and his summary pro- 
ceedings there, General Jackson was much censured. His plea, in justification, 
was the known interference of the Spanish authorities in Florida, in our domes- 
tic afifairs, by sheltering those who were e.\citing the Indians to bloody deeds ; 
and the absolute necessity of prompt and efiicient measures at the time. He 
was sustained by the government and the voice of the people. These measures 
developed the necessity for a general and thorough settlement of affairs on the 
southern boundary of the Republic, and led to the important treaty' concluded 
at Washington City, in February, 1819, by which Spain ceded to the United 
States the whole of the Floridas, and the adjacent islands. That country was 
erected into a Territory in Feljruary, 1821 ; and in March ensuing. General 
Jackson was appointed the first governor of the newly-acquired domain. 

We have observed that the vast region of Louisiana, purchased from France 
in 1803, was divided into two Territories. ° The Louisiana Territory was 
admitted into the Union as a State, in 1812 ;■" and while the treaty concerning 
Florida was pending, the southern portion of the remainder of the Territory 
extending westward of that State to the Pacific Ocean, which was erected into 
the " Missouri Territory" in 1812, was formed into a separate government 
in 1819, and called Arkansas. In December, the same year, Alabama was 

' Arbuthnot was a Scotch trader from New Providence, one of the Bermuda Islands. He had 
a store on the Suwaney River, where many of the hostile Indians and negroes congregated. Am- 
brister was a young Knglishman, about twenty-one j'ears of age, who had borno a lieutenant's 
commission in the British service. He was also at the Suwaney settlements, and put himself at the 
head of the Indians and negroes. 

' Made by Jolm Quincy Adams for the United States, and Don Onis, tho Spanish embassador 
at Washington. Hitherto, the United States had claimed a large portion of Texas, as a part of 
Louisiana. By this treaty, Texas was retained by the Spaniards. The cession was made as an 
equivalent for all claims against Spain for injury done the American commerce, to an amount not 
exceeding five millions of dollars. The treaty was not finally ratified until February, 1821. 

= Page 390. 

* The admirable penal code of Louisiana, which has ever stood the test of severe criticism, is 
the work of Edward Livingston, who was appointed the principal of a commission appointed to 
codify the laws of that State. The code, of which he was the solo author, was adopted in 1824 
Mr. Livingston was born upon the "Manor," in Columbia county. New York, in l'i64. He was 
educated at Princeton, studied law under Chancellor Lansing, and became eminent in his profession. 
He became a member of Congress in 1794, then attorney for the district of New York, and finally, 
he went to New Orleans to retrieve a broken fortune. jHe was an aid to General Jackson, in the 
battle at New Orleans, in January, 1815, and his pen wrote the noble defense of that soldier, when 
he was persecuted by civil ofiicers in that city. See page 44.3. When the last page of his manu- 
script code of laws for Louisiana was ready for the press, a fire consumed the whole, and he was 
two years reproducing it. That work is his monument. Mr. Living,ston was Secretary of State 
under President Jackson ; and in 1833, he was sent to France, as tho resident minister of the 
United States. He died in Duchess county, New York, in May, 1837. 



452 



THE NATION. 



[1817. 



admitted into the Union; and at the same time, Missouri and Maine were 
making overtures for a similar position. Maine was admitted in March, 1820,' 
but the entrance of j\Iissouri was delayed until August, 1821, by a violent and 
protracted debate which sprung up between the Northern and the Southern 
members of Congress on the subject of slavery, elicited by the proposition for 
its admission. 




^c^^^^-ti^^^X:. 



It was during the session of 1818-19, that a bill was introduced into Con- 
gress, which contained a provision forbidding the existence of slavery or invol- 
untary servitude in the new State of Missouri, when admitted. Heated debates 
immediately occurred, and the subject was postponed until another session. 
The whole country, in the mean while, was agitated by disputes on the subject; 
and demagogues, as usual at the North and at the South, raised the cry of Dls- 
union of the Confederation ! Both parties prepared for the great struggle ; 
and when the subject was again brought before Congress [November 23, 1820], 
angry disputes and long discussions ensued. A compromise was finally agreed 
to [February 28, 1821], by which slavery should be allowed in Missouri and 
in all territory south of thirty-six degrees and thirty minutes north latitude 
(southern boundary of Missouri), and prohibited in all the territory northerly 
and westerly of these limits. This is known as The Missouri Compromise.' 
Under this compromise, Missouri was admitted on the 21st of August, 1821, and 



• Page 129. 



Page 501. 



1825.] MONROE'S ADMINISTRATION. 453 

the excitement on tbe subject ceased. The Republic was now composed of 
twenty-fouv States. 

While the Missouri question was pending, a new election for President and 
Vice-President of the United States, took place. Never, since the foundation 
of the government, had there been an election so quiet, and so void of party 
virulence. Mr. Monroe was re-elected President, and Mr. Tompkins' Vice- 
President [November, 1820], by an almost unanimous vote — the old Federal 
party,' as an organization, being nearly extinct. The administration had been 
very popular, and the country was blessed with general prosperity. Two other 
measures, besides those already noticed, received the warmest approbation of the 
people. The first was an act of Congress, passed in March, 1818, in pursu- 
ance of Monroe's recommendation, making provision, in some degree, for the 
surviving officers and soldiers of the Revolution. It was subsequently extended, 
so as to include the widows and children of those who were deceased. The 
other was an arrangement made with Great Britain, in October, 1818, by 
which American citizens were allowed to share with those of that realm, in the 
valuable Newfoundland fisheries. At the same time, the northern boundary 
of the United States, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, 
was defined.' 

Few events of general importance, aside from the rapid progress of the 
country in all its industrial and governmental operations, occurred during the 
remainder of Monroe's administration, except the suppression of piracy among 
the West India Islands, and the visit of General La Fayette' to the United 
States, as the nation's guest. The commerce of the United States had been 
greatly annoyed and injured by swarms of pirates who infested the West India 
seas. A small American squadron, under Commodore Perry,' had been sent 
thither in 1819, to chastise the buccaneers. Perry died of the yellow fever in 
the performance of his duty, and very little was done at that time. About four 
years later [1822], a small American squadron destroyed more than twenty 
piratical vessels on the coast of Cuba; and the following year the work was 
completed by a larger force, under Commodore Porter." The second-named 
event was of a more pleasing character. La Fayette, the companion-in-arms 
of Washington' during the Revolutionary struggle, arrived at New York, from 
France, in August, 1824, and during about eleven succeeding months, he made 
a tour of over five thousand miles, throughout the United States. He waa 
everywhere greeted with the warmest enthusiasm, and was often met by men 
who had served under him in the first War for Independence. When he was 
prepared to return, an American frigate, named Bra tidy wine, in compliment 
to him,' was sent by the United States government to convey him back to 
France. 

Mr. Monroe's administration now drew toward a close, and in the autumn 

' Page 446. ' Page 3"4. ' Page 479. 

* Page 273. ' Page 423. " Page 431. ' Page 273. 

' La Fayette's first battle for freedom in America, was tliat on the Brandywine Creek, in Sep- 
tember, 1777, where he was wounded in the leg. See note 5, page 273. 



454 THE NATION. [1825. 

of 1824, the people were called upon to select his successor. It soon became 
evident that a large proportion of the old politicians of the Democratic party 
had decided to support William H. Crawford, the Secretary of the Treasury, 
for the succession. Four candidates, representing the different sections of the 
Union,' were finally put in nomination. The result was, that the choice de- 
volved upon the House of Representatives, for the second time.' That body, 
by an election held in February, 1825, chose John Quincy Adams for Presi- 
dent. John C. Calhoun had been chosen Vice-President by the people. The 
election and final choice produced great excitement throughout the country, 
and engendered political rancor equal to that which prevailed during the admin- 
istration of the elder Adams. Mr. Monroe's administration closed on the 4th 
of March ensuing, and he resigned to his successor the Chief Magistracy of a 
highly-prosperous nation. 



CHAPTER VIII. 

JOHN QIJINCT ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. [1825—1829.] 

At about half-past_ twelve o'clock, on the 4th day of March, 1825, John 
Quincy Adams,'' son of the second President of the United States, entered the 
hall of the House of Representatives, and took his seat in the chair of the 
Speaker. He was dressed in a suit of black cloth, and, being small in stature, 
did not present a more dignified appearance than hundreds of his fellow-citizens 
around him. He appeared, as he really was, a plain Republican — one of the 
people. When silence was obtained, he arose and delivered his inaugural ad- 
dress ; then descending, he placed himself on the right hand of a table, and 
took the oath of ofiice, administered by Chief-Justice Marshall. The Senate 
being in session, Mr. Adams immediately nominated his cabinet officers,* and 

' John Quincy Adams in the East, Wilham H. Crawford in the South, Andrew Jackson and 
Henry Clay in the West. ' Page 388. 

' John Quincy Adams, the sixth President of the United States, was bom at Quincy, Massa- 
chusetts, on the 11th of July, 1767. He went to Europe, with his father, at the age of eleven 
years ; and, in Paris, he was much in the society of Franklin and other distinguished men. At the 
age of fourteen years he accompanied Mr. Dana to St. Petersburg, as private secretary to that em- 
bassador. He traveled much alone, and finally returned, and finished his education at Harvard 
College. He became a lawyer, but public service kept him from that pursuit. He was made 
United .States minister to the Netherlands in 1794, and afterward held the same office at Lisbon 
and Berlin. He was a member of the United States Senate in 1803 ; and in 1809 he was sent as 
miuister to the Russian court. After negotiating a treaty of peace at Ghent [page 443], he was ap- 
pointed minister to the English court. In 1817 he was made Secretary of State, by Mr. Monroe. 
Having served one term as President of the United States, he retired; and from 1831, he was a 
member of Congress until his death, which occurred in the Speaker's room, at the Natioal Capitol, 
on tlie 22d of February, 1848, when in the eighty-first year of his age. 

* Henry Clay, Secretary of State ; Richard Rush, Secretary of the Treasury ; James Barbour, 
Secretary of War ; Samuel L. Southard (continued in office). Secretary of the Navy ; and William 
Wirt (continued), Attorney-General. Tliere was considerable opposition in the Senate to the con- 
firmation of Henry Clay's nomination. He had been charged with defeating the election of General 
Jackson, by giving his influence to Mr. Adams, on condition that he should be appointed his Secre- 



1829.] JOHN QUINCT ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION. 455 

all but one were confirmed by a unanimous vote of that body. His political 
views were consonant with those of Mr. Monroe, and the foreign and domestic 
policy of his administration were generally conformable to those views. The 
amity which existed between the United States and foreign governments, and 
the absence of serious domestic troubles, made the administration of Mr. Adams 




3, , cA^lo^h^ 



a remarkably quiet one, and gave the executive opportunities for adjusting the 
operations of treaties with the Indian tribes, and the arrangement of measures 
for the promotion of those great staple interests of the country — agriculture, 
commerce, and manufactures. Discords, which the election had produced, ex- 
cited the whole country during Mr. Adams's administration, with the agitations 
incident to excessive party zeal, and bitter party rancor ; yet the President, 
thoroughly acquainted with all the public interests, and as thoroughly skilled 
in every art of diplomacy and jurisprudence, managed the afiiiirs of State with 
a fidelity and sagacity which command our warmest approbation. 

One of the most exciting topics, for thought and discussion, at the beginning 
of Adams's administration [1825], was a controversy between the National Gov- 
ernment and the chief magistrate of Georgia, concerning the lands of the Creek 
Indians, and the removal of those aboriginals from the territory of that State. 
When Georgia relinquished her claims to considerable portions of the Missis- 
sippi Territory,' the Federal Government agreed to purchase, for that State, 

tary of State. This, however, was only a bubble on the surface of political strife, and had no truth- 
ful substance. In the Senate, there were twenty-seven votes in favor, and fourteen against con- 
firming the nomination of Mr. Clay. ' Note 2, page 447. 



456 THE NATION. [1825. 

the Indian lands within its borders, " whenever it could be peaceably done upon 
reasonable terms." The Creeks, who, with their neighbors, the Cherokees, 
were beginning to practice the arts of civilized life, refused to sell their lands. 
Troup, the governor of Georgia, demanded the immediate fulfillment of the con- 
tract. He caused a survey of the lands to be made, and prepared to distribute 




them by lottery, to the citizens of that State. Impatient at the tardiness of the 
United States in extinguishing the Indian titles and removing the remnants of 
the tribes, according to stipulation, the governor assumed the right to do it him- 
self The United States took the attitude of defenders of the Indians, and, for 
a time, the matter bore a serious aspect. The difficulties were iinally settled, 
and the Creeks' and Cherokees" gradually removed to the rich wilderness be- 
yond the Mississippi. 

At aljout this time a great work of internal improvement was completed. 
The Erie Canal, in the State of New York, was finished in 1825. It was the 
most important and stupendous public improvement ever undertaken in the 
United States ; and, though it was the enterprise of the people of a single State, 
that originated and accomplished the labor of forming the channel of a river 
through a large extent of country, it has a character of nationality. Its earli- 
est advocate was Jesse Ilawley, who, in a series of articles published in 18U7 
and 1808, signed Hercules, set forth the feasibility and great importance of 
such a connection of the waters of Lake Erie and the Hudson River.' His 

' Page 30. '■ ' Page 27. 

' In a manuscript letter now before the -nTiter, dated "Albany, 4th March, 1822," Dewitt Clin- 
ton saya to Jesso Hawley, to whom the letter is addressed : " lu answer to your letter, I have no 



1S29.] JOHN QUINCT ADAMS'S ADMINISTRATION". 457 

views were warmly seconded by Gouverueur INIorris," Dewitt Clinton, and a 
few others, and its final accomplishment was the result, chiefly, of the untir- 
ing efforts, privately and ofiicially, of the latter gentleman, while a member 
of the Legislature and governor of the State of New York. It is three hun- 
dred and sixty-three miles in length, and the first estimate of its cost was 
$5,000,000. Portions of it have since been enlarged, to meet the increasing 
demands of its commerce ; and in 1853, the people of the State decided, by a 
general vote, to have it enlarged its entire length. That work is now [1867] 
in progress. 

A most remarkable coincidence occurred on the 4th of July, 1826, the fif- 
tieth anniversary of American Independence. On that day, and almost at the 
same hour, John Adams and Thomas Jefferson expired. They were both mem- 
bers of the committee who had framed the Declaration of Independence," both 
signed it,' both had been foreign ministers,'' both had been Vice-Presidents, and 
then Presidents of the United States, and both had lived to a great age.' These 
coincidences, and the manner and time of their death, produced a profound im- 
pression upon the public mind. In many places throughout the Union, eulogies 
or funeral orations were pronounced, and these, collected, form one of the most 
remarkable contributions to our historical and biographical literature. 

After the difficulties with Georgia were settled, the remaining years of Mr. 
Adams's administration were so peaceful and prosperous, that public affairs 
present very few topics for the pen of the general historian." The most import- 
ant movement in foreign policy, was the appointment, early in 1826, of com- 
missioners' to attend a congress of representatives of the South American Re- 
publics,' held at Panama [July, 1826], on the Pacific coast. This appointment 

liesitation in stating that tlie first suggestion of a canal from Lake Erio to tlie Hudson River, wliicli 
came to my knowledge, was communicated in essays under tlie signature of Hercules, on Internal 
Navigation, published in the Ontario Messenger, at Canandaigua. The first number appeared on 
the 27th of October, 1807, and the series of numbers amounted, I believe, to fourteen. The board 
of Canal Commissioners, which made the first tour of observation and survey, in 1810, were pos- 
sessed of the writings of Hercules, which were duly appreciated, as the work of a sagacious in- 
ventor and elevated mind. And you were at that time, and since, considered the author." Dewitt 
Clinton was a son of General James Clinton, of Orange county. New York. He was born in 
March, 1769. He was mayor of New York ten years, and was elected governor of the State in 
1817, and again in 1820 and 1826. He died suddenly while in that ofBce, in February, 1828. 

' Page 364. ^ Note 2, page 251. 

^ Jefferson was its author, and Adams its principal supporter, in the Continental Congress. 

' Note 2, page 383, and note 5, page 388. 

' Mr. Adams died at Quincy, Massaclmsetts, at the age of almost ninety-one years. Mr. Jeffer- 
son died at Montieello, Virginia, at the age of almost eighty-three years. 

^ An event occurred in 1826 which produced great excitement tliroughout the country, and led 
to the formation of a new, and for a time, quite a powerful political party. Wilham Morgan, of 
Western New York, announced his intention to publish a book, in whicli the secrets of Free 
Masonry were to be disclosed. He was suddenly seized at Canandaigua one evening, placed in a 
carriage, and was never heard of afterward. Some Free Masons were charged with his murder, 
and the report of an investigating committee, appointed by the New York State Legislature, con- 
firmed the suspicion. The public mind was greatly agitated, and there was a disposition to excludo 
Free Masons from office. An Anti-Masonic party was formed, and its organization spread over 
several States. In 1831, a national anti-Masonic convention was held at Pliiladelpliia, and William 
Wirt, of "Virginia, was nominated for the o$ce of President of the United States. Altliough the 
party polled a considerable vote, it soon afterward disappeared. 

' R. C. Addison, and John Sargeant, commissioners ; and William B. Rochester, of New York, 
their secretary. 

' Note 5, page 448. As e.irly as 1823, General Bolivar, wlii'e acting aa President of Colombia, 



458 THE NATION. ' [1825. 

produced much discussion in Congress, chiefly on party grounds. The result 
of the congress at Panama was comparatively unimportant, so far as the United 
States was concerned, and appears to have had very little influence on the 
affairs of South America. 

During the administration of Mr. Adams, the policy of protecting home 




'^C^^^.,^'X>-t:'0^r^ 



manufactures, by imposing a heavy duty upon foreign articles of the same kind, 
assumed the shape of a settled national policy, and the foundations of the 
American Systevi, as that policy is called, was then laid. The illiberal commer- 
cial policy of Great Britain, caused tariS" laws to be enacted by Congress as 
early as 1816, as retaliatory measures.' In 1824, imposts were laid on foreign 
fabrics, with a view to encourage American manufactures. In July, 1827, a 
national convention was held at Ilarrisburg, in Pennsylvania, to discuss the 
subject of protective tarifis. Only four of the slave States sent delegates. The 
result of the convention was a memorial to Congress, asking an augmentation 
of duties on several articles then manufactured in the United States. The Sec- 
retary of the Treasury called attention to the subject in his report in Decem- 

invited the governments of Mexico, Peru, Chili, and Buenos Ayres, to unite with him in forming a 
general conp;ress at Panama, and the same year arrangements between Colombia, Mexico, and 
Peru were made, to effect tliat object. In the spring of 1825, the United States government was 
invited to send a delegation to the proposed congress. The objects of the congress were, to settle 
upon some line of policy having the force of international law, respecting the rights of those repub- 
lics ; and to consult upon measures to bo taken to prevent further colonization on the American 
continent by European powers, and their interference in then existing contests. 
' Page ,1G7. 



1829.] JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 459 

ber following. Congress, at an early period of the session of 182V-'28, took 
Tip the matter, and a Tarift' Bill Lecame a law in May following. The Amer- 
ican Si/stem was very popular with the manufticturers of the North, but the 
cotton-growing States, which found a ready market for the raw material in En- 
gland, opposed it. The tariff law, passed on the 15th of May, 1828, was very 
obnoxious to the Southern politicians.' They denounced it as oppressive and 
unconstitutional, and became rebellious in 1832 and 1833.^ 

The Presidential election took place in the autumn of 1828, when the pub- 
lic mind was highly excited. For a long time the opposing parties had been 
marshaling their forces for the contest. The candidates were John Quincy 
Adams and General Andrew Jackson. The result was the defeat of Mr. Adams, 
and the election of General Jackson. John C. Calhoun,^ of South Carolina, 
was elected Vice-President, and both had very large majorities. During the 
contest, the people appeared to be on the verge of civil war, so violent was the 
party strife, and so malignant were the denunciations of the candidates. When 
it was over, perfect tranquillity prevailed, the people cheerfully acquiesced in 
the result, and our sytem of government was nobly vindicated before the world. 

President Adams retired from office on the 4th of March, 1829. He left 
to his successor a legacy of unexampled national prosperity, peaceful relations 
with all the world, a greatly diminished national debt, and a surplus of more 
than five millions of dollars in the public treasury. He also bequeathed to the 
Republic the tearful gratitude of the surviving soldiers of the Revolution, 
among whom had been distributed in pensions,* during his administration, more 
than five millions of dollars. 



CHAPTER IX. 

JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. [1829 — 1837] 

There were incidents of peculiar interest connected with the inauguration 
of Andrew Jackson,' the seventh President of the United States. President 

' The chief articles on which heavy protective duties were laid, were woolen and cotton fab- 
rics. At that time, the value of annual imports of cotton goods from Great Britain was about 
' $8,000,000 ; that of woolen goods about the same. The exports to Great Britain, of cotton, rice, 
and tobacco, alone (the chief products of the Southern States), was about $24,000,000 annually. 
These producers were made to fear a great diminution of their exports, by a tariff that should 
almost wholly prohibit the importation of three millions of dollars' worth of British cotton and 
woolen fabrics, annually. - Page 463. 

^ .Jolin C. Calhoun was born in South Carolina in 1782. He first appeared iu Congress in 1811, 
and was always distinguished for his consistency, especially in his support of the institution of 
slavery and the doctrine of State supremacy. He was an able debater, and subtle politician ; 
and the logical result of his political teachings was the late Civil War. He died at "Washington 
city, while a member of the National Senate, in March, 1850. ' Page 453. 

' Andrew Jackson was born in Mecklenberg county. North Carolina, in March, 17G7. His 
parents were from the north of Ireland, and belonged to that Protestant community known as 
Scotch-Irish. In earliest infancy, he was left to the care of an excellent motlier, by the deatli of 
his father. He first saw the horrors of war, and felt the wrongs of oppression, v/hen Colonel 



460 



THE NATION. 



[1829. 



Adams had convened the Senate on the morning of the 4th of March, 1829, 
and at twelve o'clock that body adjourned for an hour. During that time, the 
President elect entered the Senate chamber, having been escorted from Gadsby's 
Hotel, by a few surviving officers and soldiers of the old War for Independence. 
These had addressed him at the hotel, and now, in presence of the chief officers 
of government, foreign ministers, and a large number of ladies, he thus replied 
to them : 




e'^^«^t^^e^:i-^W^^7^£^^^ 



" Respected Friends — Your affectionate address awakens sentiments and 
recollections which I feel with sincerity and cherish with pride. To have 
around my person, at the moment of undertaking the most solemn of all duties 
to my country, the companions of the immortal Washington, will afford me 
satisfaction and grateful encouragement. That by my best exertions, I shall be 
able to exhibit more than an imitation of bis labors, a sense of my own imper- 

Buford's troops were massacred [page 313, and note 1, page 314] in his neighborliood, in 1780. 
He entered the army, and suftered in tlie cause of freedom, by imprisonment, and tlie deatli of his 
mother while she was on an errand of mercy. He studied law, and became one of the most 
eminent men in the Western District of Tennessee, as an advocate and a judge. He was ever a 
controlling spirit in that region. He a-ssisted in framing a State constitution for Tennessee, and. was 
tlie first representative of that State in the National Congress. He became United States senator in 
1797, and was soon afterward appointed Judge of the Supreme Court of his State. He settled near 
Nashville, and for a long time was chief military commander in that region. 'Wlien the War of 
1812 broke out, he took the field, and in the capacity of Major-Gcneral, he did good service in the 
southern country, tiU its close. He was appointed the first Governor of Florida, in 1821, and in 
1823, was again in the United States Senate. He retired to private life at the close of his presi- 
dential term, and died at his beautiful residence, The Hermitage, near Nashville, in June, 1845, at 
the age of seventy-eight years. 



1837.] JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 461 

feutions, and the reverence I entertain for his virtues, forbid me to hope. To 
you, respected friends, the survivors of that heroic band who followed him, so 
long and so valiantly, in the path of glory, I offer my sincere thanks, and to 
Heaven my prayers, that your remaining years may be as happy as your toils 
and your lives have been illustrious." The whole company then proceeded to 
the eastern portico of the capitol, where, in the presence of a vast assembly of 
citizens, the President elect delivered his inaugural address, and took the oath 
of office, administered by Chief Justice Marshall.' That jurist again adminis- 
tered the same oath to President Jackson on the 4th of March, 1833, and a 
few months afterward went down into the grave. 

President Jackson was possessed of strong passions, an uncorrupt heart, and 
an iron will. Honest and inflexible, he seized the helm of the ship of state 
with a patriot's hand, resolved to steer it according to his own conceptions of 
the meaning of his guiding chart, Thv. Constitution, unmindful of the inter- 
ference of friends or foes. His instructions to the first minister sent to England, 
on his nomination — "Ask nothing but what is right; submit to nothing 
wrong" — indicate the character of those moral and political maxims by which 
he was governed. His audacity amazed his friends and alarmed his opponents ; 
and no middle men existed. He was either thoroughly loved or thoroughly 
hated; and for eight years he braved the fierce tempests of party strife,^ 
domestic perplexities,' and foreign arrogance,' with a skill and courage which 
demands the admiration of his countrymen, however much they may differ with 
him in matters of national policy. The gulf between him and his political oppo- 
nents was so wide, that it was difficult for the broadest charity to bridge it. To 
those who had been his true fi-iends during the election struggle, he extended the 
grateful hand of recognition, and after having his inquiries satisfied, "Is ho 
capable ? is he honest?" he conferred official station upon the man who pleased 
him, with a stoical indifference to the clamor of the opposition. The whole of 
President Adams's cabinet officA-s having resigned, Jackson immediately nom- 
inated his political friends for his counselors, and the Senate confirmed his 
choice." 

Among the first subjects of general and commanding interest which occu- 
pied the attention of President Jackson, at the commencement of his administra-. 
tion, were the claims of Georgia to lands held by the powerful Cherokee tribe 
of Indians, and lying within the limits of that State. Jackson favored the views 
of the Georgia authorities, and the white people proceeded to take possession of 
the Indians' land. Trouble ensued, and the southern portion of the Republic was 

' Page 351. 

^ FoUowiug the precedent of Jefferson [page 389], ho filled a large number of the public offices 
with his political friends, after removing the incumbents. These removals were for all causes : and 
during his administration, they amounted to six hundred and ninety out of several thousands, who 
were removable. The entu'e number of removals made by all the preceding Presidents, from 1790 
to 1829, was seventy-four. =1 Page 464. * Page 468. 

' Martin Van Buren, Secretary of State; Samuel D. Ingham, Secretary of the Treasury; John 
H. Eaton, Secretary of War ; John Branch, Secretary of the Navy ; and John McPherson Berrian, 
Attorney-General. It having been determined to make the Postmaster-General a cabinet officer, 
Wilham T. Barry was appointed to that station. 



462 THK NATION. [1829. 

again menaced with civil war. The matter was adjudicated by the Supreme 
Court of the United States, and on the 30th of March, 1832, that tribunal 
decided against the claims of Georgia. But that State, favored by the Presi- 
dent, resisted the decision. The diiSculty was finally adjusted ; and in 1838, 
General Winfield Scott' was sent thither, with several thousand troops, to 
remove the Cherokees, peaceably if possible, but forcibly if necessary, beyond 
the Mississippi. Through the kindness and conciliation of Scott, they were 
induced to migrate. They had become involved in the difiBculties of their Creek 
neighbors,^ but were defended against the encroachments of the Georgians 
during Adams's administration. But in December, 1839, they were crushed, as 
a nation, by an act of Congress, and another of the ancient communities of the 
New World was wiped from the living record of empire. The Cherokees' were 
more advanced in the arts of civilized life than the Creeks.' They had churches, 
schools, and a printing-press, and were becoming successful agriculturists. It 
appeared cruel in the extreme to remove them from their fertile lands and the 
graves of their fathers, to the wilderness ; yet it was, doubtless, a proper meas- 
ure for insuring the prosperity of both races. But now [1867], again, the tide 
of civilization is beating against their borders. Will they not be borne upon its 
powerful wave, further into the wilderness ? 

Another cause for public agitation appeared in 1832. In his first annual 
message [December, 1829] Jackson took strong ground against the renewal of 
the charter of the United States Bank,'' on the ground that it had failed in the 
great end of establishing a uniform and sound currency, and that such an insti- 
tution was not authorized by the Xational Constitution. He again attacked the 
bank in his annual message in 1830, and his objections were renewed in that 
of 1831. At the close of 1831, the proper officers of the bank, for the first 
time, petitioned for a renewal of its charter. That petition was presented in 
the Senate on the 9th of January, 1832, and on the 13th of March, a select com- 
mittee to whom it was referred, reported in favor of renewing the charter for 
fifteen years. Long debates ensued ; and, finally, a bill for re-chartering the 
bank passed both Houses of Congress : the Senate on the 11th of June, by 
twenty-eight against twenty votes ; and by the House of Representatives on the 
3d of July, by one hundred and seven against eighty-five. Jackson vetoed" it 
on the 10th of July, and as it failed to receive the support of two thirds of the 
members of both Houses, the bank charter expired, by limitation, in 1836. 
The commercial community, regarding a national bank as essential to their 
prosperity, were alarmed ; and pi-ophecies of panics and business revulsions, 
everywhere uttered, helped to accomplish their own speedy fulfillment. 

An Indian Avar broke out upon the north-western frontier, in the spring of 
1832. Portions of some of the western tribes,' residing within the domain 

' Page 485. ' Page 427. ' Page 21. * Page 30. ' Page 446. 

° That is, refused to sign it, and returned it to Congress, with liis reasons, for reconsideration hy 
that body. The Constitution gives the President this power, and when exercised, a bill can not 
become law without his signature, unless it shall, on reconsideration, receive the votes of two thirds 
of the members of both Houses of Congress. See Article I, Section I, of the Constitution, in the 
Supplement. ' Sacs, Foxes, and Winnebagoes. See page 18. 



1837.] JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 463 

of the present State of Wisconsin,' led by Black Hawk,' a fiery Sac chief, 
commenced warfare upon the frontier settlers of Illinois, in April of that year. 
After several skirmishes with United States troops and Illinois militia, under 
General Atkinson,' the Indians were driven beyond the Mississippi. Black 
Hawk was captured in August, 1832, and taken to Washington City ; and then, 
to impress his mind with the strength of the nation he had foolishly made war 
with, he was conducted through sevei-al of the eastern cities. This brief strife, 
which appeared quite alarming at one time, is known in history as the "Black 
Hawk War." * 

This cloud in the West had scarcely disappeared, when one loomed up in 
the South far more formidable in appearance, and charged with menacing thun- 




der that, for a while, shook the entire ftibric of the Republic. The dis- 
contents of the cotton-growing States, produced by the taritf act of 1828,* 
assumed the form of rebellion in South Carolina, toward the close of 1832. 
An act of Congress, imposing additional duties upon foreign goods, passed in 

' That domain was not erected into a Territory until four years after tliat event ; now it is a rich, 
populous, and flourishing State. " Page 18. 

° Henry Atliinson was a native of North Carolina, and entered the army as captain, in 1808. 
He was retained in the army after the second War for Independence, was made Adjutant-C4eneral, 
and was finally appointed to tlie command of the Western Army. He died at Jefferson Barracks, 
in Juno, 1842. 

_ * Black Hawk returned to his people, but was, with difficulty, restored to his former dignity of 
chief. He died in October, 1840, and was buried on the tanks of the Mississippi. ' Page 459. 



464 THE NATION. [1829. 

the spring of 1832, led to a State convention in South Carolina, in November 
following. It assembled on the 19th of that month, and the Governor of South 
Carolina was appointed its president. That assembly declared the tariff acts 
unconstitutional, and therefore null and void. It resolved that duties should 
not be paid ; and proclaimed that any attempt to enforce the collection of duties 
in the port of Charleston, by the general government, would be resisted by 
arms, and would produce the withdrawal of South Carolina from the Union. 
The State Legislatui-e, which met directly after the adjournment of the con- 
vention, passed laws in support of this determination. jMilitary preparations 
were immediately made, and civil war appeared inevitable. Then it was that 
the executive ability of the President, so much needed, was fully displayed. 
Jackson promptly met the crisis by a proclamation, on the 10th of December, 
which denied the right of a State to nullify any act of tlie National Govern- 
ment ; and warned those who were engaged in fomenting a rebellion, that the 
laws of the United States would be strictly enforced by military power, if 
necessary. This pi'oclamation met the hearty response of every friend of the 
Union, of whatever party, and greatly increased that majority of the President's 
supporters, who had just re-elected him to the Chief Magistracy of the Repub- 
lic' The nullifiers' of South Carolina, though led by such able men as Cal- 
houn' and Hayne,* were obliged to yield for the moment ; yet their zeal and 
determination in the cause of State Supremacy, were not abated. Every dny 
the tempest-cloud of civil commotion grew darker and darker ; until, at length, 
Heury Clay,' a warm friend of the American System," came forward, in Con- 
gress [February 12, 1833], with a bill, which provided for a gradual reduction 
of the obnoxious duties, during the succeeding ten years. This compromise 
measure w;is accepted by both parties. It became a law on tlie 3d of ^larch, 
and discord between the North and the South soon ceased, biit only for a 
Beason.' 

' Those who favored the doctrine that a State might nullify the acts of the National Govern- 
ment, were called nuUifiers, and the dangerou.? doctrine itself was called nullification. 

' Page 458. Mr. Calhoun, who had quarreled, politically, with Jackson, had recently resigned 
the office of Vice-President of the United States, ami was one of the ablest men in Congress. 
He asserted the State supremacy doctriue boldly on the floor of Congress, and held the same 
opinion until liis death. 

* Robert Y. Hayne was one of the ablest of southern statesmen. The debate between Havne 
and Webster, in the Senate of the United States,. during the debates on this momentous subject, is 
regarded as one of the most eminent, for sagac'ity and eloquence, that ever marked the proceedings 
of that body. Mr. Hayne was bom near Charleston, South Carolina, in November, 1791. He was 
admitted to the bar in 1812, and the same year volunteered his services for the defense of the sea- 
board, and entered the army as lieutenant. He arose rapidly to the rank of Major-Gcneral of the 
miUtia of his State, and was considered one of the best disciplinarians of the South. He had exten- 
sive practice at the bar, before he was twenty-two .years of age, and it was alw.ays lucrative. He 
was a member of the South Carohna Assembly in 1814, where lie was distinguished for eloquence. 
He was chosen Speaker in 1818. For ten years he represented South Carolina in the Senate of the 
United Stales; and he was chairman of the Committee of the Convention of South Carolina, which 
reported the "ordinance of nullification." He was soon afterward chosen Governor of his State. 
He died in September, 1841, in the fiftieth year of his age. ' Page 500. ° Page 459. 

"It is known that Mr. Clay introduoeu the Compromise Bill with the concurrence of Mn Calhoun. 
The Litter had in'oceeded to the verge of treason, in liis opposition to the general government, and 
President Jackson had threatened him with arrest, if lie moved anotlier step forward. Elnowin^' 



1837.] JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 465 

President Jackson's hostility to the United States Bank was again mani- 
fested in his annual message to Congress, in December, 1832, when he recom- 
mended the removal of the public funds from its custody, and a sale of the 
stock of the bank, belonging to the United States." Congress, by a decided 
vote, refused to authorize the measure ; but after its adjournment, the Presi- 
dent assumed the responsibility of the act, and directed William J. Duane, the 
Secretary of the Treasury, to withdraw the government funds (then almost 
$10,000,000), and deposit them in certain State banks. During a northern 
tour which the President had made in the summer of 1833, he had urged Mr. 
Duane (then in Philadelphia) to make the removal, but he would only consent 
to the appointment of an agent to inquire upon Avhat terms the local banks 
would receive the funds on deposit. The President then ordered him, perem- 
torily, to remove them from the bank. The Secretary refused compliance, and 
was dismissed from oflBce. His successor, Roger B. Taney (who was after- 
ward Chief-Justice of the United States), obeyed the President; and in 
October, 1833, the act was accomplished. The effect produced was sudden 
and wide-spread commercial distress. The busmess of the country was plunged 
from the height of prosperity to the depths of adversity, because its intimate 
connection with the National Bank rendered any paralysis of the operations 
of that institution fotal to commercial activity. The amount of loans of the 
bank, on the 1st of October, was over sixty millions of dollars, and the amount 
of the funds of the United States, then on deposit in the bank, was almost ten 
millions of dollars. The fact, that the connection of the bank with the business 
of tlie country was so vital, confirmed the President in his opinion of the 
danger of such an enormous moneyed institution. 

A large portion of the government funds were removed in the course of four 
months, and the whole amount in about nine months. Intense excitement pre- 
vailed throughout the country ; yet the President, supported by the House of 
Representatives, persevered and triumphed. Numerous committees, appointed 
by merchants, mechanics, manufacturers, and others, waited upon him, to ask 
him to take some measures for relief He was firm ; and to all of them he re- 
plied, in substance, that ' ' the government could give no relief, and provide no 
remedy ; that the banks were the occasion of all the evils which existed, and that 

the firmness and decision of the President, Mr. Calhoun dared not take the fatal step. He could 
not recede, nor even stand stUl, without compromising his character with liis political friends. In 
this extremity, a mutual friend arranged with Mr. Clay to propose a measure which would satisfy 
both sides, and save botli the neck and reputation of Mr. Calhoun. In the discu,ssion of the 
matter in the Senate, the latter most earnestly disclaimed any hcstile feelings toward tlie Union, 
on the part of South Carolina. Tlie State authorities, he asserted, had looked only to a judicial 
decision upon tlie question, untU the concentration of the United States troops at Charleston and 
Augusta, by order of the President, compelled them to make provision to defend lliemselves. 
Several of tlie State Legislatures hastened to condemn the luillification doctrine as destructive to 
the National Constitution. Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, Delaware, Indiana, Missouri, 
and Georgia, all thus spoke out plainly in favor of the Union. Georgia, however, at the same 
time, expressed its reprobation of the "tariff system, which had brought about the movement in 
South Carolina, and proposed a convention of the States of Virginia, North and South Carolina, 
Georgia, Alabama, Tennessee, and Mississippi, to devise measures to obtain relief from it. 

'By the law of 1S16, for chartering the bank, the funds of the United States were to be 
deposited with that institution, and to be withdrawn only by the Secretary of the Treasury. 

30 




4:Q6 THE NATION, [1829. 

those who suffered by their great enterprise had none to blame but themselves ; 
that those who traded ou borrowed capital ought to break." The State banks 
received the government funds on deposit, and loaned freely. Confidence was 
gradually restored, and apparent general prosperity' returned. Now [1867], 
after the lapse of more than twenty years, the wisdom and forecaste of General 
Jackson, evinced by his distrust of the United States Bank, appears to be uni- 
versally acknowledged.' Our present National banking system possesses all of 
the better functions of that of the United States Bank, without, apparently, 
any of its dangerous ones. 

Trouble again appeared on the southern borders of the Union. Toward the 
close of 183.3, the Seminole Indians, in Florida, guided by their head sachem, 
Micanopy, and led by their principal chief, Osceola,' 
commenced a distressing warfare upon the frontier 
settlements of Florida. The cause of the outbreak 
was an attempt to remove them to the wilderness 
bepond the Mississippi. In his annual message in 
December, 1830, President Jackson recommended 
|\ the devotion of a large tract of land west of the 
Mississippi, to the use of the Indian tribes yet re- 
\?-v^_^' '^ maining east of that stream, forever. Congress 
^ passed laws in accordance with the proposition, and 

the work of removal commenced, first by the Chick- 
asaws and Choctaws.* We have seen that trouble ensued with the Creeks and 
Cherokees,'' and the Seminoles in East Florida were not disposed to leave their 
ancient domain. Some of the chiefs in council made a treaty in May, 1832, 
and agreed to remove ; but other chiefs, and the great body of the nation, did 
not acknowledge the treaty as binding. In 1834, the President sent General 
Wiley Thompson to Florida, to prepare for a forcible removal of the Seminoles, 
if necessary. The tone and manner assumed by Osceola, at that time, dis- 
pleased Thompson, and he put the chief in irons and in prison for a day. The 
proud leader feigned penitence, and was released. Then his wounded pride 
called for revenge, and fearfully he pursued it, as we shall observe presently. 
The war that ensued was a sanguinary one, and almost four years elapsed before 
it was wholly terminated. Osceola, with all the cunning of a Tecumtha, ° and 
the heroism of a Philip,' was so successful in stratagem, and brave in conflict, 
that he bafiled the skill and courage of the United States troops for a long time. 
He had agreed to fulfill treaty stipulations,^ in December [1835], but instead 

' Page 470. 

' The course of President Jackson, toward the bank, was popular in many sections, but in the 
commercial States it caused a palpaljle diminution of the strength of the administration. This was 
shown by the elections in 1834. Many of bis supporters joined the Opposition, and this qombined 
force assumed the name of " \A'higs" — tlie old party name of the Ptevolution — while the adminis- 
tration party adhered to the name of " Democrats." 

= Page 468. * Page 30. ' Page 27. ' Page 424. ' Page 124. 

" Osceola had promised General Thompson that the delivery of certain cattle and horses belong- 
ing to the Indians should be made durinpt the first fortnight of December, 1835, and so certain was 
Thompson of the fullillment of this stipulation, that he advertised the animals for sale. 



1837.] 



JACKSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



467 




SE.IT OF SEMINOLE W.\R. 



of compliance, he was then at the head of a war jurty, murdering the unsus- 
pecting inhabitants on the borders of the everglade haunts of the savages. 

At that time General Clinch was stationed at Fort Drane,' in the interior 
of Florida, and Major Dade was dispatched from Fort Brooke, at the head of 
Tampa Bay, with more than a hundred men, for his 
relief That young commander,'' and all but four of 
his detachment, wei'e massacred [Dec. 28, 1835] 
near Wahoo Swamp.' On the same day, and only 
a few hours before, Osceola, and a small war party, 
killed and scalped General Thompson, and five of his 
friends, who were dining at a store a few yards from 
Fort King.* The as.5ailants disappeared in the for- 
est before the deed w;is known at the fort. Two 
days afterward [Dec. 31], General Clinch and his 
troops had a battle with the Seminolos on the With- 
lacoochec; and in February [Feb. 29, 1836], General Gaines' was assailed 
near the same place," and several of his men were killed. The battle-ground 
is about fifty miles from the mouth of the river. 

The Creeks aided their brethren in Florida, hj attacking white settlers 
within their domain,' in May, 1836. Success made them bold, and they at- 
tacked mail-carriers, stages, steamboats, and finally villages, in Georgia and 
Alabama, until thousands of white people were fleeing for their lives from 
place to place, liefore the savages. General Winfield Scott' was now in chief 
command in the South, and he prosecuted the war with vigor. The Creeks were 
finally subdued ; and during the summer, several thousands of them were re- 
moved to their designated homes beyond the Mississippi. In October, Governor 
Call, of Georgia, marched against the Seminoles with alrriost two thousand men. 
A detachment of upward of five hundred of these, had a severe contest [Nov. 
21] with the Indians at Wahoo Swamp, near the scene of Dade's massacre ; yet, 
like all other engagements with the savages in their swampy fastnesses, neither 
party could claim a positive victory." The year [1886] closed with no prospect 



' About forty miles north-east from the mouth of the Withlaooochee River, and eight south- 
west from Orange Lake. 

^ Francis L. Dade was a native of Virginia. After the "War of 1812-15, he was retained in the 
armv, having risen from third lieutenant to major. A neat monument has been erected to the 
memory of himself and companions in deatli, at West Point, on tlie Hudson. 

' Near the upper waters of the Withlacoocliee, about fifty miles north from Fort Brooke. Three 
of the four survivors soon died of tlieir wounds, and he who lived to tell the fearful narrative (Ran- 
som Clarke), afterward died from tlie efl'ects of his injuries on that day. 

' On the southern borders of Alachua county, about sixty miles south-west from St. Augustine. 
Osceola scalped [note 4, page 14] General Thompson with his own hands, and thus enjoyed his re- 
venue for the indignity he had suftered. 

' Page 433. Edmund P. Gaines was born in Virginia in 1777, and entered the army in 1799. 
He was breveted a major-general in 1814, and presented by Congress with a gold medal for his gal- 
lantry at Fort Erie. He died in 1849. 

" South side of the river, in Dade county. The place where Gaines was assaulted is on the 
north side, in Alachua county. ' Page 30. ' Page 433. 

" In this warfare the American troops suffered dreadfully from the poisonous vapors of the 
swamps, the bites of venomous serpents, and the stings of insects. The Indians were inaccessible 
in their homes amid the morasses, for the white people could not foUow them. 



468 THE NATION. [1829. 

of peace, either by treaty or by the subjugation of the Indians. The war con- 
tinued through the winter. Finally, after some severe encounters with the 
United States troops, several chiefs appeared in the camp of General Jesup' 
(who was then in supreme command) at Fort Dade," and on the 6th of March, 
1837, they signed a treaty which guarantied immediate peace, and the instant 
departure of the Indians to their new home beyond the Mississippi. But the 
lull was temporary. The restless Osceola caused the treaty to be broken ; and 
during the summer of 1837, many more soldiers perished in the swamps while 
pursuing the Indians. At length, Osceola, with several chiefs and seventy 
warriors, appeared [Oct. 21] in Jessup's camp under the protection of a flag. 
They were seized and confined ■' and soon afterward, the brave chief was sent 
to Charleston, where he died of a fever, while immured in Fort Moultrie.' 
This was the hardest blow yet dealt upon the Seminoles ; but they continued to 
resist, notwiths* inding almost nine thousand United States troops were in their 
territory at the lose of 1837. 

On the 25th of December, a large body of Indians sufiered a severe repulse 
on the northern border of Macaco Lake,' from six hundred troops under Colonel 
Zachary Taylor.' That officer had succeeded General Jesup, and for more than 
two years afterward, he endured every privation in efibrts to bring the war to a 
close. In May, 1839, a treaty was made which appeared to terminate the war ; 
but murder and robberies continued, and it was not until 1842 that peace was 
finally secured. This war, which lasted seven years, cost the United States 
many valuable lives, and millions of treasure. 

In the autumn of 1836, the election of a successor to President Jackson 
took place, and resulted in the choice of Martin Van Buren, of New York. 
Energy had marked every step of the career of Jackson as Chief Magistrate, 
and at the close of his administration, the nation stood higher in the esteem of 
the world than it had ever done before. At the close of his first term, our 
foreign relations were very satisfiictory, except with France. That government 
had agreed to pay about $5,000,000, by instalments, as indemnification for 
French spoliations on American commerce, under the operation of the several 
decrees of Napoleon, from 1806 to 1811.' The French government did not 
promptly comply with the agreement, and the President assumed a hostile tone, 
which caused France to perform her duty. Similar claims against Portugal 

' Thomas S. Jesup was born in Virginia in 1788. He was a brave and useful oflBeer durinij; 
the war of 1812-15, and was retained in the army. He was breveted major-general in 182s, 
and was succeeded in command in Florida by Colonel Zachary Taylor, in 1838 He died at 
Washington city in 1858. -r. -n i 4. 

' On the head waters of the Withlachoochoe, about forty miles north-east from Fort Brooke, at 
the head of Tampa Bay. See map on page 467. , ^ , , , e 

3 General Jesup was much censured for this breach of faith and the rules of honorable warfare. 
His excuse was the known treachery of Osceola, and a desire to put an end to bloodshed by what- 
ever means he might be able to employ. „, „ , ,. r o.ol xr^ortVio 

* On SulUvan's Island, upon the site of Fort Sullivan of the Revolution [page 249]. Near the 
entrance gate to the fort is a small monument erected to the memory of Osceola 

' Sometimes called Big Water Lake. The Indian name is 0-ke-cho-bee, and by that title the 

^^^^''tL 'h^e leader in the Mexican War [page 481], and afterward President of the United 
States. Se3 page 498. ' Sec pages 400 to 407, mclusive. 



1837.] VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION. 469 

were made, and payment obtained. A treaty of reciprocity had been concluded 
■with Russia and Belgium, and everywhere the American flag commanded the 
highest respect. Two new States (Arkansas and Michigan) had been added to 
the Union. The original thirteen had doubled, and great activity prevailed in 
every part of the Republic. Satisfaction with the administration generally pre- 
vailed, and it was understood that Van Buren would continue the policy of his 
predecessor, if elected. He received a large majority ; but the people, having 
failed to elect a Vice-President, the Senate chose Richard M. Johnson, of Ken- 
tucky, who had been a candidate with Van Buren, to fill that station. 

Much excitement was produced, and bitter feelings were engendered, toward 
President Jackson, by his last oSicial act. A circular was issued from the 
Treasury department on the 11th of July, 1836, requiring all collectors of the 
public revenue to receive nothing but gold and silver in payment. This was 
intended to check speculations in the public lands, but it also bore heavily 
upon every kind of business. The " specie circular"' was denounced ; and so 
loud was the clamor, that toward the close of the session in 1837, both Houses 
of Congress adopted a partial repeal of it. Jackson refused to sign the bill, 
and by keeping it in his possession until after the adjournment of Congress, 
prevented it becoming a law. On the -ith of ilarch, 1837, he retired from pub- 
lic life, to enjoy that repose which an exceedingly active career entitled him to. 
He was then seventy years of age. 



CHAPTER X. 

VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION. [1837 — 1841.] 

Martin Van Buren,' the eighth President of the United States, seemed 
to stand, at the time of his inauguration — on the 4th of March, 1887 — at the 
opening of a new era. All of his predecessors in the high ofiice of Chief 
Magistrate of the Republic, had been descended of Britons, and were engaged 
in the old struggle for Independence Van Buren was of Dutch descent, and 
was born after the great conflict had ended, and the birth of the nation had 
occurred. The day of his inauguration was a remarkably pleasant one. Seated 
by the side of the venerable Jackson, in a phaeton made from the wood of the 
frigate ConstihUion, which had been presented to the President by his political 

' Martin Van Buren was bom at Kinderhook, Columbia county. New York, in December, 1782. 
He chose the profession of law. In 1815, he became Attorney-General of his native State, and in 
1828 was elected Governor of the same. Having; served his country in the Senate of the United 
States, he was appointed minister to England in 1831, and was "elected Vice-President of the 
United States in the autumn of 1832. Since his retirement from the presidency in 1841, Mr. Van 
Buren has spent a greater portion of his time on his estate in his native town. He visited Europe 
at the close of 1853, and was the first of the chief magistrates of the Republic who crossed the 
Atlantic after their term of office had expired. Ex-President Fillmore followed his example in 
1855, and spent several moiitlis abroad. Mr. Van Buren lived at iviuuerhook, alter his retire- 
ment from public life, until his death, on the 24th of July, 1862. 



470 TUK NATION. [1837. 

ineuds iu New York, he was escorted from the presidential mansion to the 
capital by a body of infantry and cavalry, and an immense assemblage of citi- 
zens. Upon a rostrum, erected on the ascent to the eastern portico of the cap- 
itol, he delivered his inaugural address, and took the prescribed oath of office, 
administered by Chief Justice Taney.' 




At the moment when Mr. Van Buren entered the presidential mansion as 
its occupant, the business of the country was on the verge of a terrible convul- 
sion and utter prostration. The distressing effects of the removal of the public 
funds from the United States Bank,' in 1833 and 1834, and the operations of 
the ''specie circular," ' had disappeared, in a measure, but as the remedies for 
the evil were superficial, the cure was only apparent. The chief remedy 
had been the free loaning of the public money to individuals by the State 
deposit banks ;' but a commercial disease was thus produced, more disastrous 
than the panic of 1833-34. A sudden expansion of the paper currency 
was the result. The State banks which accepted these deposits, supposed 
they would remain undisturbed until the government should need them 
for its use. Considering them as so much capital, they loaned their own 
funds freely. But in January, 1836, Congress authorized the Secretary of the 
Trensury to distribute all the public funds, except five millions of dollars, 
among .the several States, according to their representation. The funds were 

' He appointed John Forsrth Secretary of State ; Levi Woodbury, Secretary of the Treasury ; 
Joel R. Poinsett, Secretiry of War; Mahlon Dickinson, Secretary of the Navy; Amos Kendall, 
Postmaster-General; and Benjamin F, Butler, Attorney-General, All of them, except Mr. Poinsett, 
held tlieir respective offices under President Jncl<son. 

' Page 465. » Page 469. ' Page 466. 



1841.] VAN BUREN'S ADMINISTRATION. 471 

accordingly taken from the deposit banks, after the 1st of January, 1837, and 
these banks being obliged to curtail their loans, a serious pecuniary embarrass- 
ment was produced. The immediate consequences of such multiplied facilities 
for obtaining bank loans, Avere an immensely increased importation of foreign 
goods, inordinate stimulation of all industrial pursuits and internal improve- 
ments, and the operation of a spirit of speculation, especially in real estate, 
which assumed the features of a mania, in 1836. A hundred cities were 
founded, and a thousand villages were " laid out" on broad sheets of paper, and 
made the basis of vast money transactions. Borrowed capital was thus diverted 
from its sober, legitimate uses, to the fostering of schemes as unstable as water, 
and as unreal in their fancied results as dreams of feiry-land. Overtrading 
and speculation, which had relied for support upon continued bank loans, was 
suddenly checked by the necessary Ijank contractions, on account of the removal 
of the government funds from their custody ; and during March and April, 
1837, there were mercantile fiilures in the city of New York alone, to the 
amount of more than a hundred millions of dollars." Fifteen months before 
[December, 1835], property to the amount of more than twenty millions of 
dollars had been destroyed by fire in the city of New York, when five hundred 
and twenty-nine buildings were consumed. The effects of these failures and 
losses were felt to the remotest borders of the Union, and credit and con- 
fidence were destroyed. 

Early in May, 1837, a deputation from the merchants and bankers of New 
York, waited upon the President, and solicited him to defer the collection of 
duties on imported goods, rescind the "specie circular," and to call an extra- 
ordinary session of Congress to adopt relief measures. The President declined 
to act on their petitions. When his determination was known, all the banks 
in New York suspended specie payments [May 10, 1837], and their example 
was speedily followed in Boston, Providence, Hartford, Albany, Philadelphia, 
Baltimore, and in smaller towns throughout the country. On the 16th of May 
the Legislature of New York passed an act, authorizing the suspension of 
specie payments for one year. The measure embarrassed the general govern- 
ment, and it was unable to obtain gold and silver to discharge its own obliga- 
tions. The public good now demanded legislative relief, and an extraordinary 
session of Congress was convened by the President on the 4th of September. 
During a session of forty-three days, it did little for the general relief, except 
the passage of a bill authorizing the issue of treasury notes, not to exceed in 
amount ten millions of dollars.^ 

During the year 1837, the peaceful relations which had long existed between 
the United States and Great Britain, were somewhat disturbed by a revolution- 

' In two days, houses in New Orleans stopped payment, owing an aggregate of twenty-seven 
millions of dollars ; and in Boston one hundred and sixty-eight failures took place in six months. 

^ In his message to Congress at this session, the President proposed the establishment of an 
independent treasury, for the safe keeping of the public funds, and their entire and total separation 
from banking institutions. This sclierae met witli vehement opposition. The bill passed the Sen- 
ate, but was lost in the House. It was debated at subsequent sessions, and finally became a law 
on the 4th of July, 1340. This is known as the Sub-Treasury Sclieme. 



472 THK NATION. [1837. 

ary movement in Canada which, at one time, seemed to promise a separation of 
that province from the British crown. The agitation and the outbreak appeared 
simultaneously in Upper and Lower Canada. In the former province, the most 
conspicuous leader was William Lyon M'Kenzie, a Scotchman, of rare abilities 
as a political writer and an agitator, and a republican in sentiment ; and in the 
latter province, Louis Joseph Papineau, a large land-owner, and a very influ- 
ential man among the French population. The movements of the Revolution- 
ary party were well planned, but local jealousies prevented unity of action, and 
the scheme failed. It was esteemed a highly patriotic effort to secure independ- 
ence and nationality for the people of the Canadas, and, as in the case of Cuba, 
at a later period,' the warmest sympathies of the Americans were enlisted, 
especially at the North. Banded companies and individuals joined the rebels ;' 
and so general became this active sympathy on the northern frontier, that peace 
between the two governments was jeoparded. President Van Buren issued a 
proclamation, calling upon all per.sons engaged in the schemes of invasion of 
Canada, to abandon the design, and warning them to beware of the penalties 
that must assuredly follow such infractions of international laws. In 1838, 
General Scott was sent to the frontier to preserve order, and was assisted by 
proclamations of the Governor of New York. Yet secret revolutionary associ- 
ations, called "Hunter's Lodges," continued for a long time. For about four 
years, that cloud hung upon our northern horizon, when, in September, 1841, 
President Tyler issued an admonitory proclamation, specially directed to the 
members of the Hunter's Lodges, which prevented further aggressive move- 
ments. The leaders of the revolt were either dead or in exile, and quiet was 
restored. 

While this excitement was at its height, long disputes concerning the bound- 
ary between the State of Maine and the British province of New Brunswick, 
ripened into armed preparations for settling the matter by combat. This, too, 
threatened danger to the peaceful relations between the two governments. The 
President sent General Scott to the theater of the dispute, in the winter of 
1839, and by his wise and conciliatory measures, he prevented bloodshed, and 
produced quiet. The whole matter was finally settled by a treaty [August 20, 
1842], negotiated at Washington City, by Daniel Webster for the United 
States, and Lord Ashburton for Great Britain. The latter had been sent as 
special minister for the purpose. Besides settling the boundary question, this 
agreement, known as the Ashburton Treaty, provided for the final suppression 
of the slave-trade, and for the giving up of criminal fugitives from justice, in 
certain cases. 

A new presidential election now approached. On the 5th of May, 1840, a 

' Page 502. 

^ A party of Americans took possession of Navy Island, situated in the Niagara Eiver about 
two miles above the Falls, and belonging to Canada. They numbered seven hundred strong, well 
provisioned, and provided with twenty pieces of cannon. They had a small steamboat named 
Caroline, to ply between Schlosser, on the American side, and Navy Island. On a dark night in 
December, 1837, a party of royalists from the Canada shore crossed over, cut the Caroline loose, 
set her on fire, and she went over the great cataract while ui fuU blaze. It was beUeved that some 
persons were on board the vessel at the time. 



1841.] HARRISON'S AND TYLER'S ADMINISTRATION. 473 

national Democratic convention assembled at Baltimore, and unanimously nom- 
inated Mr. Van Buren for President. No nomination was made for Vice-Pres- 
ident, but soon afterward, Richard M. Johnson' and James K. Polk were 
selected as candidates for that office, in different States. A national Whig' con- 
vention had been held at Harrisburg, in Pennsylvania, on the 4th of December 
previous [1839], when General William H. Harrison, of Ohio, the popular 
leader in the North- West, in the War of 1812,' was nominated for President, 
and John Tyler, of Virginia, for Vice-President. Never, before, was the 
country so excited by an election, and never before was a presidential contest 
characterized by such demoralizing proceedings.' The government, under Mr. 
Van Buren, being held responsible by the opposition for the business depres- 
sion which yet brooded over the country, public speakers arrayed vast masses 
of the people against the President, and Harrison and Tyler were elected by 
overwhelming majorities. And now, at the close of the first fifty years of the 
Republic, the population had increased from three and a half millions, of all 
colors, to seventeen millions. A magazine writer of the day,' in comparing 
several administrations, remarked that " The great events of Mr. Van Buren's 
administration, by which it will hereafter be known and designated, is the 
divorce of bank and State' in the fiscal affairs of the National government, and 
the return, after half a century of deviation, to the original design of the Con- 
stitution." 



CHAPTER XI. 

HARRISON'S AND TYLER'S ADMINISTRATION. [1841—1845.] 

The city of Washington was thronged with people from every State in the 
Union, on the 4th of March, 1841, to witness the ceremonies of the inauguration of 
General William Henry Harrison,' the ninth President of the United States. He 

' Page 424. ' Note 2, page 466. ' Pages 416 to 424, inclusive. 

* Because General Harrison lived in the West, and his residence was associated with pioneer 
life, a log-cabin became the symbol of his party. These cabins were erected all over the country, 
in which meetings were held ; and, as the hospitaUty of the old hero was symboHzed by a barrel 
of cider, made free to all visiters or strangers, who " never found the latch-string of his log-cabin 
drawn in," that beverage was dealt out unsparingly to all who attended the meetings in the cabins. 
These meetings were scenes of carousal, deeply injurious to aU who participated in them, and 
especially to the young. Thousands of drunkards, in after years, dated their departure from sobri- 
ety to the "Hard Cider" campaign of 1840. 

' Democratic Review, April, 1840. 

° This is in allusion to the sub-treasury scheme. Mr. Van Buren remarked to a friend, just 
previous to sending his message to Congress, in which he proposed th.it plan for collecting and 
keeping the pubUc moneys : "We can not know how the immediate convulsion may result; but 
the people will, at all events, eventually come right, and posterity at least -nnll do me justice. Be 
the present issue for good or for evil, it is for posterity that I will write this message." 

' William Henry Harrison, son of one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, was 
bom near the banks of the James River, in Charles City county, Virginia, in February, 1713. He 
was educated at Hampden Sydney College, and was prepared, by studies, for a physician, but en- 
tered the army as ensign in the United States artillery, in 1791. He was Secretary of the North- 



474 'THE NATION. [1841. 

was then an old man, having passed almost a month beyond the age of sixtj-eight 
years. Yet there was a vigor in his movements quite remarkable for one of 
that age, and who had passed through so many hardships and physical labors. 
From a platform over the ascent to the eastern portico of the Capitol, where 
Mr. Van Buren delivered his inaugural address, General Harrison, in a clear 




/C/^ J^ //'a'^y7^^;Mt^ 



voice, read his. He was frequently interrupted by cheers during the reading. 
When it was concluded. Chief Justice Taney administered the oath of office, and 
three successive cannon peals announced the fact that the Republic had a new 
President. Harrison immediately nominated his cabinet officers.' and these 
were all confirmed by the Senate, then in session. 

President Harrison's inaugural speech was well received by all parties, and 
the dawn of his administration gave omens of a brighter day for the country. 
When his Address went over the land, and the wisdom of his choice of cabinet 

western Territory in 17 97; and at the age of twenty-six years, was elected tlie first delegate to 
Congress from that domain. He was afterward appointed governor of Indiana Territory, and was 
very active during the War of 1812. See pages 416 to 424 inclusive. At its close he retired to 
his farm at North Bend, on the banks of the Ohio. He served in the national council for four 
years [1824 to 1828] as United States senator, when he was appointed minister to Colomliia, one c.f 
the South American republics. He was finally raised to tlie liighest post of honor in the nation. 
His last disease was pneumonia, or bilious pleurisy, which terminated his life in a few day.». His 
la,st words were (thinking he was addressing his succes.'-or in office) : " Sir, I wish you to under- 
stand tlie principles of the government. I wish them carried out. I asl< nothing more." 

' Daniel Webster, Secretary of State ; Tliomas Kwing, Secretary of the Treasury ; John BeU, 
Secretary of War ; George B. Badger, Secretary of the Navy; Francis Granger, Postmaster-Gen- 
eral ; and J. J. Crittenden, Attorney-GeneraL 



1845.J TYLER'S ADMINISTRATION. 475 

counselors was known, prosperity was half restored, for confidence was re- 
enthroned in the commercial world. But all the hopes which centered in the 
new President were soon extinguished, and the anthems of the inaugural day 
were speedily changed to solemn requiems. Precisely one month after he uttered 
his oath of office, the new President, died. That sad event occurred on the 4th 
day of April, 1841. Before he had fairly placed his hand upon the machinery of 
the government, it was paralyzed, and the only official act of general importance 
performed by President Harrison during his brief administration, was the issu- 
ing of a proclamation, on the 17th of March, calling an extraordinary session 
of Congress, to commence at the close of the following I\Iay, to legislate upon 
the subjects of finance and revenue." 

In accordance with the provisions of the Constitution, the Vice-President 
became the official successor of the deceased President ; and on the 6th of April 
the oath of office was administered to 

J n N TYLER.' 

He retained the cabinet appointed by President Harrison until September fol- 
lowing, when all but the Secretary of State resigned.' 

The extraordinary session of Congress called by President Harrison, com- 
menced its session on the appointed day [May 31, 1841], and continued until 
the 13th of Septemter following. The Sub-Treasury act' was repealed, and a 
general Bankrupt law was enacted. This humane law accomplished a material 
benefit. Thousands of honest and enterprising men had been crushed by the 

' The predecessors of Harrison had called extraordinary sessions of Congress, as follows : John 
Adams, on tlie 16th of May, 1797; Thomas Jetferson. on the 17th of October, 1808, to provide for 
carrying the treaty of Louisiana into etfect; James Madison, on the 23d of May, 1809, and also on 
the 25th of May, 1813 ; and Martin Van Buren, on tlie 4th of September, 1837. 

" On the 4th of April, the members of Harrison's cabinet dispatched Fletcher Webster, chief 
clerk in the State Department, with a letter to Mr. Tyler, announcing the deatli of the President. 
Mr. Tyler was then at Williamsburg. So great was the dispatch, botli by the messenger and the 
Vic^President, that the latter arrived in Washington on Tuesday morning, the 6th of April, at four 
o'clock. As doubts might arise concerning the validity of his oath of office as Vice-President, while 
acting as President, Mr. Tyler took the oath anew, as Chief Magistrate, before Judge Cranch, of 
Washington city. On the following day he attended the funeral of President Harrison. John 
Tyler was born in Charles City county, Virginia, in March, 1790. He was so precocious that ho 
entered William and Mary College at the age of twelve years. He graduated at the age of seven- 
teen, studied law, and at nineteen he was a practicing lawyer. At the age of twenty he was 
elected a member of the Virginia Legislature, where he served for several years. He was elected 
to Congress to fill a vacancy caused by death, in 1816, when only twenty-six years of age. He was 
there again in 1819. In 1825 he was elected governor of Virginia. He was afterward sent to the 
Senate of the United States; and he was much in public life until the close of his Presidential ca- 
reer. He took part with tlie enemies of the Republic m tlie late Civil War, and died in Rich- 
mond, Virginia, on the IStli of J.inuary, 18iJJ. 

' He then appointed Walter Forward, Secretary of the Treasury ; John C. Spencer, Secretary 
of War; Abel P. Upslmr, Secretary of the Navy; Charles A. Wicitliffe, Postmaster-General; and 
Hugh S. Legare, Attorney-General. Mr. Tyler had the misfortune to lose three of his cabinet of- 
ficers, by death, in the course of a few months. Mr. Legare accompanied the President to Boston, 
on the occasion of celebrating the completion of the Bunker Hill monument [page 2.^5], in June, 
1 843, and died there On the 2 8th of February following, the bursting of a gun on board the steam- 
ship Princeton, while on an excursion upon the Potomac, killed Mr. Upshur, then Secretary of State ; 
Mr. Gilmer, Secretary of the Navy; and several other distinguished gentlemen. Tlie President and 
many ladies were on board. Among the killed was Mr. Gardiner, of the State of New York, 
whose daughter the President soon afterward married. * Note 2, page 47 1. 



476 



THE NATION. 



[1841. 



recent business revulsion, and were so laden with debt as to be hopelessly 
chained to a narrow sphere of action. The law relieved them ; and while it 
bore heavily upon the creditor class, for a while, its operations were beneficent 
and useful. Wlien dishonest men Ijegan to make it a pretense for cheating, it 
was repealed. But the chief object sought to be obtained during this session 




\JcrAn.%4/y^' 



namely, the chartering of a Bank of the United States, was not achieved. Two 
separate bills' for that purpose were vetoed" by the President, who, like Jack- 
son, thought be perceived great evils to be apprehended from the workings of 
such an institution. The course of the President was vehemently censured by 
the party in power, and the last veto led to the dissolution of his cabinet. Mr. 
Webster patriotically remained at his post, for great public interests would have 
suffered by his withdrawal, at that time. 

The year 1842 (second of Mr. Tyler's administration) was distinguished by 
the return of the United States Exploring E.xpedition ; the settlement of the 
North-eastern boundary question; essential modifications of the tariff; and 
domestic difiiculties in Rhode Island. The exploring expedition, commanded by 
Lieutenant Wilkes, of the United States navy, had been sent, several years be- 
fore, to traverse and explore the great southern ocean. It coasted along what 

' One was passed on the 16th of August, 1841 ; the other, modified so as to meet the Presi- 
dent's objections, as it was believed, passed September 9th. " Note 6, page 462. 



1845.] TYLER'S ADMINISTRATION. 477 

is supposed to be an Antarctic continent, for seventeen liundred mUes in the 
vicinity of latitude 66 degrees south, and between longitude 96 and 154 degrees 
east. The expedition brought home a great many curiosities of island human 
life, and a large number of fine specimens of natural history, all of which are 
now [1867] well preserved in the custody of the National Institute, Smithsonian 
building, in "Washington city. The expedition made a voyage of about ninety 
thousand miles, equal to almost four times the circumference of the globe. 

The modifications of the tariff were important. By the compromise act of 
1832,' duties on foreign goods were to roach the minimum of reduction at the 
close of 1842, when the tarift' would only provide revenue, not protection to 
manvfactitres, ]ike thai of 1828.'' Tiie latter object appeared desirable; and 
by an act passed on the 29th of June, 1842, high tariffs were imposed on 
many foreign articles. The President vetoed it ; but a bOl, less objectionable, 
received his assent on the 9th of August. 

The difiSculties in Ehode Island originated in a movement to adopt a 
State Constitution of government, and to abandon the old charter given by 
Charles the Second,' in 1663, under which the people had been ruled for one 
hundred and eighty years. Disputes arose concerning the proper method to be 
pursued in making the change, and these assumed a serious aspect. Two par- 
ties were formed, known, respectively, as the "suffrage," or radical party; the 
other as the " law and order," or conservative party. Each formed a Constitu- 
tion, elected a governor and legislature,' and finally armed [May and June, 
1843] in defense of their respective claims. The State was on the verge of 
civil war, and the aid of National troops had to be invoked, to restore quiet and 
order. A free Constitution, adopted by the " law and order" party in Novem- 
ber, 1842, to go into operation on the first Tuesday in May, 1843, was sus- 
tained, and became the law of the land. 

During the last year of President Tyler's administration, the country was 
much agitated by discussions concerning the proposed admission of the independ- 
ent republic of Texas, on our south-west frontier, as a State of the Union. 
The proposition was warmly opposed at the North, because the annexation 
would increase the area and political strength of slavery, and lead to a war with 
Mexico.' A treaty for admission, signed at Washington on the 12th of April, 

' Page 464. ' Page 459. ° Page 158. 

' The " suffrage" party elected Thomas "W. Dorr, governor, and the " law and order" party- 
chose Samuel W. King for chief magistrate. Dorr was finally arrested, tried for and convicted of 
treason, and sentenced to imprisonment for life. The excitement having passed away, in a meas- 
ure, be was released in June, 1845, but was deprived of all the civil rights of a citizen. These dis- 
abilities were removed in the autumn of 1853. 

' Texas was a part of the domain of that ancient Mexico conquered by Cortez [page 43]. In 
1824, Mexico became a repubhe under Generals Victoria and Santa Anna, and was divided into 
States united by a Federal Constitution. One of these was Texas, a territory which was origin- 
ally claimed by the United States as a part of Louisiana, purchased [page 390] from France in 
1803, but ceded to Spain in 1820. In 1821-22, a colony from the United States, under Stephen 
F. Austin, made a settlement on both sides of tlie Colorado River: and tlie Spanish government 
favoring immigration thither, caused a rapid increase in the pop\ilation. There were ten thousand 
Americans in that province in 1833. Santa Anna became military dictator ; and the people of 
Te.xas, unwilling to submit to his arbitrary rule, rebelled. A war ensued ; and on the 2d of March. 
1836. a convention declared Texas JKffepentfent Much bloodshed occurred afterward; but a final 



478 THE NATION. [1845. 

1844, was rejected by the Senate on the 8th of June following. To the next 
Congress the proposition was presented in the form of a joint resolution, and 
received the concurrence of both Houses on the 1st of March, 1845, and 
the assent of the President on the same day. This measure had an important 
bearing upon the Presidential election in 1844. It became more and more pop- 
ular with the people throughout the Union, and James K. Polk, of Tennessee, 
who was pledged in favor of the measure, was nominated for the office of Pres- 
ident of the United States, by the National Democratic Convention, assembled 
at Baltimore on the 27th of May, 1844. George M. Dallas was nominated for 
Vice-President at the same time ; and in November following, they were both 
elected. The opposing candidates were Henry Clay and Theodore Frelinghuy- 
sen. The last important official act of President Tyler was the signing, on the 
8d of March, 1845, of the bill for the admission of Florida and Iowa into the 
Union of States. 



CHAPTER XII. 

POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. [1S45 — 1S49.] 

Never before had so large a concourse of people assembled at the Nation .1 
city, to witness the inauguration of a new Chief Magistrate of the nation, us ou ii.e 
4tli of March, 1845, when James Kno.x Polk, ' of Tennessee, the tenth President of 
the United States, took the oath of office, administered by Chief Justice Taney. 
The day was unpleasant. A lowering morning preceded a rainy day, and the 
pleasures of the occasion were marred thereby. The address of the President, 
on that occasion, clearly indicated that energetic policy which distinguished his 
administration. On the day of his inauguration he nominated his cabinet 
officers," and the Senate being in session, immediately confirmed them. 

Among the most important topics which claimed the attention of the admin- 
istration, were the annexation of Texas, and the claims of Great Britain to a 
large portion of the vast territory of Oregon, on the Pacific coast. The former 

hattle o( San Jacinto, in which the Texans were led by General Sam Ilouston, afterward a 
United States Senator from Texas, vindicated the position the people had taken, and terminated 
the strife. Texas remained an independent republic until its admission into our National Union 
in 1845. 

' James K. Polk was bom in Mecklenburg county, North Carolina, in November, 1795. "Wliilo 
he was a child, his father settled in Tennessee ; and the first appearance of young Polk in public 
life, was as a member of the Tennessee Legislature, in 1823. Ho had been admitted to the bar 
three years before, but public life kept him from the practice of his profession, except at intervals. 
He was elected to Congress in 1825, and was in tliat body almost continually until elevated to the 
Presidential chair. He was elected Speaker of the House of Representeitives in 1835, and contin- 
i:cd in the performance of the duties of that office during five consecutive sessions. He was elected 
governor of Tennessee in 1839, and President of the United States in 1844. He retired to his 
residence, near Knoxville, Tennessee, at the close of his term, in 1849, and died there in June of 
the same year. „,•„. 

= .Tames Buchanan, Secretary of State; Robert J. "Walker. Secretary of the Treasury; William 
L. Marcy, Secretary of War; George Bancroft, Secretary of the Navy; Cave Johnson, Postmaster- 
General; and John Y. Mason, Attorney-General. 



1849.] 



POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 



479 



demanded and received the earliest consideration. On the last day of his offi- 
cial term, President Tyler had sent a messenger to the Texan Government, 
with a copy of the joint resolutions of the American Congress,' in fiivor of an- 
nexation. These were considered by a convention of delegates, called for the 
purpose of forming a State Conistitution for Texas. That body approved of the 
measure, by resolution, on the 4th of July, 1845. On that day Texas became 




one of the States of our Republic. The other momentous subject (the cbiiui'^ 
of Great Britain to certain portions of Oregon), also received jirompt atten- 
tion. That vast territory, between the Rocky Mountains and tlie Pacific, 
had been, for some time, a subject of dispute between the two countries." Ir. 
1818, it was mutually agreed that each nation should equally enjoy the privileges 
of all the bays and harbors on the coast, for ten years. This agreement was re- 
newed in 1827, for an indefinite time, with the stipulation, that either party 
might rescind it by giving the other party twelve months' notice. Such notice 



' The communication was made through A. J. Donelson, the " American" candidate for Vice- 
President of the United States, in 1856, who was our Charge d'Affaires to the Texan Government. 

" Captain Grey, of Boston, entered tlie mouth of the Columbia River in 1792, and Captains 
Lewis and Clarlie explored that region, from the Rocky Mountains westward, in 1804-'5. In 1811, 
the late J. J. Astor estabhshed a trading station at the mouth of the Columbia River. The British 
doctrine, always practiced by them, that the entrance of a vessel of a civilized nation into the 
mouth of a river, gives title, by the right of discovery, to the territory watered by that river and 
its tributaries, clearly gave Oregon to 54 degrees 40 minutes, to the Upited States, for the dis- 
covery of Captain Grey, in 1792, was not disputed. 



480 THE X A T I (J N . [1845. 

■was given by the United States in 1846, and the boundary was then fixed by 
treaty, made at Washington city, in June of that year. Great Britain claimed 
the whole territory to 54^ 40' north latitude, the right to which was disputed 
by the United States. The boundary line was finally fixed at latitude 49° j 
and in 1848, a territorial government was established. In March, 1853, Ore- 
gon was divided, and the north irn portion was made a separate domain, by the 
title of Washington Territory. 

The annexation of Texas, as had been predicted, caused an immediate rup- 
ture between the United States and Mexico ; for the latter claimed Texas as a 
part of its territory, notwithstanding its independence had been acknowledged 
by the United States, England, France, and other governments. Soon after 
[March 6, 1845] Congress had adopted the joint resolution for the admission 
of that State into the Union,' General Almonte, the Mexican minister at Wash- 
ington, formally protested against that measure, and demanded his passports. 
On the 4tb of June following, General Herrera, President of Mexico, issued a 
proclamation, declaring the rights of Mexico, and his determination to defend 
them — by arms, if necessary. But, independent of the act complained of, there 
already existed a cause for serious disputes between the United States and 
Mexico.^ Ever since the establishment of republican government by the latter, 
in 1824, it had been an unjust and injurious neighbor. Impoverished by civil 
■wars, its authorities did not hesitate to replenish its Treasury by plundering 
American vessels in the Gulf of Mexico, or by confiscating the property of 
American merchants within its borders. The United States government 
remonstrated in vain, until, in 1831, a treaty was formed, and promises of 
redress were made. But aggressions continued ; and in 1840, the aggregate 
amount of American property which had been appropriated by Mexicans, was 
more than si.x millions of dollars. The claim for this amount remained unset- 
tled' when the annexation of Texas occurred [July 4, 1845], and peaceful 
relations between the two governments were suspended. 

The President being fully aware of the hostile feelings of the Mexicans, 
ordered [July] General Zachary Taylor,'' then in command of troops in the 
South-West, to proceed to Texas, and take a position as near the Rio Grande,' 
as prudence would allow. This force, about fifteen hundred strong, was called 
the "Army of Occupation," for the defense of Texas. At the same time, a 
strong squadron, under Commodore Conner, sailed for the Gulf of Mexico, to 
protect American interests there. General Taylor first landed on the 25th of 
July on St. Joseph's Island," and then embarked for Corpus Christi, a Mexican 

' Page 478. " Pronounced May-hce-co by the Spaniards. 

^ Commissioners appointed by tlie two governments to adjust tliese claims, met in 1 840. The 
Mexican commissioners aclcnowledpfed two millions of dollars, and no more. In 1843 the whole 
amount was acknowledged by Mexico, and the payment was to be made in instalments of three 
hundred thousand dollars each. Only three of these instalments had been paid in 1845, and the 
Mexican government refused to decide whether the remainder should be settled or not. 

■■ Taylor's actual rank in the army list was only that of Colonel. He had been made a Brig- 
adier-General by hrevet, for his good conduct in tlie Florida War [page 468]. A title by brevet is 
only honorary. Taylor held the title of Brigadier-General, but received only the pay of a Colonel. 

' Great or Grand river. Also called Rio Bravo del Norte — Brave North river. 

" There the flag of the United States was first displayed in power over Texas soil 



1849.] POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 481 

village beyond the Nueces, and near its mouth. There he formed a camp 
[September, 1845], and remained during the succeeding autumn and winter. 
It was during the gathering of this storm of war on our south-western frontier, 
that the difficulties with Great Britain, concerning Oregon, occurred, which we 
have already considered. 

By a dispatch dated January 13, 1846, the Secretary of War ordered Gen- 
eral Taylor to advance from Corpus Christi to near the mouth of the Rio 
Grande, opposite the Spanish city of Matamoras, because Mexican troops were 
then gathering in that direction, with the evident intention of invading Texas. 
This was disputed territory between Texas and the Mexican province of Tamau- 
lipas ; and when, on the 25th of March, he encamped at Point Isabel, on the coast, 
about twenty-eight miles from Matamoras, General Taylor was warned by the 
Mexicans that he was upon foreign soil. Regardless of menaces, he left his stores 
at Point Isabel, under Major Monroe and four hundred and fifty men, and with the 
remainder of his army advanced [March 28, 1846] to tlie bank of the Rio Grande, 
where he established a fortified camp, and commenced the erection of a fort.' 

President Ilerrera's desire for peace with the United States made him un- 
popular, and the Mexican people elected General Paredes^ to succeed him. 
That officer immediately dispatched General Ampudia' with a large force, to 
Matamoras, to drive the Americans beyond the Nueces. Ampudia arrived on 
the 11th of April, 1846, and the next day he sent a letter to General Taylor, 
demanding his withdrawal within twenty-four hours. Taylor refused compli- 
ance, and continued to strengthen his camp. Ampudia hesitated ; and on the 
24th of that month he was succeeded in command by the more energetic 
Arista,' the commander-in-chief of the northern division of the army of Mexico, 
whose reported reinforcements made it probable that some decisive action would 
soon take place. This change of affairs was unfavorable to the Americans, and 
the situation of the " Army of Occupation" was now becoming very critical. 
Parties of armed Mexicans had got between Taylor and his stores at Point 
Isabel, and had cut off all inter-communication. Arista's army was hourly 
gathering strength ; and already an American reconnoitering party, under 
Captain Thornton,' had been killed or captured [April 24] on the Texas side of 
the Rio Grande. This was the first blood shed in 

THE WAR WITH MEXICO. 

When he had nearly completed the fort opposite Matamoras, General Tay- 
lor hastened [May 1], with his army, to the relief of Point Isabel, which was 
menaced by a large Mexican force" collected in his rear. He left a regiment 

' It was named Port Brown, in honor of Major Brown, the officer in command there. It was 
erected under the superintendence of Captain Mansfield, and was large enough to accommodate 
about two thousand men. ' Pronounced Pa-ray-dhes. 

' Pronounced Am-poo-dhee-ah. * Pronounced Ah-rees-tah. 

' General Taylor liad been informed that a body of Mexican troops were crossing tie Rio 
Grande, above his encampment, and he sent Captain Thornton, T^nth sixty dragoons, to reconnoitre. 
They were surprised and captured. Sixteen Americans were killed, and Captain Thornton escaped 
by an extraordinary leap of his horse. 

° General Taylor was apprised of this force of fifteen hundred Mexicans, by Captain Walker, 

31 



4g2 THE NATION. [1S43. 

of infantry and two companies of artillery, under Major Brown (in whose 
honor, as we have just observed, the fortification was named), to defend the 
fort, and reached Point Isabel the same day, without molestation. This 
departure produced great joy in Matamoras, for the Mexicans regarded it as a 
cowardly retreat. Preparations were immediately made to attack Fort Brown ; 
and on the morning of the 3d of May [1846], a battery at Matamoras opened 
a heavy cannonade and bombardment upon it, while quite a large body of 
troops crossed the river, to attack it in the rear. General Taylor had left 
orders that, in the event of an attack, and aid being required, heavy signal-guns 
should be fired at the fort. For a long time the little garrison made a noble 
defense, and silenced the Mexican battery ; but when, finally, the enemy gath- 
ered in strength in the rear, and commenced planting cannons, and the heroic 
Major Brown was mortally wounded,' the signals were given [May 6], and 
Taylor prepared to march for the Rio Grande. He left Point Isabel on the 
evening of the 7th, with 'a little more than two thousand men, having been 
reinforced by Texas volunteers, and marines from the American fleet then 
blockading the mouth of the Rio Grande. At noon, the next day [May 8J, 
they discovered a Mexican army, under Arista, full six thousand strong, drawn 
up in battle array upon a portion of a prairie flanked by ponds of water, and 
beautified by trees, which gave it the name of Palo Alto. As soon as his men ' 
could take refreshments, Taylor formed his army, and pressed forward to the 
attack. For five hours a hot contest was maintained, when, at twilight, the 
Mexicans gave way and fled, and victory, thorough and complete, was with the 
Americans. It had been an afternoon of terrible excitement and fatigue, and 
when the firing ceased, the victors sank exhausted upon the ground. They had 
lost, in killed and wounded, fifty-three ■' the Mexicans lost about six hundred. 
At two o'clock in the morning of the 9th of May, the deep slumbers of the 
little army were broken by a summons to renew the march for Fort Brown. 
They saw no traces of the enemy, until toward evening, when they discovered 
them strongly posted in a ravine, called Resaca de la Palma,' drawn up in 
battle order. A shorter, but bloodier conflict than that at Palo Alto, the pre- 
vious day, ensued, and again the Americans were victorious. They lost, in 
killed and wounded, one hundred and ten ; the Mexican loss was at least one 
thousand. General La Vega' and a hundred men were made prisoners, and 

the celebrated Texas Ranger, who had been employed by Major Monroe to keep open a communi- 
cation between Point Isabel and Taylor's camp. Walker had fought them witli his single company, 
armed with revolving pistols, and after kiUing thirty, escaped, and, with six of his men, reached 
Taylor's camp. 

' He lost a leg by the bursting of a bomb-shell [note 2, page 296], and died on the 9th of May. 
He was born in Massachusetts in 1788; was in the war of 1812; was promoted to Major in 1843; 
and was fifty-eiglit years of age when he died. 

' Among the fatally wounded was Captain Page, a native of Maine, who died on the 12th of 
July following, at tlie age of forty-nine years. Also, Major Ringgold, commander of the Flying 
Artillery, who died at Point Lsabel. four days afterward, at tlie ago of fortv-six years. 

' Pronounced Ray-sah-kah day la Pal-mah, or Dry River of Palms. Tlie ravine is supposed to 
be tlie bed of a dried-up stream. The spot is on the northerly side of the Rio Grande, aViout threo 
miles from Matamoras. In this engagement Taylor's fijrce was about one thousand seven hundred ; 
Arista had been reinforced, and had about seven thousand men. 

* Lay Vay-goh. lie was a brave officer, and was captured by Captain May, wlro, rising in his 



1849.] POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 483 

eight pieces of cannon, three standards, and a quantity of military stores, were 
captured. The Mexican army was completely broken up. Arista saved him- 
self by solitary flight, and made his way alone across the Rio Grande. After 
suffering a bombardment for one hundred and sixty hours, the garrison at Fort 
Brown were relieved, and the terrified Mexicans were trembling for the safety 
of Matamoras. 

When intelligence of the first bloodshed, in the attack upon Captain Thorn- 
ton and his party, on the 24th of April, and a knowledge of the critical situa- 
tion of the little Army of Occupation, reached New Orleans, and spread over 
the land, the whole country was aroused ; and before the battles of Palo Alto 
and Resaca de la Palma [May 8, 9] were known in the States, Congress had 
declared [May 11, 1846] that, "by the act of the Republic of Mexico, a state 
of war exists between that government and the United States ;" authorized the 
President to raise fifty thousand volunteers, and appropriated ten millions of 
dollars [May 13] toward carrying on the contest. Within two days, the Sec- 
retary of War and General Scott' planned [Maj 15] a campaign, greater in the 
territorial extent of its proposed operations, than any recorded in history. • A 
fleet was to sweep around Cape Horn, and attack the Pacific coast of Mexico ; 
an " Army of the West" was to gather at Fort Leavenworth." invade New 
Mexico, and co-operate with the Pacific fleet ; and an " Army of the Center" 
was to rendezvous in the heart of Texas, ° to invade Old Mexico from the north. 
On the 23d of the same month [May], the Mexican government made a formal 
declaration of war against the United States. 

When news of the two brilliant victories reached the States, a thrill of joy 
went throughout the land, and bonfires, illummations, orations, and the thunder 
of cannons, were seen and heard in all the great cities. In the mean while, 
General Taylor was in Mexico, preparing for other brilliant victories.* He 
crossed the Rio Grande, drove the Mexican troops from Matamoras, and took 
possession of that town on the 18th of May. There he remained until the close 
of August, receiving orders from government, and reinforcements, and prepar- 
ing to march into the interior. The first division of his army, under General 
Worth,' moved toward Monterey*^ on the 20th. Taylor, with the remainder (in 
all, more than six thousand men), followed on the 3d of September; and on 
the 19th, the whole ai-my' encamped within three miles of the doomed city, then 

stirrups, shouted, " Remember your regiment I Men, follow I" and, with his dragoons, rushed for- 
ward in the face of a heavy fire from a battery, captured La Vega, killed or dispersed the gunners, 
and took possession of the cannons. ' Pajre -iSo. 

^ A strong United States post on the southern bank of the Missouri River, on the borders of 
the Great Plains. These plains extend to the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. 

^ At San Antonia de Bexar, the center of Austin's settlement [note 5, page 477], south of the 
Colorado river. 

' On the 30th of May he was rewarded for his skill and bravery by a commission as Major- 
General, by brevet. See note 4, page 480. 

' William J. Worth was born in Columbia county, New York, in 1794. He was a gallant soldier 
during the War of 1812-15; was retained in the army, and for his gallantry at Monterey, was 
made a Major-General by brevet, and received the gift of a sword from Congress. He was of great 
service during the whole war with Mexico. He died in Texas in May, 1849. 

° Pronounced Mon-tar-ray. It is the capital of New Leon. 

' The principal officers with General Taylor, at this time, were Generals Worth, Quitman. 
Twiggs, Butler, Henderson, and Hamer. 



484 THE NATION". [1845. 

defended by General Ampudia,' with more than nine thousand troops. It was 
a strongly built town, at the foot of the great Sierra Madre, well fortified by 
both nature and art, and presented a formidable obstacle in the march of the 
victor toward the interior. But having secured the Saltillo road,^ by which 
supplies for the Mexicans in Monterey were to be obtained, General Taylor 
commenced a siege on the 21st of September. The conflict continued almost 
four days, a part of the time within the streets of the city, where the carnage 
was dreadful. Ampudia surrendered the town and garrison on the fourth day' 
[September 24], and leaving General Worth in command there. General Tay- 
lor encamped at Walnut Springs, three miles distant, and awaited further 
orders from his government.' 

When Congress made the declaration of war, and authorized the raising of 
an army from the great body of the people. General WooP was commissioned 
to muster and prepare for service, the gathering volunteers. He performed 
this duty so promptly, that by the middle of July, twelve thousand of them 
had been inspected, and mustered into service. Nine thousand of them were 
sent to the Rio Grande, to reinforce General Taylor, and the remainder 
repaired to Bexar," in Texas, where they were disciplined by General Wool, in 
person, preparatory to marching into the province of Chihuahua,' in the heart 
of Mexico. Wool went up the Rio Grande with about three thousand men, 
crossed the river at Presidio, and on the last day of October, reached Monclova, 
seventy miles north-west from Monterey. His kindness to the people won their 
confidence and esteem, and he was regarded as a friend. There he was informed 
of the capture of Monterey, and guided by the advice of General Taylor, he 
abandoned the project of penetrating Chihuahua, and marched to the fertile dis- 
trict of Parras, in Coahuila, where he obtained ample supplies for his own and 
Taylor's forces. 

The armistice" at Monterey ceased on the 13th of November, by order of 
the United States government. General AVorth, with nine hundred men, took 
possession of Saltillo [November 15, 1846], the capital of Coahuila," and Gen- 
eral Taylor, leaving General Butler in command at Monterey, marched for 
Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas, with the intention of attacking Tampico, 

' Pago 481. 

' This road passed through the mountains along the San Juan river, and is the only commu- 
nication between Monterey and the fertile provinces of Coahuila and Durango. The command of 
this road was obtained after a severe contest with Mexican cavalry, on the 20th of May, by a party 
under General Worth. 

' The Mexican soldiers were permitted to march out with the honors of war ; and, being short 
of provisions, and assured that Santa Anna, now at the head of the Mexicans, desu-ed peace, Gen- 
oral Taylor agreed to a cessation of hostilities for eight weeks, if permitted by his government. 

' The Americans lost in killed, wounded, and missing, live hundred" and si.xty-one. The 
number lost by the Mexicans was never ascertained, but it was supposed to be more than one 
thousand. 

' John Ellis Wool is a native of New Tork. He entered the army in 1812, and soon rose to 
the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel, for gallant conduct on Queenstown Heights [page 41.?]. He was 
breveted brigadier in 1826, and for gallant conduct at Buena Vista, in 1847. was breveted Major- 
General. He took an active part for his country in the late Civil War, and, in 1862, was 
appointed fuU Major-General. 

° Austin's settlement. See note 5, page 477. ' Pronounced Chee-wah-wah. 

' The agreement for a cessation of liostilities is so called. ° Pronounced Co-ah-weel-ah. 




1849,] POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 485 

on the coast. That place had already surrendered' [November 14], and being 
informed that Santa Anna was collecting a large force at San Luis Potosi,' he 
returned to Monterey, to reinforce General Worth, if necessary. Worth was 
joined by Wool's division, near Saltillo, on the 20th of December, and Taylor 
again advanced and took possession of Victoria, on the 29th. 

And now the conquering Taylor was compelled to endure a severe trial of 
his temper and patriotism. General Scott" had arrived 
before Vera Cruz [January, 1847], for the purpose of 
invading Mexico from that point, and being the senior 
officer, took the supreme command. Just as Taylor 
was preparing for a vigorous winter campaign, he re- 
ceived an order from General Scott, to send him a 
large portion of his best officers and troops to assist 
against Vera Cruz, and to act thereafter only on the 
defensive.' Taylor was deeply mortified, but, like a 
true soldier, instantly obeyed, and he and General 
Wool were left with an aggregate force of only about 

^ , , , , GENERAL SCOTT. 

five thousand men (only five hundred regulars) tj op- 
pose an army of twenty thousand, now gathering at San Luis Potosi, under 
Santa Anna. They united their forces at Agua Nueva," twenty miles south 
from Saltillo, on the San Luis road, early in February [Feb. 4, 1847], and 
weak as he was, Taylor determined to fight the Mexicans, who were now ad- 
vancing upon him. The opportunity was not long delayed. The Americans 
fell back [Feb. 21] to Buena Vista," within eleven miles of Saltillo, and there, 
in a narrow defile in the mountains, encamped in battle order. At about noon 
the next day [Feb. 22] — the anniversary of the birth of Washington — the Mex- 
ican army approached within two miles of them ; and Santa Anna_ assuring 
Taylor that he was surrounded by twenty thousand troops, and could not 
escape, ordered him to surrender within an hour. Taylor politely refused the 
request, and both armies prepared for battle.' There was some skirmising dur- 

' Commodore Connor, who commanded the " Home Squadron" in the GulfJ captured Tampico. 
Tobasco and Tuspan were captured by Commodore Perry [page 512], in October following. 

' Santa Anna was elected provisional President of Mexico, in December, and in violation of his 
peace promises to Commodore Connor, he immediately placed himself at the head of the army. 

° Winfield Scott was born in Virginia in 1786. He was admitted to law practice at the ago of 
twenty years. He joined the army in 1808, was made Lieutenant-Colonel in 1812, and passed 
through the war that ensued, with great honor to himself and his country. Ho was breveted 
major-general in 1814, and was made general-in-chief of the army in 1841. His successes in Mex- 
ico greatly added to his laurels. On the 15th of February, 1855, he was commissioned a Lieu- 
tenant-General. Owing to infirmities, he retired from active duty in the autumn of 18U1. He 
died at West Point, May 29, 1806, one of the greatest captains of the age. 

' The necessity for this order was as painful to General Scott as it was mortifying to General 
Taylor. Before leaving Washington, Scott wrote a long private letter to Taylor, apprising him of 
this necessity, expressing his sincere regrets, and .speaking in highest praise of the victories already 
achieved in Mexico. ^ Pronounced Ag-wah New-vah, or New Water. 

° Pronounced Bwe-naw Ves-tah — Pleasant View. This was the name of a hacienda (planta- 
tion) at Angostura. 

' Santa Anna wrote as follows: 

"Camp at Encatada, Febniary 22d, 184T. 
"God and Liberty! — ^You are surrounded by twenty thousand men, and can not, in any 
human probability, avoid suffering a rout, and being cut to pieces with your troops; but as you de- 




486 THE NATION. [1845. 

ing the afternoon, when the battle-crj of the Americans was, "The Memory 
of Washincjton .'" Early the following morning [Feb. 23] a terrible conflict 
commenced. . It was desperate and bloody, and continued until sunset. Sev- 
eral times the overwhelming numbers of the Mexicans appeared about to crush 
the little band of Americans ; and finally Santa Anna made a desperate assault' 
upon the American center, commanded by Taylor in person. It stood like a 
rock before a billow ; and by the assistance of the artillery of Bragg, Wash- 
ington, and Sherman, the martial wave was rolled back, the Mexicans fled in 
confusion, and the Americans were masters of the bloody fleld. During the 
night succeeding the conflict, the Mexicans all withdrew, leaving their dead 

and wounded behind them." The invaders 
were now in possession of all the northern 
Mexican provinces, and Scott was prepar- 
ing to storm Vera Cruz' and march to the 
capital.' In the course of a few months 
General Taylor left Wool in command 
[Sept., 1847], and returned home, every- 
where receiving tokens of the highest re- 

EEGION OF TAYLOR'S OPEUATIO.NS. , » , . t 

garcl irom his countrymen. Let us now 
consider other operations of the war during this period. 

The command of the " Army of the West'" was given to General Kearney," 
with instructions to conquer New Mexico and California. He left Fort Leaven- 
worth in June, and after a journey of nine hundred miles oter the Great Plains 
and among the mountain ranges, he arrived at Santa Fe, the capital of New 

serve consideration and particular esteem, I wish to save you from such a catastrophe, and for that 
purpose give 3'ou this notice, in order that you may surrender at discretion, under the assurance 
that you will be treated with the consideration belonging to the Mexican character ; to wliich end 
you will be granted an hour's time to malce up your mind, to commence from the moment that my 
flag of truce arrives in your camp. 'With this view, I assure you of my particular consideration. 

" Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna. 

"To General Z. Taylor, Commanding the Forces of the '0. S." 

General Taylor did not take tho allotted time to malie up his mind, but instantly sat down and 
wrote the following reply : 

" Head-quaetees, Ahmy of Occupation, Near Buena Vista, Feb. 22d, 1S47. 
"Sir: In reply to your note of this date, summoning me to surrender my forces at discre- 
tion, I beg leave to say that I decline acceding to your request, '^'ith high respect, I am, sir, your 
obedient servant, Z. 'Taylor, Major-General U. S. Army." 

' To deceive the Americans, Santa, Anna resorted to the contemptible trick of sending out a 
flag in token of suiTender, at tho moment of making tlie assault, hoping thereby to cause his 
enemy to be less vigilant. Taylor was too well acquainted with Mexican treachery to be de- 
ceived. 

' The Americans lost two hundred and sixty-seven kiUed, four hundred and fifty-six wounded, 
and twenty-three missing. Tho Mexicans lost almost two thousand. They left five hundred of 
their comrades dead on the field. Among the Americans slain was Lieutenant-Colonel Clay, son of 
the distinguished Henry Clay, of Kentucky. Page 500. 3 Page 489. 

* On the day of the battle at Buena 'N'ista, General Minon, with eight hundred cavaliy, was 
driven from Saltillo by Captain 'Webster and a small party of Americans. On the 26th of February, 
Colonels Morgan and Irvin defeated a party at Agua Frio ; and on the 1th of Marcli, Major Gid- 
dings was victorious at Ceralvo. ' Page 483. 

° Stephen 'W. Kearney was a native of New Jersey. He was a gallant soldier in the 'War of 
1812-15. He was breveted a Brigadier in 184G, and Major-General in December the same year, for 
gallant conduct in the Mexican 'W'ar. He died at Vera Cruz, in October, 1848, at tlie age of fifty- 
four years. 



1849.] POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 487 

Mexico, on the 18th of August. He met with no resistance ;' and having taken 
peaceable possession of, the country, and constituted Charles Bent its governor, 
he marched toward California. He soon met an express from Commodore Stock- 
ton' and Lieutenant- Colonel Fremont, informing him that the conquest of Cali- ^ 
fornia had already been achieved. 

Fremont had been sent with a party of about sixty men to explore portions 
of New Mexico and California. When he arrived in the vicinity of Monterey, 
on the Pacific coast, he was opposed by a ]\Iexican force under General Castro. 
Fremont aroused all the American settlers in the vicinity of San Francisco 
Bay, captured a Mexican post and garrison, and nine cannons, and two hun- 
dred and fifty muskets, at Sonoma Pass [June 15, 1846], and then advanced to 
Sonoma, and defeated Castro 'and his troops. The Mexican authorities were 
efifectually driven out of that region of the country ; and on the 5th of July, 
the American Californians declared themselves independent, and placed Fre- 
mont at the head of their affairs. Two days nfterward, Commodore Sloat, 
then in command of the squadron in the Pacific, bombarded and captured Mon- 
terey ; and on the 9th, Cnmiiiodoie IMotitgomery took possession of San Fran- 
cisco. Commodore Stockton arrived on the 15th, and with Colonel Fremon*-, 
took possession of the city of Los Angelos on the 17th of August. On receiv- 
ing this information, Kearney sent the main body of his troops to Santa Fe, 
and with one hundred men he pushed forward to Los Angelos, near the Pacific 
coast, where he met [Dec. 27, 1847] Stockton and Fremont. In company with 
these oSicers, he shared in the honors of the final important events [Jan. 8, 
1847], which completed the conquest and pacification of California. Fremont, 
the real liberator of that country, claimed the right to be governor, and was 
supported by Stockton and the people ; but Kearney, his superior ofiicer, would 
not acquiesce. Fremont refused to obey him ; and Kearney departed, sailed 
to Monterey, and there, in conjunction with Commodore Shubrick, he assumed 
the ofiice of governor, and proclaimed [Feb. 8, 1847] the annexation of Cali- 
fornia to the United States. Fremont was ordered home to be tried for dis- 
obedience of orders. He was deprived of his commission ; but the President, 
valuing him as one of the ablest officers in the army, offered it to him again. 
Fremont refused it, and went again to the wilderness and engaged in explor- 
ation.' 

' The governor and four thousand Mexicans troops fled at his approach, and the people, num- 
bering about six thousand, quietly submitted. 

' Robert F. Stockton is a son of one of the New Jersey signers of the Declaration of Independ- 
eDC3. He entered the navy In 1811, and was appointed commodore in 1838. He left the navy in 
May, 1850, and has since been a member of the United States Senate from New Jersey. 

' John Charles Fremont was born at Savannah, Georgia, in January, 1813. His father was a 
Frenchman ; his mother a native of Virginia. He was born while his parents were on a journey, 
and his infancy was spent among the wilds of the south-west. At the age of thirteen he commenced 
the study of law, but was soon afterward placed in a good school for ttie enlargement of his educa- 
tion. He was very successful ; and after leaving school became a teacher in Charleston, and then 
instructor in mathematics on board a sloop-of-war. As a civil engineer, he had few equals, and in 
this capacity he made many explorations, in the service of private individuals and the government, 
as lieutenant. His several explorations are among the wonders of the age. In 1 846, the citizens 
of Charleston, South Carolina, presented him with an elegant sword, in a gold scabbard, as a testi- 
monial of their appreciation of his great services to the country ; and in 1850, the King of Prussia, 



488 



THE NATION. 



[1845. 



Other stirring events were occurring in the same direction at this time. 
While Kearney was on his way to California, Colonel Doniphan, by his com- 
mand, was engaged, with a thousand Missouri volunteers, in forcing the Nav- 
ajo Indians to make a treaty of peace. This was accomplished on the 22d of 
November, 1846, and then Doniphan marched toward Chihuahua, to join Gen- 
eral Wool. At Braceti, in the valley of the Rio del Norte, they met a large 




Mexican force on the 22d of December, under General Ponce de Leon. He 
sent a black flag to Doniphan, with the message, " We will neither ask nor give 
quarter." The Mexicans then advanced and fired three rounds. The Mis- 
sourians fell upon their faces, and the enemy, supposing them to be all slain, 
rushed forward for plunder. The Americans suddenly arose, and delivering a 
deadly fire from their rifles, killed two hundred j\Iexicans, and dispersed the 
remainder in great confusion. Doniphan then pressed forward, and when 
within eighteen miles of the capital of Chihuahua, he was confronted [Feb. 28, 
1847] by four thousand Mexicans. These he completely routed,' and then 
pressing forward to the city of Chihuahua, he entered it in triumph, raised the 



sent him the grand golden medal struck for those who have made esswitial progress in science. 
In 1851, he was elected the first United States senator for California; and, in June, 1856, he was 
nominated for the oflice of President of tiie United States. He served as Major-General in the 
National army during a portion of the late Civil War. 

' The Americans lost, in killed and wounded, only eighteen men ; the Mexicans lost about six 
hundred. 



1849.] 



POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 



489 



flag of the United States upon its citadel, in the midst of a population of forty 
thousand [March 2], and took possession of the province in tlie name of his gov- 
ernment. After resting six weeks he marched to Saltillo [May 22], where 
General Wool was encamped. From thence he returned to New Orleans, hav- 
ing made a perilous march from the Mississippi, of about five thousand miles. 
The conquest of all Northern Mexico,' with California, was now complete, and 
General Scott was on his march for the great capital. Let us now consider 

GENERAL SCOTT'S INVASION OF MEXICO. 

The Mexican authorities having scorned overtures for peace made by the 
government of the United States in the autumn of 1846, it was determined to 
conquer the whole country. For that purpose General Scott was directed to 
collect an army, capture Vera Cruz," and march to the Mexican capital. His 
rendezvous was at Lobos Island, about one hundred and twenty-five miles north 
from Vera Cruz ; and on the 9th of March, 1847, ho landed near the latter with 
an army of about thirteen thousand men, borne thither by a powerful squadron 
commanded by Commodore Connor.^ He invested the city on the 13th ; and 
five days afterward [March 18], having every thing ready for an attack,* he 
summoned the town and fortress, for the last time, to surrender A refusal 
was the signal for opening a general cannon- 
ade, and bombardment from his batteries and 
the fleet. The siege continued until the 27th, 
when the city, the strong castle of San Juan 
d'Ulloa, with five thousand prisoners, and 
five hundred pieces of artillery, were surren- 
dered to the Americans. The latter had only 
forty men killed, and about the same number 
wounded. At least a thousand Mexicans 
were killed, and a great number were maimed. 
It is estimated that during this siege, not less than six thousand seven hundred 
shots and shells were thrown by the American batteries, weighing, in the ag- 
gregate, more than forty thousand pounds. 

Two days after the siege [March 29, 1847], General Scott took possession 
of Vera Cruz, and on the 8th of April, the advanced force of his army, under 
General Twiggs, commenced their march for the interior by way of Jalapa.' 
Santa Anna had advanced, with twelve thousand men, to Cerro Gordo, a diffi- 

' Some conspiracies In New Mexico ag^ainst the new government, ripened into revolt, in Janu- 
ary, 18-17. Governor Bent and others were murdered at Fernando de Taoa on the 19th, and mas- 
sacres occurred in other quarters. On the 23d, Colonel Price, with three hundred and fifty men, 
marched against and defeated the insurgents at Canada, and finally dispersed them at the mountain 
gorge called the Pass of Embudo. 

' This city was considered the key to the country. " On an island opposite was a very strong 
fortress called the castle of San Juan d'Ulloa [pronounced San-whan-dah-oo-loo-ah], always cele- 
brated for its great strength, and considered impregnable by the Mexicans. 

' Page 480. 

' The engineering operations were performed very skillfiilly under the direction of Colonel Tot- 
ten, an olScer of the War of 1812. For his br.ivery at Vera Cruz, he was made Brigadier-General, 
by brevet. He died at Washington City, April Tl, 1864. ' Pronounced Hah-Iah-pah. 




INTRE.N'CHMENTS AT VEKA CliCZ. 



490 THE NAT I ox. [1845. 

cult mountain pass at the foot of the eastern chain of the Cordilleras. He was 
strongly fortified, and had many pieces of cannon well placed for defense. 
Scott had followed Twiggs with the main body. He had left a strong garrison 
at Vera Cruz, and his whole army now numbered about eight thousand five 
hundred men. Having skillfully arranged his plans, he attacked the enemy on 
the 18th of April. The assault was successful. More than a thousand Mex- 
icans were killed or wounded, and three thousand were made prisoners. Hav- 
ing neither men to guard, nor food to sustain the prisoners. General Scott dis- 
missed them on parole. ' The boastful Santa Anna narrowly escaped capture by 
fleeing upon a mule taken from his carriage.^ The Americans lost, in killed 
and wounded, four hundred and thirty-one. 

The victors entered Jalapa on the 19th of April; and on the 22d, General 
Worth unfurled the stars and stripes upon the castle of Perote, on the summit 
of the eastern Cordilleras, fifty miles from Jalapa. This was considered the 
strongest fortress in Me.xico ne.xt to Vera Cruz, yet it was surrendered without 
resistance. Among the spoils were fifty-four pieces of cannon, and mortars, 
and a large quantity of munitions of war. Onward the '-vict^ious army 
marched ; and on the 15th of May [1847] it entered the ancient walled and 
fortified city of Puebla,' without opposition from the eighty thousand inhabit- 
ants within. Here the Americans rested, after a series of victories almost un- 
paralleled. Within two months, an army averaging only about ten thousand 
men, had taken some of the strongest fortresses on this continent, made ten 
thousand prisoners, and captured seven hundred pieces of artillery, ten thou- 
sand stand of arms, and thirty thousand shells and cannon-balls. Yet greater 
conquests awaited them. 

General Scott remained at Puebla until August,* when, being reinforced by 
fresh troops, sent by way of Vera Cruz, he resumed his march toward the cap- 
ital, with more than ten thousand men, 
leaving a large number sick in the hos- 
pital.' Their route was through a 
beautiful region, well watered, and 
clothed with the richest verdure, and 
then up the slopes of the great Cordil- 
leras. From their lofty summits, and 
almost firom the same spot where Cortez and his followers stood amazed more 

■ Note 6, page 311. 

' Before the battle, Santa Anna said. " I will die fighting rather than the Americans shall 
proudly tread the imperial city of Azteca." So precipitate was his fiight that he left all his papers 
behind him, and his wooden leg. He had been so severely wounded in his leg, while defending 
Vera Cruz against the French, in 1838, that amputation became necessary, and a wooden one was 
substituted. ' Pronounced Pweb-lah. 

* During this long h.ilt of the American army, the government of the United States made un- 
availing efforts to negotiate for peace. The Mexican authorities refused the olive branch, and 
boasted of their patriotism, valor, and strength, while losing post after post, in their retreat toward 
the capital. 

' At one time there were eighteen hundred men sick at Puebla; and at Perote seven hundred 
died during the summer, notwithstanding the situations of these places, on lofty table-lands, were 
considersd exceedingly healthfiil. 





BOMBAKDMENT OF VERA CRUZ. 



18i9.] 



POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 



493 



than three centuries before,' Scott and his army looked down [August 10, 1847] 
upon that glorious panorama of intervales, lakes, cities, and villages, in the 
great valley of Mexico — the capital of the Aztec Empire' — the seat of " the 
Halk of the Montezumas.'" 

General Twiggs' cautiously led the advance of the American army toward 
the city of Mexico, on the 11th of August, and encr.mped at St. Augustine, on 
the Acapulco road, eight miles south of the capital. Before him lay the strong 
fortress of San (or St.) Antonio, and close on his right were the heights of 
Churubusco, crowned with embattled walls covered with cannons, and to be 
reached in front only by a dangerous causeway. Close by was the fortified 
camp of Contreras, containing six thousand Mexicans, under General Valencia ; 
and between it and the city was Santa Anna, and twelve thousand men, held in 
reserve. Such was the general position of the belligerents when, a little after 
midnight on the 20th of August [1847], General Smith^ marched to the attack 
of the camp at Contreras. The battle opened at sunrise. It was sanguinary, 
but brief, and the Americans were victorious. Eighty ofiicers and three thou- 
sand private soldiers were made prisoners ; and the chief trophies were thirty- 
three pieces of artillery. In the mean while. Generals Pierce' and Shields,' 
with a small force, kept Santa Anna's powerful reserve at bay. 

General Scott now directed a similar movement 
against Cherubusco. Santa Anna advanced ; and the 
whole region became a battle-field, under the eye and 
control of the American commander-in-chief The 
invaders dealt blow after blow successfully. Antonio 
yielded, Churubusco was taken, and Santa Anna aban- 
doned the field and fled to the capital. It was a 
memorable day in Mexico, An army, thirty thou- 
sand strong, had been broken up by another less than 
one third its strength in mimbers ; and at almost 
every step the Americans were successful. Full four 
thousand of the Mexicans were killed or wounded, 
three thousand were made prisoners, and thirty seven 
pieces of cannon were taken, all in one day. The 
Americans lost, in killed and wounded, almost eleven 




OPERATIONS NEAR MEXICO. 



' Page 43. 

' According to the faint glimmerings of ancient Mexican history which have come down tons, 
the Aztecs, who occupied that country when it first became known to Europeans [page 43], came 
from the North, and were more refined than any other tribes, which, from time to time, had held 
possession of the country. They built a city within the borders of Lake Tezcuco, and named it 
Mexico, in honor ot Mexitli, their god of war. Where the present great cathedral stands, they had 
erected an immense temple, dedicated to the sun, and there ofiered human sacrifices. It is related, 
that at its consecration, almost sixty thousand human beings were sacrificed. The temple was built 
about the year 1480, by the predecessor of Montezuma, the emperor found by Cortez. 

' This expression, referring to the remains of the palace of Montezuma in Mexico, was often 
used during the war. 

■• David K. Twiggs was born in Georgia, in 1790. He served in the War of 1812, and was 
retained in the army. He was breveted a Major-General after the battle of Monterey, in Mexico. 
He deserted his flag, and was dismissed from tlie army in 1861. Died September 15, 1862. 

' General Persifer F. Smith, of Louisiana. " Page 514. 

■" General James Shields, of Illinois, afterward a representative of that State m the Senate of 
the United States. 



494 THE NATION.. [1845. 

hundred. They might now have entered the city of Me.xico in triumph, but 
General Scott preferred to bear the olive branch, rather than the palm. As he 
advanced to Tacubaya, [August 21], within three miles of the city, a flag came 
from Santa Anna to ask for an armistice, preparatory to negotiations for peace.' 
It was granted, and Nicholas P. Trist, who had been appointed, by the United 
States government, a commissioner to treat for peace, went into the capital 
[August 24] for the purpose. Scott made the palace of the archbishop, at 
Tacubaya, his head-quarters, and there anxiously awaited the result of the con- 
ference, until the 5th of September, when Mr. Trist returned, with the intelli- 
gence that his propositions were not only spurned with scorn, but that Santa 
Anna had violated the armistice by strengthening the defenses of the city. 
Disgusted with the continual treachery of his foe, Scott declared the armistice 
at an end, on the 7th of September, and prepared to storm the capital. 

The first demonstration against the city was on the morning of the 8th of 
September, when less than four thousand Americans attacked fourteen thousand 
Mexicans, under Santa Anna, at El Molinos dd Reij (the King's Mills) near 
Chepultepec. They were at first repulsed, with great slaughter ; but returning 
to the attack, they fought desperately for an hour, and drove the Mexicans from 
their position. Both parties sufiered dreadfully. The Mexicans left almost a 
thousand dead on the field, and the Americans lost about eight hundred. And 
now the proud Chepultepec was doomed. It was a lofty hill, strongly fortified, 
and the seat of the military school of Mexico. It was the last place to be 
defended outside the suburbs of the city. Scott erected four heavy batteries to ' 
bear upon it, on the night of the 11th of September; and the next day [Sep- 
tember 12, 1847], a heavy cannonade and bombai'dment commenced. On the 
13th, the assailants commenced a furious charge, routed the enemy, with great 
slaughter, and unfurled the American flag over the shattered castle of Chepul- 
tepec. The Mexicans fled to the city along an aqueduct, pursued by General 
Quitman' to its very gates. That night, Santa Anna and his army, with the 
ofiicers of government, fled from the doomed capital ; and at four o'clock the 
following morning [September 14], a deputation from the city authorities 
waited upon General Scott, -and begged him to spare the town and treat for 
peace. He would make no terms, but ordered Generals Worth and Quitman^ 
to move forward, and plant the stripes and stars upon the National Palace. 
The victorious generals entered at ten o'clock, and on the Grand P'aza,* took 
formal possession of the Mexican Empire. Order soon reigned in the capital. 
Santa Anna made some feeble eiforts to regain lost power, and failed. He 
appeared before Puebia on the 22d of September, where Colonel Childs had 
been besieged since the 13th. The approach of General Lane frightened him 
away ; and in a battle with the troops of that leader at Huamantla, Santa 

' Note 1, page 242. 

' John A. Quiiman was a native of New York. He led volunteers to the Mexican war, and 
was presented with a sword by Congress. He was Governor of Mississippi in 1851, and was a 
leader of secessionists. He died July 15, 1858. 

^ The approach of eacli was along separate aqueducts. See map, page 493. 

' Place. This is the hrge public square in the city of Mexico. 

4 








General Scott Enterino the City of Mexico 



1S49.] POLK'S ADMINISTRATION. 497 

Anna -was defeated. On the 18th of October he was again defeated at Atlixco, 
and there his troops deserted him. Before the close of October, he was a 
fugitive, stripped of every commission, and seeking safety, by flight, to the 
shores of the Gulf.' The president of the Mexican Congress assumed provis- 
ional authority ; and on the 2d of February, 1848, that body concluded a treaty 
of peace, with commissioners of the United States at Gaudaloupe Hidalgo. 
This treaty was finally agreed to by both governments, and on the 4th of July 
following, President Polk proclaimed it. It stipulated the evacuation of Mex- 
ico by the American army, within three months ; the payment of three millions 
of dollars in hand, and twelve millions of dollars, in four annual instalments, 
by the United States to Mexico, for the territory acquired by conquest ; and in 
addition, to assume debts due certain citizens of the United States to the 
nmount of three millions five hundred thousand dollars. It also fixed bound- 
aries, and otherwise adjusted matters in dispute. New Mexico and California 
now became Territories of the United States. 

During the same month that a treaty of peace was signed at Gaudaloupo 
Hidalgo, a man emploj^ed by Captain Sutter, who owned a mill twenty-five 
miles up the American fork of the Sacramento River, discovered gold. It was 
very soon found in other localities, arid during the summer, rumors of the fact 
reached the United States. These rumors assumed tangible form in President 
Polk's message in December, 1848 ; and at the beginning of 1849, thousands 
were on their way to the land of gold. Around Cape Horn, across the Isthmus 
of Panama, and over the great central plains of the continent, men went by 
hundreds ; and far and wide in California, the precious metal was found. From 
Europe "and South America, hundreds flocked thither; and the Chinese came 
also from Asia, to dig gold. The dreams of the early Spanish voyagers," and 
those of the English who sought gold on the coasts of Labrador,' and up the 
rivers in the middle of the continent,' have been more than realized. Emigrants 
yet [1867] continue to go thither, and the gold se^Ti-s innxhaustible.' 

The war with Mexico, and the settlement of the Oregon boundary question* 
with Great Britain, were the most prominent events, having a relation to for- 
eign powers, which distinguished Mr. Polk's administration. Two measures of 
a domestic character, appear prominently among many others which mark his 
administration as full of activity. These were the establishment of an inde- 
pendent treasury system,' by which the national revenues are collected in gold 
and silver, or treasury notes, without the aid of banks ; and a revision of the 
tariff laws in 1846, by which protection to American manufacturers was 
lessened. It was during the last year of his administration that Wisconsin was 
admitted [May 29, 1848J into the Union of States, making the whole number 
thirty. At about this time, the people of the Union were preparing for another 
presidential election. The popularity which General Taylor had gained by his 
brilliant victories in Mexico, caused him to be nominated for that exalted sta- 
tion, in many parts of the Union, even before he returned home ;° and he was 

' Note 6, page 515. " Page 43. = Page 52. • Page 56. ' Note .S, page ."iTS. 

' Page 479. ' Note 2, page 471. ' Page 486. 

32 



498 



THE NATION. 



[1840. 



chosen to be a candidate for that office, by a national convention held at Phila- 
delphia in June, 1848. His opponent was General Lewis Cass, of Michigan, 
now [1856] United States senator from that State.' General Taylor was 
elected by a large majority, with Millard Fillmore, of New York, as Vice- 
President. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

TAYLOR'S ADMINISTRATION [1849—1! 



.0.] 



The 4th of March, 1849, was Sunday, and the inauguration of Zachary 
Taylor,^ the twelfth President of the United States, did not take place until the 




^^^y.^n' 



next day. Again people had gathered at the Federal city from all pai-t.s of 
the Union, and the day being pleasant, tliougii cloudy, a vast concourse were 

' Noto 2, page 424. 

' Zaeliary Taylor was born in Tirjrinia, in November, 1784. He went with his father to Ken- 
tucky tlio following year, and his childhood was passed near the present city of Louisville. Ho 
entered the United States army in 1S07. He was a distinguished subaltern during the war of 
1812-1.1, and attained the rank of m.ijor. He was of great service in the Florida War [page 408] ; 
and when hostilities with Mexico appeared probable, he was sent in tliat direction, and, as we 
have seen, displayed great skill and bravery. Ho died in July, 1850, having performed the duties 
of President for only sixteen montlis. 



l?5:j.] TAYLOR'S AD M I N IS TR AT I OX . 499 

assembled in front of the eastern portico of the capitol, long before the appointed 
hour for the interesting ceremonies. In a clear and distinct voice, he pro- 
nounced his inaugural address, and then took the oath of office administered by 
Chief Justice Taney. On the following day lie nominated his cabinet officers,' 
and the appointments were immediately confirmed by the Senate. With the 
heart of a true patriot and honest man, Taylor entered upon his responsible 
duties with a sincere desire to serve his country as faithfully in the cabinet, as 
he had done in the fijld.' lie had the sympathies of a large majority of the 
people with him, and his inauguration was the promise of great happiness and 
prosperity fur the country. 

When President Taylor entered upon the duties of his office, thousands of 
adventurers were flocking to California from all parts of the Union, and ele- 
ments of a new an<l powerful State were rapidly gathering there. Statesmen 
and politicians perceived the importance of the new Territory, and soon the 
question whetiier slavery should have a legal existence there, became an absorb- 
ing topic in Congress and among the people. The inhabitants of California 
decided the question for themselves. In August, 1849, General Riley, thj 
military Governor of the Territory, established a sort of judiciary by proclajna- 
tion, with Peter II. Burnet as Chief Justice. Before that time there was no 
statute law in California. By proclamation, also, Governor Riley summoned 
a convention of delegates to meet at Monterey, to form a State Constitution. 
Before it convened, the inhabitants in convention at San Francisco, voted 
against slavery ; and the Constitution, prepared and adopted at Monterey, on 
the first of September, 1849, excluded slavery from the Territory, forever. 
Thus came into political form the crude elements of a State, the birlh and 
maturity of which seems like a dream. AH had been accomplished within 
twenty months from the time when gold was discovered near Sutter's i\Iill. 

Under the Constitution, Eilw.ird Gil')jrt and G. II. AV?ight, were elected 
delegates for California in the NationalHouse of Representatives; nnd the State 
Legislature, at its first session, elected John Charles Fremont' and William M. 
Gwinn, United States senators. AVhen the latter went to Washington, they 
carried their Constitution with them, and presented a petition [February, 
1 859] asking for the admission of tliat Territory into the Union as a free and 
independent State.* The article of the Constitution which excluded slavery, 
became a cause for violent deb;ites in Congress, and of bitter sectional feeling 
in the South against the people of the North. The Union, so strong in 
the hearts of the people, was shaken to its center, and prophets of evil 



' He appointed John M. Clayton, Secretary tf State; TTilliani M. Mererti'li. Secretary of the 
Treasury; G^eorge TV. Crawfird, Secretary of War ; TVilliam B. Preston, Seerctnry of the Navy; 
Thomas Ewing, Secretary of the Interior (a new office recently established, in which some of the 
duties before performed by the State and Treasury departments are attended to); Jacob CoUamer, 
Postmnster-iJeneral; and Revordy Johnson, Attorney-General 

^ P.ajro 481 to paje 486, inclusive. ' Pa?c 488. 

* At this time our government was perplexed by the claims of Texas to portions of the Terri- 
tory of New Mexico, recently acquired [page 497], and serious diffieulty was apprehended. Early 
in 1850, the inhabitants of New Mexico petitioned Congress for a civil government, and the Mor- 
mons of the Utah region also petitioned for the organization cf the country they had recently 
settled, into a Territory of the United States. 



500 



THE NATION. 



[1849. 



predicted its speedy dissolution. As in 1832,' there were menaces of secession 
from the Union, by Southern representatives, and never before did civil war 
appear so inevitable. Happily for the country, some of the ablest statesmen 
and patriots the Republic had ever gloried in, were members of the national 
Legislature, at that time, and with consummate skill they directed and con- 
trolled the storm. In the midst of the tumult and alarm in Congress, and 
throughout the land, Henry Clay again' appeared as the potent peace-maker 




between the Hotspurs of the North and South ; and on the 25th of January, 
1850, he oifered, in the Senate a plan of compromise which met the difficulty. 
Eleven days afterward [February 5, 1850] he spoke nobly in defense of his 
plan, denounced secession as treason, and implored his countrymen to make 



' Page 381. 

" Page 4G4. Henry Clay was born in Hanover county, Virginia, in April, 1777. His early edu- 
cation was defective, and he arose to greatness by tlio force of bis own genius. •His extraordinary 
intellectual powers Ijegan to develop at an early age, and at nineteen lie commenced tlie study 
of the law. Wben admitted to practice, at the age of twenty, he went over the mountains to the 
fertile valleys of Kentucky, and tliere laid the foundations of his greatness as a lawyer and orator. 
The latter quality was first fully developed when a convention was called to revise the Constitution 
of Kentucky. Then he worked manfully and unceasingly to proc ire the election of delegates who 
would favor the emancipation of the slaves. He became a member of the Kentucky Legislature in 
1803, and there he took a front rank. He was chosen to fill a vacant seat in the United States 
Senate in 1806, and in 1811 he was elected a member of the House of Representatives, and became 
its Speaker. From that time until his dcntli, he was continually in piiblic life. lie long held a 
front rank among American statesmen, and died, while a member of the United States Senate, in 
the city of Washington, at the close of June, 1852. 



1850.] FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATION. 501 

every sacrifice but honor, in support of the Union. Mr. Clay's plan was 
warmly seconded by Daniel Webster ;' and other senators approving of compro- 
mise, submitted propositions. Finally, on motion of Senator Foote of Missis- 
sippi, a committee of thirteen was appointed to consider the various plans and 
report a bill. The committee consisted of six northern and six southern sen- 
ators, and these chose the thirteenth. The Senate appointed Mr. Clay chairman 
of the committee, and on the 8th of May following, he reported a bill. It was 
discussed for four months, and on the 9th of September, each measure included 
in the bill having been thoroughly considered separately, the famous Coinpro- 
tnise Act of 1850, having passed both Houses of Congress, became a law. 
Because several measures, distinct in their objects, were embodied in the act, it 
is sometimes known as the " Omnibus Bill." The most important stipulations 
of the act were, 1st. That California should be admitted into the Union as a 
State, with its anti-slavery Constitution, and its territorial extent from Oregon 
to the Mexican possessions ; 2d. That the vast country east of California, con- 
taining the Mormon settlements nenr the Great Salt Lake," should be erected 
into a Territory called Utah, without mention of slavery ; 3d. That New Mex- 
ico should be erected into a Territory, within satisfictory boundaries, and with- 
out any stipulations respecting slavery, and that ten millions of dollars should 
be p.iid to Texas from the National treasary, in purchase of her claims ; 4th. 
That the slave-trade in the Disiriia of Coliiuibla should be abolished ; 5th. A 
law providing for the arrest in the northern or free States, and return to their 
masters, of all slaves who should escape from bondage. The last measure of 
the Compromise Act produced wide-spread dissatisfaction in the Free-labor 
States ; and the execution, evasion, and violation of the law, in several 
instances, have led to serious disturbances and much bitter sectional feeling. 

While the great Compromise question was under discussion, the nation was 
called to lament the loss of its Chief Magistrate. President Taylor was seized 
with a malady, similar in its effects to cholera, which terminated his earthly 
career on the 9th of July, 1850. In accordance with the provisions of the 
Constitution,' he was immediately succeeded in office by 

MILLARD FILLMORE,' 

who, on the 10th of July, took the oath to " preserve, protect, and defend the 
Constitution of the United States." President Taylor's cabinet resigned; but 
the new President, with great delicacy, declined to consider their resignation!, 

' Page 503. ' Page 503. ' Article II., section 1, of tlie National Constitution. 

* Millard Fillmore was born in January, 1800, in Cayuga co\inty, New York. His early edu- 
cation was limited, and at a suitable age he was apprenticed to a wool-carder. At the age of nine- 
teen, his talent attracted the attention of Judge Wood, of Cayuga county, and he took the humble 
apprentice under his charge, to study the science of law. He became eminent in his profession. 
He was elected to the Assembly of his native State in 1829, and in 1832, was chosen to represent 
his district in Congress. He was re-elected in 18.37, and was continued in office several years. In 
1844, he was an unsuccessful candidate for the office of Governor of his native State, and in 1848 
he was elected Vice-President of the United States. The death of Taylor gave him the presidency, 
and he conducted public affairs with dignity and skill. In the summer of 1856, he was nominated 
for the office of President of the United States, by the "American" party, with A. J. Donelson for 
Vice-President. See Note 1, page 479. 



502 



THE NATION. 



[1850. 



until after the obsequies of the ileceased President had been performed. At his 
request, they remained in oiSce until the 15th of the month, when President 
Fillmore appointed new heads of the departments." 

The administration of President Taylor had been brief, but it was distin- 




(^yCcctLoMl^ i/i(U>^i^^jc:> 



guished by events intimately connected, as we shall obsei've, by men and 
measures, with the late Civil War. One of the.se was an invasion of Cuba by a 
force under General Lopez, a native of that island, which was organized and 
officered in the United States, in violation of existing neutrality laws. It was 
said that the native Cubans were restive under the rule of Spanish Governor- 
Generals,' and that a desire for independence burned in the hearts of many of 
the best men there. Lopez was ranked among these, and, in forming this 
invading expedition, he counted largely upon this feeling for co-operatiou> He 

' Daniel Webster, Secretary of State ; Thomas Corwin, Secretary of the Treasury; Charles M. 
Conrad, Secretary of War ; Alexander H. H.Stuart, Sccretan,' of the Interior; William A. Graham, 
Secretary of the Navy ; John J. Crittenden, Attorney-General; Nathan K. Hall, Postmaster-Gen- 
eral. Daniel Webster was bom in Salisbury, New Hampshire, in January, 1782, and was educated 
chiefly at the Phillips Academy at Andover, and Dartmouth College at Hanover. He studied law 
in Boston, and was admitted to the bar in 1 805. He commenced practice in his native State, and 
Boon became eminent. Ho first appeared in public life in 1813, when he took his seat as a member 
of the National House of Representatives. At that session his speeches were remarkable, and a 
southern member remarked, "The North has not his equal, nor the South his superior." Although 
in public life a greater portion of the time from that period until his death, yet he always had an 
extensive and lucrative law practice. He stood foremost as a constitutional lawyer ; and for many 
years he was peerless as a statesman. He died at Marshfield, Massachusetts, in October, 1852, at 
the age of almost seventy-one years. " Page 40. 



IS53] FILLMO.RE'S A P M 1 N I S T II A T I N. 5O3 

l.indeil at Cardenas on the 19th of April, 1850, expecting to be joined by some 
of the Spanish troops and native Cultans, a'ld by concerted action to overturn 
the GovernmL'iit. But the people and troops did not, co-operate with him, and 
he returned to the United States to prepare for a more formidable expedition. 
We shall meet him again presently. 




Q'^^'^^ ^^Z^ 



During Taylor's administration, one State was formed and tliree Territories 
were organized ; ;ind preparations were made for establishing other local 
governments witliin tlie domain of the United States. That State was 
California, and the Territories were of those of New Mexico, Utah, and Minne- 
sota.' The greater portion of the inh.abitants of Utah are of the religious sect 
called Mormons, who, after suffering much in Missouri and Illinois, from their 
opposers, left those States in 1848, and penetrated the deep wilderness in the 
interior of our continent ; and ne.ar the Great Salt Lake, in the midst of the 
savage Utah tribes, they h,ave built a large city, made extensive plantations, 
and founded an empire almost as large, in territorial extent, as that of 

' Minnesota (aky-colored water) is tlie Indian name of tlie river St. Peter, the largest tributary 
of tlie Mississippi, in that re>;ion. It was a part of the vast Territory of Louisiana, and was organ- 
ized in March, 1849. An embryo village, twelve miles below tlie Falls of St. Anthony, named 
St. Paul, was made the capital, and in less than ten years it contained more than ten thousand 
souls.- Its growth was unprecedented, even in the wonderful progress of other cities of the West, 
and at one time it promised to speedily equal Chicago in its population. The whole region of 
Minnesota is very attractive ; and it has been called the New England of the West. 




504 THE NATION. [1850. 

Alexauiler the Great." The sect was founded in 1827, by a slirewd younc 
m:iu named Joseph Smith, a native of central New York, who professed to 
have received a special revelation from Heaven, giviiitj 
him knowledge of a book which had been buried many 
centur'.c.s before, in a hill near the village of Palmyra, 
whose leaves were of gold, upon which were engraved 
the records of the ancient people of America, rmd a 
new gospel for mar.. He found dupes, believers, and 
followers; and now [1867] there are Mormon mission- 
aries in many portions of the globe, and the eommunio]i 
numbers, probably, not less than two hundred and fifty 
joscni SMITH. thousand souls. There has long been a sufficient number 

in Utah to entitle them to a State constitution, and admission into the Union, 
but their social system, which embraces polygamy, sanctioned by authority, is 
a bar to such admission. Their permission of polygamy, or men having more 
than one wife, will be a serious bar to their admission, for Christianity aud 
sound morality forbid the custom. The Mormons have poetically called iheir 
country Ueseret — the land of the Honey Bee — but Congress has entitled it 
Utah, and by that name it nmst be known in history. 

The country inhabited by the Mormons is one of the most remarkable on the 
face of the globe. It consists of a scrirs of extensive valleys and rocky mar- 
gins, spread out into an immense basin, surrounded by rugged mountains, out 
of which no waters flow. It is midway between the States on the Mississippi 
and the Pacific Ocean, perfectly isolated from habitable regions, and embracing 
a domain covering sixteen degrees of longitude in the Utah latitude. On the 
east are the sterile spurs of the Rocky Mountains, stretching down to the vast 
plains traversed by the Platte river ; on the west, extending nearly a thousand ' 
miles toward the Pacific, are arid salt deserts, broken by barren mountains; 
and north and south are immense mountain districts. The valleys afford pe- 

' Tho Mormon exodus was one of the most wonderful events on record, when considered in all 

its phases. In September, 1846, the last liugtring Mormons at Nauvoo, Illinois, where they had 
built a splendid temple, were driven away at tlie point of tlie bayonet, by 1,600 troops. In Febru- 
ary preceding, some sixteen hundred men, women, and children, fearful of the wrath of the people 
around them, had crossed the Mississippi on tlie ice, and traveling with ox-teams and on foot, they 
penetrated the wilderness to the Indian country, near Council Bluffs, on the Missouri. Tlie rem- 
nant wlio started in autumn, many of whom were sicli men, feeble women, and dehcate girls, were 
compelled to traverse the same drearj" region. The united host, under the guidance of Brigliam 
Young, who is yet tlieir temporal and spiritual leader, halted on the broad prairies of Missouri the 
following summer, turned up the virgin soil, and planted. Here leaving a few to cultivate and 
gather lor wanderers who might come after them, tho host moved on, making the wilderness vocal 
with preaching and singing. Order marked every step of their progress, for the voice of Young, 
whom they regarded as a seer, was to tliem as the voice of God. On they went, forming Tahernaclf 
Camps, or temporary resting-places in the wilderness. No obstacles impeded their progress. Thry 
forded .swift-running streams, and bridged the deeper floods; crept up tlie great ea.stern slopes of tho 
Rocky Mountains, and from the lofty summits of tlie 'R'asafch range, they beheld, on tlie 20th of 
Jvdy, 1841, the valley where they were to rest and build a citj', and the placid waters of the Great 
Salt Lake, glittering in the beams of the setting sun. To tliose weary wanderers, this moutain top 
was a Pisgah. From it they saw tho Promised Land — to them a scene of wondrous interest. 
Westw.ard, lofty peaks, bathed in purple air, pierced the sky ; and as far as the eye could reach, 
north and south, stretched the fertile Yalley of Promise, and here and there the vapors of hot 
springs, gushing from rocky coverts, curled above the hills, like smoke from the hearth-fires of home. 
The Pilgrims ent'vod the valley on tlie 21st of July, and on the 24th the President and High 
Council arrived. Tliere they planted a city, the Jerusalem — the Holy City — of the Mormon people. 




Mormon Kmig ration. 



1851.] FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATION. 5()7 

rennial pasturage, and the soil is exceedingly fertile. Wild game abounds in 
the mountains ; the streams are filled with excellent fish ; the climate is 
delightful at all seasons of the year; and "breathing is a real luxury." 
Southward, over the rim of the great basin, is a fine cotton-growing region, 
into which the Mormons are penetrating. The vast hills and mountain slopes 
present the finest pasturage in the world for sheep, alpacas, and goats. The 
water-power of the whole region is immense. Iron-mines everywhere abound, 
and in the Green river basin, there are inexhaustible beds of coal. In these 
great natural resources and defenses, possessed by a people of such indomitable 
energy and perseverance as the Mormons have shown, we see the vital ele- 
ments of a powerful mountain nation, in proportions, in the heart of our conti- 
nent, and in the direct pathway from the Atlantic to the Pacific States, that 
may yet play a most important part, for good or for evil, in the destinies of 
our country and of the world. 

The most impoi'tant measure adopted during the early part of Fillmore's 
administration was the Compromise Act, already considered.' During his ofii- 
cial career the President firmly supported the measure, and at the close of his 
administration, in the spring of 185.3, there seemed to be very little disquie- 
tude in the public mind on the subject of slavery. That calm was the lull 
before a tempest. The Fugitive Slave Law was so much at variance with the 
spirit of free institutions, Christian ethics, and the civilization of the age, that 
the hearts of the people of the free-labor States, and of thousands in the slave- 
labor States, burned with a desire not only to purge the National statute-books 
of that law, but to stay the further spread of slavery over the domain of the 
Republic. That desire, and a determination of the slave-holders to extend the 
area of their labor system, speedily led to terrible results, as we shall observe 
presently. 

In the spring of 1851, Congress made important and salutary changes in 
the general post-office laws, chiefly in the reduction of letter postage, fixing 
the rate upon a letter weighing not more than half an ounce, and pre-j^aid, at 
three cents, to any part of the United States, excepting California and the 
Pacific Territories. The exception was afterward 
abandoned. At the same time, electro-magnetic tele- 
graphing had become quite perfect ; and by means of 
the subtile agency of electricity, communications were 
speeding over thousands of miles of iron wire, with 
the rapidity of lightning. The establishment of this 
instantaneous communication between distant points 
is one of the most important achievements of this age 
of invention and discovery ; and the names of Fulton 
and Morse" will be forever indissolubly connected in 
the commercial and social history of our republic. 

During the summer of 1851, there was again con- "" '' "' '"""'"^' 

' Page 501. 

' la 1832, Professor Samuel F. B. Morse had his attention directed to the experiments of 
Franklin, upon a wire a few miles in length on the banks of the Schuylkill, in which the velocity 




508 TS^ NATION. [1851. 

siderable excitement produced throughout the country because other concerted 
movements were made, at different points, in the organization of a military 
force for the purpose of invading Cuba.' The vigilance of the government of 
the United States was awakened, and orders were given to its marshals to 
arrest suspected men, and seize suspected vessels and munitions of war. Pur- 
suant to these orders, the steamboat Cleopatra was detained at New York ; 
and several gentlemen, of the highest respectability, were arrested on a charge 
of a violation of existing neutrality laws. In the mean time the greatest 
excitement jjrevailed in Cuba, and forty thousand Spanish troops were concen- 
trated there, while a considerable naval force watched and guarded the coasts. 
These hindrances caused the dispersion of the armed bands who were pre- 
paring to invade Cuba, and quiet was restored for a while. But in July the 
excitement was renewed. General LoiJez,' who appears to have been under the 
control of designing politicians, made a speech to a large crowd in New 
Orleans, in favor of an invading expedition. Soon afterward [August, 1851], 
he sailed from that port with about four hundred and eighty followers, and 
landed [August 11] on the northern coast of Cuba. There he left Colonel 
William L. Crittenden, of Kentucky, with one hundred men, and proceeded 
toward the interior. Crittenden and his party were captured, carried to 
Havana, and on the 16th were shot. Lopez was attacked on the 13th, and his 
little army was dispersed. He had been deceived. There appeared no signs 
of a promised revolution in Cuba, and he became a fugitive. He was arrested 
on the 28th, with six of his followers, taken to Havana, and on the 1st of 
September was executed. 

In the autumn of 1851, more accessions were made to the vastly extended 

of electricity was found to be so inappreciable that it was supposed to be instantaneous. Pro- 
fessor Morse, pondering upon tliis subject, suggested that electricity might be made the means of 
recording characters as signs of intelligence at a distance; and in the autunm of 1832 he con- 
structed a portion of the instrumentalities for that purpose. In 1835 he showed the first com- 
plete instrument for iAegrap)dc recording, at tlie New York City University. In 1837 he 
completed a more perfect machinery. In 1838 he submitted the matter and tlie telegraphic 
instruments to Congress, asking their aid to construct a line of sufficient length "to test its 
practicability and utility." The conmiittee to whom the subject was referred reported favorably, 
and proposed an appropriation of §30,000 to construct the first line. Tlie appropriation, how- 
ever, was not made imtil tlie 3d of March, 1843. The posts for supporting tlie wires were 
erected between Wa.ohington and Baltimore, a distance of forty miles. In the spring of 1844 
the line was completed, and the proceedings of the Democratic Convention, then sitting in Balti- 
more, whicli nominated James K. Polk for the Presidency of the United States, was the lirst use, 
for public purposes, ever made by tlie telegraph, whose lines have been extended to ail parts of 
the civilized world, the total length of which, at this time [18G7], is about 225,000 miles. Pro- 
fessor Morse's system of Recording Telegraphs is adopted generally on the continent of Europe, 
and has been selected by the government of Australia for the telegraphic systems of that coun- 
try. A very ingenious machine for recording telegraphic communications with printing types, so 
as to avoid the necessity of copying, was constructed, a few years ago, by House, and is now 
extensively used. Professor Morse is the eldest son of Rev. Jedediah Morse, the first American 
geographer. He was born in Charlestowu, Massachusetts, in 1791, and was graduated at Yale 
College in 1810. He studied painting in England, and was very successful. He was one of the 
founders of the National Academy of Design in New York, and he was the first to deliver a 
course of lectures upon art in America. He became a professor in the University of the city of 
New York, and there perfected his magnetic telegraph. Mr. Morse now [18C7] resides on his 
beautiful estate of Locust Grove, near Pouglikeepsie, New York, but since the summer of 1866 
has spent much time in Europe, lie has received many testimonials of appreciation from eminent 
individuals and societies beyond the Atlantic. 

' Page 502. ' Page 502. 



1851.] FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATION. 509 

possessions of the United States. Population was pouring into the regions of 
the Northwest, beyond the Mississippi, and crowding the dusky inhabitants of 
the Indian reservations in Minnesota. Negotiations for a cession of tlaose 
lands to the United States were opened. These resulted in the purchase of 
many millions of acres from the Upper and Lower Sioux tribes of Indians,' 
their removal to another reservation, and the blooming of the wilderness they 
occupied under the hands of the white man. And while inter-emigration was 
seen flowing in a continuous stream in that direction, population was also 
flowing in large volume from Europe, increasing the inhabitants and wealth 
of the country. There had been for some time unwonted activity everywhere, 
and this was one of its many phases. States and Territories were growing. 
Additional representatives in the National Legislature were crowding its halls.' 
These were becoming too narrow, and Congress made provision for enlarging 
them. Accordingly, on the 4th of July, 1851, the corner-stone of the addition 
to the National Capitol was laid by the President, with appropriate cere- 
monies.' 

Circumstances at about the time we are considering, caused a remarkable 
American expedition to the polar regions. Sir John Franklin, an English 
navigator, sailed to that part of the globe, with two vessels, in May, 1845, in 
search of the long-sought northwest passage from Europe to the West Indies.^ 
Years passed by, and no tidings of him came. Expe- 
ditions were sent from England in search of him; 
and in May, 1850, Henry Grinnell, a wealthy mer- 
chant of New York, sent two ships, in charge of Lieu- 
tenant De Haven, to assist in the benevolent effort. 
They returned, after remarkable adventures, in the 
autumn of 1851, without success. The effort was 
renewed by the o]iulent merchant, in connection with 
his government, in 1853, and in May of that year 
two vessels under the command of Elisha Kent Kane, 
M. D., the surgeon of the first expedition, sailed from 
New York, while a similar expedition was sent out 

from England. Kane and his party made valuable discoveries, among which 
was that of the " open polar sea," whose existence was believed in by scien- 

' Page 31. 

' Each State is entitled to two senators. The number of States now [1367] being thirty- 
eiglit, the Senate is composed of seventy-six memVjfers. Tlie number of Representatives to which 
each State is entitled, is determined by the number of inhabitants and tlie ratio of representation. 
The present number of tlie members in the House of Representatives is two hundred and fifty- 
three, including delegates from nine Territories. 

^ Note 1, page 388. On the occasion of laying the corner-stone, an oration was pronounced 
by Daniel Webster, in the course of which he said: '• If, tlierefore, it shall hereafter be the will 
of God that this structure shall fall from its base, that its foundations be upturned, and the 
deposit beneath this stone brought to the eyes of men, be it then known, that on this day the 
Union of the United States of America stands firm — that tlieir Constitution still exists unimpaired, 
and with all its usefulness and glory, growing every day stronger in the affeetion.s of the great 
body of the American people, and attracting, more and more, the admiration of the world.'' 

* Note 2, page 47, also page 52, and note 8, page 59. 

' Elisha Kent Kane was Ixirn in Philadelphia, in February, 1822, and he took his degree in 
the Medical University of Pennsylvania in 1843. He entered the American navy as assistant- 




510 '^HK NATION [1851. 

tific men, but they ftxiled to find Sir John Franklin.' They suffered nuieh, 
and were finally compelled to abandon their ships and make their way in 
open boats to a Danish settlement in Greenland. Their long absence created 
fears for their safety, and a relief expedition was sent in search of them. In 
the vessels of the latter they returned home in the autumn of 1855.' 

The public attention was directed to, and popular sympathy was strongly 
excited in belialf of Hungary, by the arrival in the United States, toward the 
close of 1851, of Louis Kossuth, the exiled Governor of that country, whose 
people, during the revolutions of 1848,^ had sought independence of the crown 
of Austria. lie came to ask material aid for liis country in its struggle which 
then continued. The sympathy of the people with the Hungarians, and the 
eloquence of the exile, as he went from place to place pleading the cause of his 
nation and enunciating important international doctrines,'' made his mission 
the chief topic of thought and conversation for a long time. The policy of our 
government forbade its giving material aid, but Kossuth received tlie expres- 
sion of its warmest sympathies.'^ His advent among us, and his bold enuncia- 

surgeon, and was attached as a physician to tlie first American embassy to China. TVliile in the 
East, he visited many of tlie Islands, and met witli wild adventures. After tliat he ascended the 
Nile to the confines of Nubia, and passed a season in Egypt. After traveling through Greece 
and a part of Europe, on foot, he returned lo the United States in 18i6. He was immediately sent 
to the coast of Africa, where he narrowly escaped death from fever. Soon after his recovery he 
went to Mexico, as a volunteer in the war then progressing, where his bravery and endurance 
commanded universal admiration. His horse was killed under him, and liimself was badlv 
wounded. He was appointed senior surgeon and naturalist to the " Grinnel Expedition," ■•r 
tioned iu the text: and after liis return he prepared an interesting account of tlie explorar.oi 
He was appointed to the command of a second expedition, and he accomplished much iu behalf 
of geographical science. Dr. Kane held an accomplished pencil and ready pen, and his scientific 
attainments were of a high order. The records of this wonderful expedition, prepared by liimself, 
were published in two superb volumes, illustrated l)y engravings from drawings b_v his liand. The 
hardships which he had endured made great inroads on the health of Dr. Kane (who was a very 
liglit man, weighing only 106 pounds); and in October, 1856, he sailed for England, and from 
thence to Havana, where he died on the IGtIi of February, 1857. 

' In 1855, an overland exploring party, sent by the Hudson's Baj- Fur Company, were 
informed by the Esquimaux that about four years before a party of white men had perislied in 
the region of Montreal Island. They saw among the Indians articles known to have belonged to 
Sir John and his part_v, and the belief is tliat they perished on tlie nortliem borders of North 
America, so late as the year 1851. 

^ In the moan time tlie great problem, whicli for three liundred j'oars had perplexed the mari- 
time world, had been worked out by an English navigator. Tlie foct of a northwest passage 
around the Arctic coast of North America, from Baffin's Bay to Behring's Straits, has been 
unquestionably demonstrated by Captain McClure, of the ship Investigator, who was sent in searcli 
of Sir John Erankhn in October, 1853. Having passed through Bcliring's Straits, and sailed 
eastward, he reached a point, with sleds upon the ice, which had been penetrated by navigators 
. from tlie East (Captain Parry and others), thus establishing the fact that there is a water connec- 
tion between Baffin's Bay and tliose straits. Already the mute whale had demonstrated this fact 
to the satisfaction of naturalists. The same species are found in Behring's Straits and Baffin's 
Bay, and as the waters of the tropical regions would be like a sea of fire to them, tliey must have 
had communication through the polar channels. 

" In February, 18J8. the French people drove Louis Philippe from his throne, and formed a 
temporary republic. The revolutionary spirit spread; and within a few mouths, almost every 
country on the continent of Europe was in a state of agitation, and tlie monarchs made many 
concessions to the people. Hungary made an effort to become free from the rule of Austria, but 
was crushed by the povrer of a Russian army. 

* He asserted that grand principle, that one nation has no right to interfere with the domestic 
concerns of another, and tluit all nations are bound to use their eft'orts to prevent such interference. 

' Matters connected with his reception, visit, and desires occupied much of the attention of 
Congress, and elicited warm debates during the session of 1 852. The Chevalier Hulseman, the 
Austrian minister at 'U'ashington, formally protested against the reception of Kossuth by Con- 



1852.] FILLMORE'S ADMINISTRATION. 5|J 

tion of the hitherto unrecognized national duties, are important and interesting 
events in the history of our reptiblic. 

Some ill-feeling between Great Britain and the United States was engen- 
dered during the summer of 1852, when the subject of difficulties concemino- 
the fisheries' on the coast of British America was brought to tlie notice of Con- 
gress, and for several months there were indications of a serious disturbance 
of the amicable relations between the two governments. American fishers 
were charged with a violation of the treaty of 1818, which stipulated that they 
should not cast their lines or nets in the bays of the British possessions, except 
at a distance of three miles or more from the shore. Now, the British govern- 
ment claimed the right to draw a line from head-land to head-land of these 
bays, and to exclude the Americans from the waters within that line.' An 
armed naval force was sent to sustain this claim, and American vessels were 
threatened with seizure if they did not comply. The government of the United 
States regarded the assumption as illegal, and two steam-vessels of war 
{Pn'/iccton and Fulton) were sent to the coast of Nova Scotia to protect the 
rights of American fishermen. The dispute was amicably settled by mutual 
concessions, in October, 1853, and the cloud passed by. 

During the summer of 1853, another measure of national concern was ma- 
tured and jjut in operation. The great importance of commercial intercourse 
with Japan, because of the intimate relations which must soon exist between 
our Pacific coast and the East Indies, had been felt ever since the foundation 
of Oregon^ and California.'' An expedition, to consist of seven ships of war, 
under the command of Commodore Perry, a brother of the "Hero of Lake 
Erie,'" was fitted out for the purpose of carrying a letter from the President 
of the United States to the emperor of Japan, soliciting the negotiation of a 
treaty of friendship and commerce between the two nations, by which the ports 
of the latter should be thrown open to American vessels, for purposes of trade. 
The mission of Commodore Perry was highly successful. He negotiated a 
treaty, by which it was stipulated that ports on different Japanese Islands 
should be open to American commerce ;' that steamers from California to China 
should be furnished with supplies of coals ; and tliat American sailors ship- 
wrecked on the Japanese coasts should receive hospitable treatment. Subse- 
quently a peculiar construction of the treaty on the ]iart of the Japanese 
authorities, in relation to the permanent residence of Americans there, threat- 
ened a disturbance of the amicable relations which had been established. The 



gress ; and, because his protest was not heeded, he retired from his post, and left the duties of 
his office with Mr. Augiiste Belmonte, of New York. Previous to tliis, Hulseman issued a 
written protest against tlie poMcy of our government in relation to Austria and Hungary, and 
that protest was answered, in a masterly manner, in January, 1851, by Mr. Webster, the Secre- 
tary of State. 

' Pages 47 and 453. 

' This stipulation was so construed as to allow American fishermen to catch cod within the 
large bays where they could easily carry on their avocations at a greater distance tlian three miles 
from any land. Such had been the common practice, without interference, until the assumption 
of exclusive right to their bays was promulgated by the British. 

^ Page 4T9. ■• Page 487. ' Page 42.S. 

" Previous to this, the Dutch had monopolized the trade of Japan. See note 5, page 59. 



612 THE NATION. [1852. 

matter was adjusted, and in 1860, a large and imposing embassy from the 
empire of Japan visited tlie United States. The intercourse between the two 
countries is becoming more and more intimate. 

The relations between the United States and old Spain, on account of Cuba, 
became interesting in the autumn of 1852. The Spanish authorities of Cuba, 
being thoroughly alarmed by the attempts at invasion,' and the evident sym- 
pathy in the movement of a large portion of the people of the United States, 
became excessively suspicious, and many little outrages were committed at 
Havana, which kept alive an irritation of feeling inconsistent with social and 
commercial friendship. The idea became prevalent, in Cuba and in Europe, 
that it was the policy of the government of the United States to ultimately 
acquire absolute possession of that island, and thus have the control over the 
commerce of the Gulf of Mexico (the door to California), and the trade of the 
West India group of islands, which are owned, chiefly, by France and England. 
To prevent such a result, the cabinets of France and England asked that of the 
United States to enter with them into a treaty which should secure Cuba to 
Spain, by agreeing to disclaim, "now and forever hereafter, all intention to 
obtain possession of the Island of Cuba," and " to discountenance all such 
attempts, to that effect, on the part of any power or individual whatever." 
Edward Everett, then Secretary of State, issued a response [December 1, 1852] 
to this extraordinary proposition, which the American people universally 
applauded for its keen logic and patriotic and enlightened views. He told 
France and England plainly, that the question was an American and not a 
European one, and not properly within the scope of their interference ; that 
while the United States government disclaimed all intention to violate existing 
neutrality laws, it would not relinquish the right to act in relation to Cuba 
independent of any other power ; and that it could not see with indifference 
" the Island of Cuba fall into the hands of any other power than Spain."' Lord 
John Russell, the English prime-minister, answered this letter [February, 
1 853], and thus ended the diplomatic correspondence on the subject of the 
proposed " Tripartite Treaty," as it was called. 

The most important of the closing events of Mr. Fillmore's administration 
was the creation by Congress of a new Territory called Washington, out of the 
northern part of Oregon.' The bill for this purpose became a law on the 2d of 
March, 1853, two days before Fillmore's successor, Franklin Pierce, of New 

' Pages 502 and 508. 

" A.s early as 1 823, when tlie Spanish provinces in South America 'were in rebellion, or formino; 
into independent republics. President Monroe, in a special message upon the subject, promulgated 
the doctrine, since acted upon, that the United States ought to resist the extension of foreign 
domain or influence upon the American continent, and not allow any European government, by 
colonizing or otherwise, to gain a foothold in the New World not alread}' acquired. [See note 5, 
page 448.] This was directed specially against the efforts expected to be made by the allied 
sovereigns Who had crushed Napoleon, to assist Spain against her revolted colonies in America, 
and to suppress the growth of democracy there. It became a settled policy of our government, 
and Mr. Everett reasserted it in its fullest extent. Such expression seemed to be important and 
seasonable, because it was well known that Great Britain was then making strenuous efforts to 
obtain potent influence in Central America, so as to prevent the United States from acquiring 
exclusive property in the routes across the isthmus from the Gulf of Mexico to the Pacific Ocean. 

' Page 479. 




Augustus Robvr. 



ITlFl!! ,TI.fcJ?:A"J.T'T?''' 



1853.] 



PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 



513 



Hampshire, was inaugurated. The latter was nominated for the office by the 
Democratic convention held at Baltimore early in June, 1852, when William 
R. King, of Alabama, was named for the office of Vice-President. At the 
same place, on the 16th of June, Winfield Scott was nominated for President 
and William A. Graham for Vice-President, by a Whig convention. The 
Democratic nominees were elected, but failing health prevented the Vice- 
President taking his seat. He died in April, 1863, at the age of sixty-eight 
years. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. [ 1 85 3 — 1 8 51 .] 

A DRIVING sleet filled the air on the 4th of March, 1853, when Franklin 
Pierce,' the fourteenth President of the United States, stood upon the rude 




--Z7^^^^^ 



'^s^^zce) 



platform of New Hampshire pine, erected for the purpose over the steps of the 
eastern portico of the Federal capitol, and took the oath of office, administered 
by Chief Justice Taney. The military display on that occasion was larger 

' Franklin Pierce was bom at Hillsborough, New Hampshire, in November, 1804. He is the 
son of General Benjamin Pierce, an active officer in the old War for Independence, and one of the 
most useful men in New Hampshire. In 1820, when sixteen years of age, young Pierce became 

33 



514 THE NATION. [1853; 

than had ever been seen in the streets of the National city, and it was estimated 
that at least twenty thousand strangers were in Washington on the morninc 
of the inauguration. Untrammeled by special party pledges, the new Chief 
Magistrate entered upon the duties of his office under pleasant auspices ; and 
his inaugural address, full of promises and patriotic sentiments, received the 
general approval of his countrymen. Three days afterward [March 7] the 
Senate, in special session, confirmed his cabinet appointments.' 

The most serious difficulty which President Pierce was called upon to 
encounter, at the commencement of liis administration, was a dispute concern- 
ing the boundary-line between the Mexican province of Chihuahua" and New 
Mexico.^ The Mesilla valley, a fertile and extensive region, was claimed by 
both Territories ; and under the direction of Santa Anna,'' who was again Presi- 
dent of the Mexican Republic in 1854, Chihuahua took armed possession of the 
disputed territory. For a time war seemed inevitable between tlie United 
States and Mexico. The dispute was finally settled by negotiations, and 
friendly relations have existed between the two governments ever since. 
Those relations were delicate during a large portion of the late Civil War in 
the United States, wliile French bayonets kept the Austrian Archduke Maxi- 
milian in the attitude of a ruler, with tlie title of emperor, over the Mexican 
people, whose liberties Napoleon the Third, emperor of France, was thereby 
trying to destroy. The republican government in power when Maximilian 



a student in Bowdoin College, at Brunswick, Maine. He was graduated in 1S24, clios© law as & 
profession, and was admitted to practice at the bar in 1827. He became a warm politician, and 
partisan of General Jackson in 1828 ; and the next 3-ear, when he was twenty-tive 3-ears of age, 
he was elected a member of the Legislature of his native State. There lie served four years. He 
was elected to Congress in 1833, and served his constituents in the House of Representatives for 
four years. In 18S7, the Legislature of New Hampshire elected him to a seat in the Federal 
Senate. He resigned his seat in June, 1842, and remained in private life until 1845, when he 
was appointed United States District Attorney for New Hampshire. He was commissioned a 
Brigadier-General in March, 1847. and joined the army in Mexico, under General Scott. After 
the war he retired from public life, where he remained until called to the highest office in the 
gift of tlie people. AVhen, in the spring of 1857, he left the chair of state, he again retired into 
private life, and has never been in public emplovment since. 

' William L. Marcy, Secretary of State; James Gutlirie, Secretary of the Treasury; Robert 
McClelland, Secretary of the Interior; Jeffer.son Davis. Secretary of "War; James C. Dobbin, Sec- 
retary of the Navy ; James Campbell, Postmaster-General ; Caleb 
Gushing, Attorney-General 

' Note 7. page 484. 

' Page 497. 

* Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna is a native of Mexico, and first 
came into public life in 1821, during the excitements of revolution. He 
has been one of the chief revolutionists in that unhappy country. He 
was chosen President of the Republic in 18.13. Aft<?r an exciting career 
as a commanding General, he was again elected President in 1841, but 
was hurled from power in 1845. After the capture of the citj- of Mexico 
by the Americans, under General Scott [page 494], he retired to the 
West Indies, and finally to Carthageua, where he resided until 1853, 
■when he returned to Mexico, and was elected President again. In the 
summer of 1854, he was accused of a design to assume imperial power, 
and violent insurrections were the consequence. These resulted in his santa anna. 

being again deprived of power, and he has never been able to regain it. 

Much of the time since he was driven from public life he has lived in exile in Cuba, and in 1866 
he was a resident of the United States. He went to Mexico during the earlier period of 1867, 
when he was arrested, and thrown into prison. Few men have experienced greater vicissitudea 
than Santa Anna. 





1853.] PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 51c 

came was steadily recognized by that of the United States as the legitimate 
government of jlexico, and, diplomatically, Maximilian was unknown to it. 

The earlier portion of Pierce's administration was distinguished bj' impoi^ 
tant explorations by sea and land, in the interest of American commerce. The 
acquisition of California, and the marvelous rapidity with which it was tilling 
with an enterprising population, opened to 
the view of statesmen an immense commer- 
cial interest on the Pacific coast, which de- 
manded the most liberal legislation. Con- 
gress seems to have comprehended the 
importance of the matter, and under its 
authority four armed vessels and a supply- 
ship sailed [May, 1853] from Norfolk, under 
Captain Ringgold, for the eastern coast of 

« • 1 . 1 " e r^ TT T,. 1 • i- 1, A^ OCEAX STEAMSHIP. 

Asia, by the way 01 C ape Horn. Its chiei ob- 
ject was a thorough exploration of those regions of the Pacific Ocean which it was 
then evident ■«ould soon be traversed between the ports of our own western 
frontier and the East Indies; also of the whaling-grounds of the Kamtchatka 
Sea and Behring's Straits, on the borders of which the United States have 
recently [1867] purchased from Russia, at the cost of $7,000,000 in gold, a large 
and important territory. Steamships have just commenced [1867] making 
stated and regular voyages from California to China and Japan. 

While the expediti(m just mentioned was away, plans were maturing for 
the construction of one or more railways across the continent, to connect, by a 
continuous line of transportation, the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Cono-ress 
authorized surveys for such road or roads, and by midsummer [1853] four 
expeditions were fitted out for the purpose — one to explore from the upper 
waters of the Mississippi, at St. Paul, to Puget's Sound, on the Pacific; another 
to cross the continent from the Mississippi, along a line adjacent to the thirty- 
sixth parallel of latitude ; another from the Mississippi, by way of the Great 
Salt Lak6, in Utah ; and a fourth from some ])oint on the Lower Mississippi to 
the coast of Southern California, at San Pedro, Los Angelos, or San Diego. 
These expeditions performed their duties well, in the midst of great hardships,' 
and now [1867] over one of these routes, called the Central, which traverses 
Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Nevada, and California, a railway is com- 
pleted a long distance, at each end. Who can estimate the effect of these 
gigantic operations upon the destiny of our Republic, when it shall be thus 
connected in commercial relations with that of " Farther India," whose wealth 
the civilized world so long coveted ? 

' At the time these explorations were going on, Colonel Fremont (see page 488) was at the 
head of a similar party among the Rocky Mountains. That exploring in the direction of the 
Great Salt Lake, was in charge of Captain Gilnnison, of tlie National army. He found 
the Indians hostile when he approached the Mormon country, and among tlie "Wasatch 
mountains tliey fell upon the explorers and killed a number of them, including the leader. 
Fremont's party suffered dreadfully for want of food in the midst of deep snow. For forty-fire 
days they fed on the meat of exhausted mules whicli they slew, and every particle was devoured, 
even the entrails I They were met and saved by another party in February, 1854. 



516 



THE NATION. 



[1853. 



While the government was putting forth its energies in preparing the way 
for the triumph of American commerce, private enterprise was busy in the 
promotion of general industry, and in the noble work of international fraternity 
in the great interest of Labor. In the year 1851, an immense building, com- 
posed of iron and glass, was created in Hyde Park, London, under royal 
patronage, for the purpose of giving an exhibition of the results of the industry 
of all nations. It was a World's Fair, and representatives of every civilized 
nation on the globe were there mingling together as brothers of one family, and 
all equally interested in the perfection of each other's productions. The idea 
was one of great moral grandeur, for it set an insignia of dignity upon labor, 
hitherto withheld by those who bore scepters and orders. There men of all 
nations and creeds received a lesson upon the importance of brotherhood among 
the children of men, such as the pen and tongue could not teach. For the 
conception and consummation of that noble work, mankind will forever revere 
its author. Prince Albert, the husband of Queen Victoria. The enterprise was 
repeated in this country in 1853, when, at the expense of the money and 

energy of private republicans, a 
" Crystal Palace " was built and 
a " World's Fair " was held in 
the city of New York. It was 
opened in July of that year, with 
imposing ceremonies, led by the 
Chief Magistrate of the nation.' 
The eniperor of the French has 
twice imitated the act of the 
British queen and her consort. 
During the spring and summer 
of 1867, an immense "World's 
Fair" was open in Paris. Tlicse are important historical events, for they 
mark a new and most promising epoch in the annals of mankind. History 
often has better stories to tell than those of wars and military conquests, and 
the rise and fall of dynasties and empires. 




CRYSTAL PALACE IN NEW TOEK. 



' On that occasion, a prayer was made by Dr. Wainwright, provisional bishop of the Protest- 
ant Episcopal Cluiroh in the diocese of New York (since deceased) ; an address was pronounced 
by Theodore Sedgsviclc, president of the Association by whieli the building was erected ; and on 
the IGth of the month, a grand entertainment was given by the directors to distinguished guests, 
among whom were the President of the United States and members of his cabinet, Sir Cliarlea 
Lyell, the eminent English geologist, and others. 

One of the speakers on that occasion [Elihu Burritt] said: " Worthy of the grandest circum- 
stances which could be thrown around a human assembly, worthy of this occasion and a hundred 
like this, is that beautiful idea, the coronation of Labor. * * * Not American labor, not 
British labor, not French labor, not the labor of the New World or the Old, but the labor of man- 
kind as one undivided brotherhood — labor as the oldest, the noblest prerogative of duly and 
humanity." And Rev. E. H. Chapin closed with the beautiful invocation: "01 genius of Art, fill 
us with the inspiration of still higher and more spiritual beauty. 1 instruments of invention, 
enlarge our dominion over reality. Let iron and fire become as blood and muscle, and in this 
electric net-work let heart and brain idclose the world with truth and sympathy. And thou, 
01 beautiful dome of light, suggestive of the brooding future, the future of human love and divine 
communion, expand and spread above the tribes of men a canopy broad as the earth, and glorioua 
as the upper heaven." 



1853.] PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 511^ 

When the Thirty-third Congress assembled, on the first Monday in Decem- 
ber, 1853, a greater degree of good feeling seemed to prevail among the mem- 
bers than had been exhibited for the several preceding years, when the chief 
topics of their deliberations were connected with the subject of Slavery. The 
country was at peace and amity with all the world, as a general proposition,' 
and the people looked to their representatives for the conception and adoption 
of measures for the public welfare, which the circumstances of the nation 
required. The construction of a railway across the continent was expected to 
absorb much of their attention. Important treaties were pending between our 
government and those of Mexico and Central America, concerning territory 
and inter-oceanic communications across the Isthmus between North and South 
America ; also concerning boundary-lines in the region of New Mexico and 
California. 

There was an interest, too, far away in the Pacific, that demanded serious 
consideration. The government of the Sandwich Islands was then making 
earnest overtures for annexing that ocean empire to our republic. This was a 
matter of great moment, for these Islands are destined to be of vast impor- 
tance in the operations of the future commerce of the Pacific Oeean. A large 
majority of the white people there are Americans by birth ; and the govern- 
ment, in all its essential operations, is controlled by Americans, notwithstand- 
ing the ostensible ruler is a native sovereign. The consuls of France and 
England, when they perceived a disposition on the part of the reigning 
monarch to have his domain annexed to the United States, charged the scheme 
upon certain American missionaries, and oflicially protested against their 
alleged conduct. They declared that France and England would not remain 
indifferent spectators of such a movement. The missionaries, as well as the 
United States commissioner, disclaimed any tampering with the native authori- 
ties on the subject ; at the same time, the latter, in a published reply to the 

' There was a little feeling of hostility between our government and that of Austria for a while 
in 1853, but it soon subsided. It grew out of a circumstance conuected with the exercise of the 
power of our government in defense of a citizen of foreign birth in a foreign port, as follows : 
When Austria, by aid of Russia, crushed the rebellion in Hungary, in 18i8, many of the active 
patriots became exiles in foreign lands. A large number came to the United States, and many 
of them became naturalized citizens — that is, after due legal preparation, took an oath to support 
the Constitution and laws of the United States, and 'to perform faithfidly all the duties of a citizen. 
.One of these, named Martin Koszta, a native of Hungary, had taken such steps. While engaged 
in business at Smyrna, on the Mediterranean, he was seized, by order of the Austrian consul- 
general; and taken on boar^l an Austrian brig, to be conveyed to Trieste as a rebel refugee, not- 
withstanding he carried an American protection. Captain Ingraham, of the United States sloop- 
of-war Si. Louis, then lying in the harbor of Smyrna, immediately claimed Koszta as an American 
citizen. On the refusal of the Austrian authorities to release the prisoner, Ingraham cleared his 
vessel for action [July 2], and threatened to fire upon the brig if Koszta was not delivered up 
within a given time. The Austrians 3-ielded to the powerful arguments of forty well-shotted 
cannon, and Koszta was placed in the custody of the French consul, to await the action of the 
respective governments. Ingraham's course was everywhere applauded; and Congress signified 
its approbation by voting him an elegant sword. The pride of the Austrian government was 
severely wounded, and it issued a protest against the proceedings of Captain Ingraham, and sent 
it to all the European courts. Mr. Hulseman, the Austrian minister at Washington, demanded 
an apology, or other redress, from our government, and menaced the United States with the dis- 
pleasure of his royal master. But no serious difficulty occurred. It was plainly perceived that 
the Austrians were in the wrong; and Koszta, under the protection of the United States flag, 
returned to this land of free opinions. 



55^8 THE NATION. [1854. 

protest, denied the right of foreign governments to interfere to prevent such 
a result, if it should be deemed mutually desirable. Preliminary negotiations 
were commenced, and a treaty was actually formed, when, on the 15th of 
December, 1854, King Kamehameha died, at the age of forty-nine years, and 
was succeeded by his son. Prince Alexander Liholiho. The new king imme- 
diately ordered the discontinuance of negotiations with the United States, and 
the subject of annexation was not revived until after the visit of Emma, 
Queen of the Islands, to England and the United States, in 1866. That such 
annexation will finally occur, seems to be prohesied by the history of the past 
and the teachings of the present. 

Just as the preliminaries were arranged in Congress for entering vigorously 
npon the business of the session, the chairman of the Senate Committee on 
Territories (Mr. Douglas, of Illinois) presented a bill [Jan., 1854] which dis- 
turbed the harmony in Congress, and the quietude of the people. In the center 
of our continent is a vast region, almost twice as large, in territorial extent, as 
the original thirteen States,' stretching between Missouri, Iowa, and Minne- 
sota, and the Pacific Territories, from the thirty-seventh parallel of north lati- 
tude to the British possessions,- and embracing one-fourth of all the public 
lands of the United States. The bill alluded to proposed to erect this vast 
reo-ion into two Territories, the southern portion, below the fortieth parallel, to 
be named lutnsas, and the nortliern and larger portion, Nebraska. The bill 
contained a provision which would nullify the Compromise of 1820,^ and allow 
the inhabitants of those Territories to decide for themselves whether they 
would have the institution of slavery or not. This proposition surprised Con- 
gress and the whole country, and it became a subject of discussion throughout 
the Union. The slavery agitation was aroused in all its strength and rancor, 
and the whole North became violently excited. Public meetings were held by 
men of all parties, and petitions and remonstrances against the measure, 
especially in its relation to N'ebraska, were poured into the Senate,'' while the 
debate on the subject was progressing, from the 30th of January [1854] until 
the 3d of March. On the latter day the bill passed that body by the decisive 
vote of thirty-seven to fourteen. The measure encountered great opposition in 
the House of Representatives ; and by means of several amendments, its final 
defeat seemed almost certain, and the excitement subsided. 

At about this time a bill was reported in the Senate [March 10], providing, 
for the construction of a railway to the Pacific Ocean ; and on the same day 
when the Nebraska Bill passed that body [March 3d], the House of Ueprcsen- 
tatives adopted one called the Homestead Bill, which provided that any free 
white male citizen," or any one who may have declared his intentions to become 
one previous to the passage of this act, might select a quarter section [one 
hundred and sixty acres] of land on the public domain, and on proof being 
given that lie had occupied and cultivated it for five years, he might receive 

' Page lU. ' Page 48n. ' Page 452. 

* A petition against the measure was presented to the Senate immediately after the passage 
of the bill by that body, signed by three thousand clergymen of New England. 



1854] PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 5I9 

a title to it in fee, without being required to pay any thing for it. This bill 
was discussed in both Houses for several weeks ; and finally an amendment, 
graduating the prices of all the public lands, was adopted in its stead.' The 
public mind had become comparatively tranquil when, on the 9th of IVIay 
[1854], the Nebraska bill was again called up in the House of Representatives. 
It became the absorbing subject for discussion. During a fortnight, violent 
debates, with great acrimony of feeling, occurred, and on one occasion there 
was a session of thirty-six consecutive hours' duration, when an adjournment 
took place in the midst of great confusion. The country, meanwhile, was 
much excited, for the decision of the question was one of great moment in its 
relation to the future. While it was pending the suspense became painful. 
But it did not last long. The final question was taken on the 22d, and the 
bill was passed by a vote of one hundred and thirteen to one hundred. Three 
days .nfterward [May 25], the Senate agreed to it as it came from the House 
by a vote of thirty-five to thirteen, and it received the signature of the Presi- 
dent on the last day of May.' 

New difficulties with the Spanish authorities of Cuba' appeared, while the 
Nebraska subject was under discussion. Under cover of some pretense, the 
American steamship. Black Warrior^ was seized in the harbor of Havana 
[February 28, 1854], and the vessel and cargo were declared confiscated. The 
outrage was so flagrant, that a proposition was immediately submitted to the 
lower House of Congress to suspend the neutrality laws,'' and compel the 
Havana officials to behave properly. Under the provisions of such laws, any 
number of citizens of the United States, who may be engaged in hostilities 
against Spain, would forfeit the protection of their goverinnent, and become 
liable to punishment for a violation of law. It was on this account that Crit- 
tenden and his party were shot at Havana,* without the right of claiming the 
interference of the government of the United States in their behalf Tlie Presi- 
dent sent a special messenger to the government at Madrid, with instructions 
to the American minister to demand immediate redress, in the form of indem- 
nity to the owners of the Black Warrior. But the Spanish government justi- 
fied the act of the Cuban authorities, when such formal demand was made. In 

' It provided that all lands which had been in market ten years should be subject to entry at 
one dollar per acre; fifteen years, at seventy-five cents; and so on, in the same ratio — those 
which had been in market for thirty years being offered at twelve and a half cents. It also pro- 
vided that every person availing himself of the act should make affidavit that he entered the 
land for his own use , and no one could acquire more than three hundred and twenty acres, or 
two quarter-sections. 

" A few days after the final passage of the Nebraska bill, the city of Boston was made a 
theater of great excitement, by the arrest of a fugitive .slave there, and a deputy-marslial was shot 
dead, during a riot. United States troops from Rhode Island were employed to sustain the officers 
of the law, and a local military force was detailed, to assist in the protection of the court and the 
parties concerned, until the proceedings in the case should be completed. The United States 
Commissioner decided in favor of the claimant of the slave, and he was conveyed to Virginia by a 
government vessel. This commotion in Boston is known as the Burns Riot — the name of the 
fugitive slave being Burns. 

' Page 502. 

* These are agreements (still existing) made between the governments of the United States 
and Old Spain, to remain neutral or inactive, when either party should engage in war with 
another, 

° Page 508, 



520 THE NATION. [1854. 

the mean while the perpetrators of the outrage became alarmed, and the Cap- 
tain-General (or Governor) of Cuba, with pretended generosity, offered to give 
up the vessel and cargo, on the payment by the owners of a fine of six thou- 
sand dollars. They complied, but under protest.' The matter was finally 
settled amicably between the governments of the United States and Spain,' and 
since then nothing has materially disturbed the friendly relations between the 
two countries. 

The irritation caused by the difficulties with Cuban officials was made the 
pretext, after the passage of the Nebraska bill, for a conference of three of the 
American ministers plenipotentiary in Europe. In August [1854], the Presi- 
dent directed Mr. Buchanan, then American embassador at London, Mr. Mason, 
embassador at Paris, and Mr. Soule, embassador at Madrid, to meet at some 
convenient place, to confer upon the best means of settling the difiiculties about 
Cuba, and gaining possession of the island, by purchase or othei-wise. They 
accordingly met at Ostend, a seaport town in Belgium, on the 9th of October, 
1854. After remaining there three days, they adjourned to Aix-la-Chapelle, in 
Rhenish Prussia, and from thence, on the 18th of the same month, they 
addressed a letter to the United States government, which embodied their 
views. That letter is known in history as TIte Ostend Circular, and is 
regarded as one of the most disgraceful passages in the liistory of American 
diplomacy. Its arguments were the plea of the highway robber, enforced by 
the doctrine that " Might makes Right." It recommended tlie j>iirchase of 
Cuba, if possible ; if not, the acquisition of it by force. " If Spain," said the 
authors of that infamous letter, " actuated by stubborn pride and a false sense 
of honor, should refuse to sell Cuba to the United States," then " by every 
law, human and divine, we shall be justified in wresting it from Spain, if we 
possess the power." The bald iniquity of the proposition amazed honest 
people in both hemispheres. Why it should have been left unrebuked by the 
government at Washington was a mystery which the light of subsequent 
events revealed. It seems clear, in that light, that it was a part of the scheme 
of those conspirators, who, a few years later, attempted to destroy tlie Repub- 
lic, that they might establish that dazzling empire of Wrong, founded on 
Human Slavery, of which they dreamed, and which they promised their 
deluded followers — an empire which was to be comprised within what they 
called Tlie Golden Circle, whose center was Havana, the capital of Cuba.* 

' Protesting against an act which a party is compeUed to perform, leaves tlie matter open for a 
future discussion and final settlement. 

' The President of the United States, having been informed tliat expeditions were preparing in 
different parts of the Union, for the purpose of invading Cuba, issued a proclamation again.st such 
movements, on the 1st of June, 1854, and called upon all good citizens to respect the obligations 
of existing treaties, between the governments of our Repufilic and Spain. 

' The Golden Circle, as defined by the conspirators, had a radius of sixteen degrees of latitude 
and longitude, with its center at Havana. It will be perceived, by drawing that circle on a map, 
that it included the Slave-labor States of our Republic. It reached northward to the Pennsyl- 
vania line, and southward to the Isthmus of barieu. It embraced the West India Island.?, and 
those of the Caribbean Sea, with a greater part of Mexico and Central America. The plan of the 
conspirators seems to have been, first, to secure Cuba, and then the other islands of that tropical 
region, with Mexico and Central America; and then to sever the Slave-labor and the Free-labor States 
of our Republic, making the former a part of the great empire, whose corner-stone, as one of the 



1854.] PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 521 

While the good name of the government was suffering at the liands of 
unfaithful citizens, who were plotting mischief against its weaker neiglibors, 
some salutary measures were adopted which gave a little relief to the picture 
of that dark period in our history. "While a conspiracy for obliterating the 
boundary-line between the United States and Mexico, by blotting out the 
nationality of the latter, was fast ripening, the two governments successfully 
negotiated a treaty by which that boundary was defined and fixed. The treaty 
was ratified early in 1854, and it was agreed that the decision of the commis- 
sioners appointed to run the boundary should be final. By that treaty the 
United States were to be released from all obligations imposed by the treaty 
of Guadalupe Hidalgo,' to defend the Mexican frontier against the Indians, 
and as a consideration for this release, and for the territory ceded by Mexico, 
the United States agreed to pay to the latter ten millions of dollars — seven 
millions on the ratification of the treaty, and the remainder as soon as the 
boundary-line should be established. These conditions were complied with, 
and a good imderstanding between the two governments has ever since 
existed. 

At about the same time, a reciprocity treaty was negotiated between the 
United States and Great Britain, which lowered, and in some instances effaced, 
the barriers to free commerce between the British provinces in America and 
our Republic. It provided that the fisheries of the provinces, excepting those 
of Newfoundland,- should be open to American citizens ; that disputes respect- 
ing fisheries should be settled by arbitration ; that the British should have a 
right to jjarticipate in the American fisheries as far as the 36th degree of north 
latitude, and that there should be free commerce between the provinces and 
the United States, in flour, breadstuffs, fruits, fish, animals, lumber, and a 
variety of natural productions in their unmanufactured state. It stipulated 
that the St. Lawrence River and the Canadian canals should be thrown open 
to American vessels ; and the United States government agreed to urge the 
respective States to admit British vessels into their canals, upon similar terms. 
This treaty was submitted to the provincial Legislatures, and to the govern- 
ments of the contracting powers, and was ratified by all. The arrangement 
was terminated, in accordance with the provisions of the treaty, early in 1866. 

When the Fugitive Slave Law began to bear the bitter fruit which its 
I author, James M. Mason, of Virginia, desired and expected f when the Kansas- 
less reticent of the conspirators avowed, was to be human slavery. A secret association, known 
as the Order of the Dme Star, and another subsequently organized as its successor, whose mem- 
bers were called Knights of the Golden Circle, were formed for the purpose of corrupting the 
people and carrying out the iniquitous design. The latter played a conspicuous part in the Civil War 
which broke out in 1861, as tlie secret friends and efficient allies of the conspirators, who were 
making open war on the Republic. 

' Page 497. " Page 47. 

' Senator Mason, one of the most unscrupulous of the conspirators who brought about the late 
Civil War, was the author of this Act. The writer was informed by a personal acquaintance of 
Mason's, at Winchester, that the Senator declared to him that he made the law as obnoxious as 
possible to the people of tlie Free-Labor States, in order that it should excite universal disgust 
and opposition, and cause such violations of it, and a general refusal to comply with its unchristian 
requirements, as to give a plausible pretext to the slaveholders to revolt and attempt to dissolve 
the Union. 



622 



THE NATION. 



[1854. 



Nebraska bill had opened afresh the agitation of the Slavery question, and when 
the barbaric declaration of the " Ostend Circular" appeared to give no oftense to 
tlie Chief Magistrate of tlie nation and his ad- 
visers, the conspirators plotted more actively 
and worked more boldly thanever. The " Great 
Idea of the Age," as they called it, was the 
extension of the area of sl.averj', by the con- 
quest and annexation of countries adjacent 
to our Kepublic. Their attempts on Cuba 
were baffled, and they turned their attention 
to Mexico and Central America. Tlieir ope- 
rations at first assumed the fonn of emigra- 
tion schemes, and their first theater was a 
region on the great Isthmus, inhabited chiefly 
by a race of degraded natives, and belonging 
to the State of Nicaragua, known as the 
Mosquito coast. It promised to be a terri- 
tory of great importance in a commercial point of view.' Under the specious 
pretext that the British were likely to possess it, armed citizens of the United 
States, appealing to the Monroe doctrine" for justification, emigrated to that 
region. Already the great guns of the American navy liad been heard on the 
Mosquito shore, as a lierald of coming power.' 

It was in the autumn and early winter of 1854 that the first formidable 
"emigration" to the Mosquito country was undertaken. It. was alleged that 




JAMES M. MASON. 



' A railway across the Istlimus of Panama has been constnictetl. Tlie first trains passed 
over it, from Aspinwall to Panama, on tlie 28tli of Janiiary, 1855. The project of a ship-canal 
across the Isthmus of Darien. or Panama, has occupied the attention of statesmen and conunercial 
men for many years. The first actual exploration of the Isthmus, with a view to cuttinfr a ship- 
canal across it, was made in 1853, by a party of twenty-three, under the direction of William 
Kennish, of New York. They were sent out by J. C. Prevost, commander of the British steam- 
ship Virago, in pursuance of orders from tlie commander of the British squadron then in the 
Pacific. Thej' commenced on the Pacific coast, and traveled northward to the Atlantic shore. 
For ten days they traversed a dense forest, which covered a fine, fertile, and well-watered plain, 
which at no time rose more than fifty feet above the level of the sea. The party became short 
of provisions ; and havinff separated for some prudent purpose, a portion of tliem were nuirdered 
and plundered by the Indians. The survivors returned to the Virago, without accomiilishing 
much. In January, 1854, Lieutenant Strain, of the United States Navy, with a party of twenty,* 
started from the Atlantic side to explore the Isthmus. Tliey suffered dreadftiUy; and as nothmg 
was heard from them for several weeks, it was supposed that all had perislied. Their provisions 
became exhausted, and some died from famine. The Indians, however, did not molest them, but 
fled to the mountains. "When Lieutenant Strain and the survivors reached the Pacific coast, they 
were destitute of both clothing and food. Since then no attempt has been made to explore that 
dreary region. 

" See note 2, page 512. 

" There was a little village on the Mosquito coast caUed Greytown, in which some American 
citizens resided. These alleged that they had been outraged by the local authorities, who professed 
to derive their power directly from the Mosquito king, or chief of the native tribes. An appeal was 
made to the commander of a vessel of the United States navy, then lying near. Tliat shallow 
official, named Hollins, who was always valiant when there was no danger, actually bombarded 
the little town, as a punishment for tjie acts of its authorities. This brought out the denuncia- 
tions of English residents, who alleged that, by arrangements with the Mosquito monarch, their 
government was the protector of his dominions. The British government it.self assumed lliat 
position, and for a while the folly of Hollins caused expectations of serious diffieidty. 



1855.] PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 503 

a large tract of tlie territory had been granted by the Mosquito king to two 
British subjects,' and upon this, by an-angement, the emigrants, led by Colonel 
H. L. Kinney, proceeded to settle. The government of Nicaragua protested 
against this invasion of that State, in violation of the neutrality laws of the 
United States. The Nicaraguan minister at Washington called the attention 
of our government to the subject [January 16, 185.5], and especially to the fact 
of the British claim to political jurisdiction there, and urged that the United 
States, while asserting the " Monroe doctrine " as a correct political dogma, 
could not sanction the act complained of, as it was done under guarantees of 
British authority. Our government, as a matter of policy, interfered, but with 
a mildness that allowed the emigration scheme to go on, and assume more for- 
midable proportions and aspects. 

An agent of the conspirators, named William Walker, who had already, with 
a few followers, invaded the State of Sonora, Mexico, from California, and been 
repulsed, reappeared on the theater in connection with Kinney, who invited 
him to assist him "in improving the lands and developing the mineral 
resources " of his grant on Lake Nicai-agua. Ostensibly for that purpose, 
Walker left San Francisco with three hundred men, and arrived on the coast 
of Nicaragua on the 27th of June. He east off all disguise the next day, and 
attempted to capture the town of Rivas, believing that one of the factions 
opposed to the Nicaraguan government, which he proposed to unite himself 
with, would aid in his scheme. In this he was mistaken. Even one hundred 
and fifty Central Americans, who had joined him, under General Castillon, 
deserted when they saw the forces of Nicaragua approaching. It was with 
great difficulty that Walker and his followers retreated to the coast and 
escaped in a schooner. 

Walker, who appears to have been the special favorite of Jefferson Davis, 
the chief leader in the late attempt to destroy our Republic, and who was then 
the Secretary of War, and ruling spirit in President Pierce's cabinet, was not 
allowed to remain idle, for the scheme to open Central America to the slave 
system of our Southern States" was to be consummated as far as possible while 
Davis was in power in the government, and could procure official sanction to 
the practical operations of the doctrine of the " Ostend Circular." Walker 
accordingly made his appearance again on the soil of Nicaragua, with armed 
followers, in August; and on the 5tli of September following [1855] the 

' For some time the British had been endeavoring to obtain a controlling influence in this 
region, and they had induced the chief of the Mosquito nation to assume authority independent 
of the State of Nicaragua. 

' While, so early as 1850, Davis and his fellow-conspirators were evidently fostering the 
scheme for seizing Cuba, that it might become a part of the slave empire already alluded to, they 
appear to have been plotting for the seizure of the Central .\meriean States for the same purpose, 
and in this sclieme the obsequious political friends of Davis and the slave-holding interests in the 
North were in complieitj-. A montli before the sailing of the Cuban expedition under Lopez [see 
page 508]. a Pennsylvanian, named John Broadhead, in a letter to Davis, expressed his desire to 
be appointed a minister to Nicaragua, saying: " I should like to go into that country and help 
open it to civilization and niggers. I could pet strong recommendations from the President's (Tay- 
lor's) special friends in Pennsylvania for the place, were the mission vacant, and I think I would 
prove a live minister. I am tired of being a white slave at the North, and long for a home in the 
sunny South." President Taylor was Secretaiy Davis's father-in-law. 



524 THE NATION. [1856. 

" emigrants " in the Mosquito country, assuming independence of Nicaragua, 
organized a civil government there by the appointment of Kinney as chief 
magistrate, with a council of five assistants. At that time the inhabitants of 
Nicaragua were in a state of revolution, and the government was weak. 
Taking advantage of this state of things. Walker pushed his sclieme of armed 
occupation vigorously. He fought and vanquished [September 3, 1855] four 
hundred government troops at Virgin Bay, and marched triumphantly upon 
and captured Grenada [October 12], the capital of the State. Then he placed 
General Rivas, a Nicaraguan, in the Presidential chair ; treated Kinney with 
contempt, and drove him from his Mosquito domain, and busied himself in 
strengthening his military power by " emigrants " from the United States. A 
•British consul recognized the new government of Nicaragua, and John H. 
Wheeler,' the American minister resident there, gave it the nurture of the sun- 
shine of his kindly regard. 

This attempt to establish a political power in Central America, by armed 
adventurers from the United States, created alarm among the other govern- 
ments on the Isthmus, and in the winter of 1856 an alliance of those States 
against Nicaragua under its foreign usurpers was attempted. Early in March 
Costa Rica made a formal declaration of war against that State ; and on the 
10th of the same month Walker, who was the real head of the new govern- 
ment, made a corresponding declaration against Costa Rica. The latter called 
upon all the Central American States to " imite and destroy the invaders from 
the North," while Walker shamelessly declared that he was there by invitation 
of the liberal party in Nicaragua. Plostilities commenced on the 20th of 
March. The Costa Ricans marched into Nicaragua, and on the 11th of April 
a sanguinary conflict occurred, in which Walker's troops were victorious, and 
the invaders were driven from the State. This made the usurper arrogant. 
He levied a forced loan on the people in support of his power. General Rivas,' 
becoming disgusted with him, finally .abdicated the presidency, abandoned 
Walker, and proclaimed against him. This was followed on the 24th of June 
[1S5G] by a new election for President, when Walker received two-thirds of 
the popular vote. On the 12th of July he was inaugurated President of 
Nicaragua, and thus the first grand act of the conspiracy against our weak 
neighbors was accomplished. The government at Washington hastened to 
acknowledge the new nation, and Walker's embassador, in the person of a 

' John H. Wheeler was a resident of western North Carolina, and while on his way to New 
York, to embark for Nicaragua, two of his slaves, who attended him, were detained in Philadel- 
phia [July 18, 1855], through the instrumentality of persons there who souglit to make them 
free. One of these (Passmore Williamson) was ordered by Judge Kane (father of Dr. Kane, the 
.\rctio explorer), of the United States District Court, to bring tlie slaves before him. Williamson 
declared that the slaves had never been in his custody, and of course he could not produce them. 
On motion of Colonel Wheeler, Judge Kane committed Williamson to prison, for contempt of 
court, where he remained for several months. This case, in connection with other questions in 
regard to slavery, produced great excitement throughout the countr)-. Williamson, after his 
release, prosecuted Kane for false imprisonment. 

' Rivas. who, by Walker's power, had been made President of Nicaragua, as we have 
seen, had sent a minister to Washington named Parker U. French. The Government 
refused to receive him. Davis's scheme was not ripe, and would not be until Walker, his pliant 
instrument of mischief, was at the head of the government, with an army at liis back. 



1855.] PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 525 

Roman Catholic priest named Vigil, was cordially received by President 
Pierce and his cabinet. Thus strengthened, "Walker ruled with a high hand, 
offending commercial nations by his interference with trade. The other Cen- 
tral American States coalesced against him, when he declared all their ports in 
a state of blockade ; and he performed other acts which showed his innate 
weakness, and led to his ruin. 

For about two years Walker held possession of Nicaragua by hard strug- 
gling, but the combined power of the other states finally crushed him. ' On 
the 20th of May, 1857, he was compelled to surrender two hundred men, the 
remnant of his army, at Rivas, and by the interposition of Commodore Davis, 
of our navy, then on that coast, he and a few of his followers were brought 
away unharmed. So soon as he arrived at Xew Orleans, he commenced fit- 
ting out another Nicaraguan expedition. He left there in November, 1857, 
and on the 25th of that month he landed at Puenta Arenas, where Commodore 
Paulding, of our navy, seized him [Dec. 3] and two hundred and thirty-two of 
his followers, and took Walker to Ne\v York as a prisoner. James Buchanan 
was then President of the United States. He j^rivately commended Pauld- 
ing's act,' but " for prudential reasons," he said — that is, to avoid giving offense 
to the slavery propagandists — he publicly condemned the Commodore, in a 
special message to Congress [January 7, 1858], for thus "violating the sove- 
reignty of a foreign country !" He declined to hold Walker as a prisoner, 
and then that willing agent of Davis and his fellow-conspirators were allowed 
to freely traverse the slave-labor States, preaching a new crusade against Cen- 
tral America, and collecting funds for the purpose of a new invasion. Walker 
sailed from Mobile with a third expedition, and was arrested off the mouths of 
the Mississippi, but only for having left port without a clearance ! He was 
tried by the United States Court at New Orleans and acquitted, when he 
recommenced operations, went again to Central America, made much mischief, 
and was finally captured and shot at Truxillo. Thus ended one of the first 
acts in the bloody drama of the late Rebellion. 

While these fillibustering movements were in progress on our Southern 
frontier, the attention of the government was called to other important matters. 
Among these was a war by the Indians upon tlie white settlers in the Territo- 
ries of Oregon and Washington, on the Pacific coast, toward the close of 1855, 
caused, in a great measure, by the bad conduct of government agents and 
speculators ; and probably in a measure by the machinations of their English 
neighbors.- United States troops were sent to suppress hostilities, but they 
failed to accomplish it. They were defeated in battle, and not long afterward 



' Oral statement to the author by Commodore Tatnall (late of the United States Navy), at 
Sackett's Harbor, New York, in July, 1860. Tatnall expressed much indignation at this dis- 
graceful conduct of the President, so calculated to demoralize the public service, and said : — " Few 
of us will be likely to do our duty hereafter for fear of punishment, by public censure, while the 
hand that intliots it gives us a certificate of private approval." 

' Circumstances seemed to give the color of justice to the suspicion, that the savages were 
incited to war on the settlements by persons connected witli the English Hucbon's Bay Company, 
who had married Indian women, and who were desirous of monopolizing tlio fur-trade of that 
region. 



( 



526 THE NATION. [1855. 

several white families were murdered by the savages. Finally, Major-General 
Wool,' then stationed at San Francisco, proceeded to Portland, in Oregon, to 
organize a campaign against them. The Indians had formed a powerful com- 
bination, and during the winter and spring of lS55-'56, hostilities were so gen- 
eral in both Territories, that it appeared at one time as if the settlers would be 
compelled to abandon the country. This " Indian trouble," as it was called, 
was brought to a close in Oregon during the ensuing summer, but there was 
restlessness observed everywhere among the savage tribes westward of the 
Rocky Mountains. 

The friendly relations between our Government and that of Great Britain 
were slightly disturbed early in 1855, by the enlistment, in the United States, 
of recruits for the British army, then, in connection with a French army, at 
war with the Russians on the Crimean Peninsula. It was done under the 
sanction of British officials in this country, in violation of our neutrality laws. 
In this business the British minister at Washington was implicated, and our 
government demanded his recall. The British government refused compli- 
ance. After waiting patiently several months, while diplomatic correspond- 
ence was going on, the President dismissed the oflending minister ; also the 
British consuls at New York, Philadelphia, and Cincinnati, who had been 
guilty of a similar offense. Irritation followed these measures for a while, but 
law and equity so cleai'ly vindicated the action of the United States, that a 
new minister was soon sent to Washington, and friendly feeling was restored. 

The most prominent events to be considered in the history of the adminis- 
tration of President Pierce and his immediate successor, are what may be 
called the preliminary skirmishes before the late great and final battle waged 
between the slave power and its opponent. The former, made bold and trucu- 
lent by success, was rapidly bringing not only the government, the commerce, 
and the varied industries of the Republic in abject subserviency at its feet, but 
was making the conscience of the nation, as manifested in morals and religion, 
plastic in its hands, and giving it its own shape and proclivities. The Chief 
Magistrate at that time appeared to sympathize with its sentiments, and smile 
complacently upon its deeds ; and so, having disposed, as it thouglit, of all its 
serious opponents, it began to work its will with a high hand, apparently 
unconscious of the fact that there were moral forces at work in opposition, 
which, like those of the material universe, are sometimes, though invisible, 
intangible, and latent, more potent in action than those which are seen and 
felt. That such forces existed was speedily made manifest. 

The virtual repeal of the Missouri Compromise Act" and the passage of the 
Kansas-Nebraska Act^ left all the territory of the Republic open to the social 
institutions of every section of the Union. The question immediately arose, 
Shall the domain of the Republic be the theater of all free or all slave labor, 
with the corresponding civilization of each as a consequence? It was evident 
that one or the other of these social systems must prevail, for the antagonism 
was so pronounced that one or the other must immediately yield. That ques- 

' Pages 413 and 484. ' Pages 452 and 501. ' Page 518. 



1855.] PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 527 

tion was scarcely uttered, when positive action proceeded to answer it. The 
slave power, complacently viewing its conquests, and the abjectness of its cap- 
tives in its presence,' had no doubt of its supremacy, for on the surface of 
society there seemed to be only slight ripples to indicate the agitation of serious 
opposition. So it sounded the trumpet for battle, and the newly organized 
Territory of Kansas was its chosen field of conflict. 

The iniquitous Fugitive Slave Act, and the aggressions and arrogance of 
the slave power, had aroused the Christian manhood of the nation, and the 
Champion of Wrong, to its utter astonishment, saw the gauntlet it had cast 
down immediately taken up boldly by the Champion of Right. The latter 
commenced the contest with the peaceful weapon of the ballot-l)ox. Suddenly 
emigration began to flow in a copious stream from the free-labor States, and 
especially from New England, into the new Territory. It was obvious that the 
settlers there from those States would soon out-vote those from the slave-labor 
States, and tlie dominant power thus far, alarmed and exasperated, began to 
organize physical forces in Missouri, to counteract the moral forces of its oppo- 
nent, if necessary. Combinations were formed under various titles,' and both 
parties founded settlements and planted the seeds of towns.* The government 
put forth its strength in that direction in October, 1854, when A. H. Reeder, 
appointed Governor of the Territory, arrived, and took measures for the elec- 
tion of a territorial legislature. 

With the election of members for a legislature, at the close of March, 1855, 
the struggle in Kansas fairly commenced. The men fi-om the Free-labor States 
plainly perceived that they must contend against fraud and violence in every 
form. The Missouri slave-holders were prepared to go into the Territory and 
secure the election of men in sympathy with them. Already in November 
[1854], when a delegate to Congress was elected, out of nearly twenty-nine 
hundred votes cast, over seventeen hundred were put in by Missourians who 

■ Merchants having a large "Southern trade," have confessed that for some time before tlie 
breal<iug out of tlie late civil war, they were careful not to allow the New York Tribune, and sim- 
ilar publications that advocated the righteousness of freedom for all, to be seen in their stores 
when their "Southern" customers were there! 

''They were respectively called "Social Band," "Friend's Society," "Blue Lodge," "The 
Sons of the South," et cetera. So early as the 24th of July, 1854, or about two weeks after the 
repeal of the' Missouri Compromise Act, an "Emigrant Aid Society," under an act of incorpora- 
tion by the Legislature of Massachusetts, in April previous, when the cloud of difficulty was 
gathering, was formed in Boston, and was efficient in sending settlers to Kansas. This move- 
ment created great exasperation among the slave-holders, and at a meeting lield at Westport, 
Missouri, early in July [1854], it was resolved that Missourians, who formed the associations there 
represented, should ho ready at all times to assist, when called upon by pro-slavery citizens in 
Kansas, to remove from the Territory by force every person who should attempt to settle there 
" under the auspices of the Northern Emigrant Society." They recommended tlie slave-holders 
of otlier counties in Missouri to take similar action. 

' The settlers from Free-labor States founded the towns of Lawrence, Topeka, Boston (after- 
ward Manhattan), Grasshopper Falls, Pawnee, and one or two others. Those from the Slave- 
labor States founded Kickapoo, Doniphan, Atchison, and a few others on or near the Missouri 
River A few days after the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act, himdreds of Missourians 
went over into Kansas, selected a tract of land, and put a mark upon it, for the purpose of 
establishing a sort of pre-emption right to it, and finally, at a public meeting, resolved as follows: 
— "That we will affi;jrd protection to no abolitionist as a settler of this Territory. That we 
recognize the institution of slavery as already existing in this Territory, and advise slave-holders 
to introduce their property as early as possible." 



I 



528 TB.E NATION. [1855. 

had no business there.' Now, these IMissourians were more open in their usur- 
pation of the rights of the citizens of Kansas. While only eight hundred and 
thirty-one legal electors voted for members of the Legislature, there were no 
less than six thousand three hundred and twenty votes polled. A thousand 
men came from Missouri, armed with deadly weapons, two cannon, tents, and 
other things that appear in time of war, and encamped around Lawrence." 
These carried the election by the most shameful fraud and violence ; and in 
like manner such ruffians controlled every other poll in the Territory. Then a 
reign of terror commenced in Kansas, and actual civil war darkened that beau- 
tiful land for more than a year. All classes of men carried deadly weapons, 
and a slight or accidental quarrel frequently produced unusual violence. 

The Legislature of Kansas, thus illegally chosen, was called by the Gov- 
ernor to meet at Pawnee City, on the Kansas River, nearly a hundred miles 
from the Missouri line. It immediately adjourned to Shawnee Mission, on the 
Missouri border, and there proceeded to enact the most barbarous laws for the 
upholding of slavery in the new Territory. These were regularly vetoed by 
the Governor, and as regularly passed over his veto. He was so obnoxious to 
the pro-slavery party, that they asked President Pierce to remove him. He 
did so, and sent ex-Governor Wilson Shannon, of Ohio, to fill his place. That 
official was acceptable to the Missourians, for he declared that he was for slavery 
in Kansas, and that the Kansas Legislature was legal, and its laws were bind- 
ing on the people ! 

The actual settlers in Kansas, the larger portion of whom were from the 
Free-labor States, held a mass convention on the 5th of September [1855], 
when they resolved not to recognize the laws of the Legislature, fraudulently 
chosen, as binding upon them. They refused to vote for a delegate to Congress 
at an election appointed by that Legislature, and they called a delegate conven- 
tion at Topeka on the 1 9th of October. By that convention Governor Reeder 

' A Democrat, named John W. Whitfield, was elected. He was an officer in the Confederate 
army during a portion of the late rebellion. David R. Atchison, then a member of the United 
States Senate from Jlissouri, was one of the chief promoters of the frauds and ruffianism by 
which attempts were made to seize Kansas. He, too, was a leader in the rebellion. 

' This band of lawless men were led bj' Claiborne F. Jackson, who was elected Governor of 
Missouri by the Democrats in 1860. He took an active part in the rebellion against his Govern- 
ment, and died a refugee in Arkansas, in 1862. On the evening before the electiofi we are con- 
sidering, his followers held a meeting at his tent, near Lawrence, and took measures to crush 
any attempt to hiive a legal polling of the votes. They threatened to hang an honest judge of 
the election, should he appear, and compelled another, under similar threats, to receive every vote 
offered by a Missourian. Some of these voted several times; and three of the men elected were 
residents of Missouri. Every man who did not sympathize with them, if known, was not allowed 
to vote. The result satisfied the slave-holders. The newspapers in their interest advised the 
Missourians who had thus "conquered Kansas" to "hold it, or die in the attempt;" and when 
Governor Reeder refused to give certificates to some of the men thus illegally elected, and 
ordered a new election on the 22d of May, to fill their places, he was threatened with death. " This 
infernal scoundrel," said a Missouri paper {The Brunswicker), "will have to be wiped out yet." 
No man was safe who dared to e.xpress his views in support of law and order. One example of 
the methods used by the slave-holders in conquering Kansas, cited by Mr. Greeley in his American 
Conflict (\. 239), will suffice: — ""William Phillips, a Free-State lawyer of Leavenworth, .saw fit to 
sign the protest against the wholesale frauds whereby the election at that place was carried. A 
few days thereafter, he was seized by a crowd of Missouri ruffians, taken by force to Weston, 
Missouri, eight miles distant, and tliere tarred and feathered, ridden on a rail, and finally sold at 
auction to a negro, who was compelled to purchase him." 



I856.J PIERCE'S ADMINISTRATION. 529 

was nominated for delegate in place of Whitfield, and was elected by the 
legal votes of the Territory. On the 23d of tlie «arae month a convention of 
the same party, chosen by the settlers, assembled at Topeka and formed a con- 
stitution, which was approved by the legal votes of the Territory, whereby 
Kansas should become a Free-labor State, and under this they asked for the 
admission of their Territory into the Union as such. By this act a portion of 
the strife between freedom and slavery for supremacy in Kansas was now 
transferred to Washington City. There Reeder and Whitfield contested the 
claim ■ of each to a seat. In the mean time elections had been held [January 
17, 1856] under the new State Constitution, and matters seemed dark for the 
pro-slavery party in that State, when President Pierce gave tiiem comfort by 
sending in a special message to Congress [Januarj' 24], in which he represented 
the action of the legal citizens of Kansas in forming a State Constitution as 
rebellion ! 

All through the spring of 1856, violence and bloodshed prevailed in Kansas. 
Seeing the determination of the actual settlers to maintain tlwir riglits, armed 
men flocked into the Territory from the Slave-labor States, and, under pretext 
of compelling submission to the laws of the illegal Legislature, they roamed 
over the land, committing excesses of every kind.' Finally, Congress sent a 
committee of investigation' to Kansas, whose majority made a report on the 
1st of July [1856], in which the political action of the legal voters of Kansas 
was fully vindicated, and the frauds by which the pro-slavery Legislature had 
been cliosen, and Whitfield elected a delegate, had been fully exposed. The 
Missouri member of the committee dissented from the report, and the mission 
failed to pi'oduce positive action, to the great disappointment of the country. 

As the autumn advanced, and the time for the election of a President of the 
Republic drew nigh, that question so absorbed public attention, that troubles 
in Kansas almost ceased. There were now three distinct political parties, and 
three candidates for the Chief Magistracy were before the people. A new and 
powerful party, composed chiefly of the opponents of the extension and exist- 
ence of slavery, had lately appeared. It was formed of men of every political 
creed, who were willing to cut loose from old organizations for the purpose of 
opposing the scheme of the slave-holders, and the leaders of the party of which 
President Pierce was the head, to make slavery a national instead of a sectional 
institution. This was called the Republican party. In the autumn of 1856, it 
had assumed vast proportions in the Free-labor States, and was kindly regarded 
by large numbers of patriotic men in the Slave-labor States. There was another 
powerful political organization, known as the American or Know-Nothing party, 
whose proceedings were at first in secret. Its chief bond of union was opposition 
to foreign influence and the denunciation of Roman Catholicism in our political 

' A regiment of reckless young men, from South Carolina and Georgia, entered the Territory, 
under a man named Bul'ord, in the spring of 185G, for the purpose, as they said, of makiu;^ 
Kansas a Slave-labor State at all hazards. These, with armed men imder Atchison, Stringfellow, 
and other ruffians, traversed the Territory, executing their wicked wills at pleasure, without even 
a rebuke from the Executive of the nation. , 

^ Composed of William A. Howard, of Michigan, John Sherman, of Ohio, and Mordecai Oliver, 
of Missouri. 

34 



530 "^^^ NATION. [1856. 

affairs. The Democratic party, dating its motlem organization at the election 
of General Jackson, in 1828,' had been divided and weakened by the slavery 
question, for many good men had left it when it became the avowed supporter 
of that Institution, or had formed a new organization within its fold ; while the 
old W/iiff party" was virtually annihilated as a distinct one. 

On the 22d of February, 1856, a national- convention of the American party, 
held at Philadelphia, nominated ex-President Fillmore^ for the office of Chief 
Magistrate, with A. J. Donelson, of Tennessee, for Vice-President. On the 
5th of June following, a national Democratic Convention^ in Cincinnati nomi- 
nated for President of the Republic James Buchanan, of Pennsylvania, one of 
the authors of the " Ostend Circular,"" with John C. Breckenridge, of Ken- 
tucky, for Vice-President. This nomination was satisfoctory to the Slave 
power, and the convention gave the coveters of Cuba and other territory 
within the Golden Circle' to understand that the party it represented was in 
sympathy with their doctrines and schemes.' 

On the 17th of June [1856], a national convention of Republicans, assem- 
bled at Philadelphia, nominated John C. Fremont, of California,' for President, 
and William L. Dayton, of New Jersey, for Vice-President. That convention 
put forth strong resolutions, indicative of the creed of the new and powerful 
party it represented." An exciting canvass followed these several nominations, 
and the vote [November 4, 1856] resulted in the choice of James Buchanan. 
After this, nothing of great importance occurred daring the remainder of Presi- 
dent Pierce's administration, which expired on the 4th of March, 1857. 

' Page 459. ' Note 2, page 46fi. ' Note 5, pago 501. 

' The two wings of tlie Democratic party (that leaning toward the anti-slavery policy of the 
Republicans being called the "Free-Soil Democracy") had been reconciled, and the organization 
was nearly a unit at this time. Delegates from each wing met in this convention, and they gen- 
erally agreed upon measures that were adopted. 

'" Page 520. ' Note 3, page 520. 

' In a series of resolutions, the convention took ground in favor of the efforts then making by 
filibusteros, as the Spaniards call small bodies of invaders, in Oentral America, saying, in allusion 
to Walker's outrages in Nicaragua: "The people of tlie United States cannot but sympathize with 
the efforts which are being made by the people of Central America to regenerate that portion of 
the continent which covers the passage across the inter-oceanic isthmus." They declared that 
the ne.\t administration would be expected to use every proper effort " to insure our ascendency 
in the Guif of Me.xico," and "Resolved, That the Democratic party are in favor of the acquisition 
of the Island of Cuba, on such terms as shall be honorable to ourselves and just to Spain." A. 
G. Brown, Senator from Mississippi, who was one of a committee appointed to visit Buchanan at 
his home near Lancaster, and apprise him of his nomination, was so well satisfied that the 
nominee was in favor of the national policy of the slave-holders, that he wrote a cheerful letter to 
that effect [June IS, 185£] to S. R. Adams, which he closed by saying: "In my judgment, he is 
as worthy of Southern confidence and Southern votes as ever Mr. Calhoun was." Mr. Buchanan 
did not disappoint his most sang\iiue "Southern" friends. 

» Page 488. 

' In the matter of aggression upon weak neighbors, the convention took direct issue with the 
Democratic party, by resolving, "That the highwayman's plea that 'might makes right,' embodied 
in the Ostend Circular, wa.s in every respect luiworthy of American diplomacy, and would bring 
shame and dishonor on any government or people that gave it their sanction." 



BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



531 



CHAPTER XV. 

BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. [1857—1861.] 

James Buchanan,' the fifteenth President of the Republic, took the oath 
of office at Washington City on the 4th of March, 1857. It was administered 
to hi m by the venerable Roger B. Taney, the Chief Justice of the United 




,^.^^^£^:5/^22^^''e-^=2^i^i^ 



States. Among the spectators on that occasion was a citizen who bore a near 
relationship to the great Washington, and who had been present at the inauga- 

' James Buchanan was bom in Franklin County, Pennsylvania, on the 23d of April, 1791. 
He was educated at Dickenson College, where he was graduated at the age of eighteen years. In 
1809 he was admitted to the bar, and was soon in successful practice in his native State. In 1814, 
when only twenty-three years of age, he was elected to a seat in the Legislature of Pennsylvania. 
This was his first prominent appearance in public life. In 1815 he dlstmgulshed liimself in his 
State Legislature as an opponent of the United States Bank, and became one of the foremost men 
in the Democratic party. He was elected to Congress in 1820, and there he soon became distin- 
guished as a speaker and debater. After ten years' service, he retired from Congress in 1831, 
when President Jackson appointed him minister to Russia. In 1 833 he was elected to the United 
States Senate, wliere he also served ten years. President Polk called him to his cabinet, as Sec- 
retary of State ; and in 1849 he again retired to private life. In 1853 he was appointed minister 
to England ; and in June, 1856, he was nominated for President of the United States. In Novem- 



332- '■'"^ NATION. [1SJ7. 

ration of every Cliief Magistrate of the Republic' Two days afterward, the 
Senate eontirnied jMr. liuchanan's cabinet appointment." 

Tlie beginning of Buchanan's administration was marked by an event which 
greatly intensified the sectional strife concerning slavery. Dred Scott, a 
negro, had been held as a slave in Missouri until 1834, when his master, who 
was a surgeon in the army, being ordered to a post in Illinois, took him into 
that Free-labor State. There Scott married the slave girl of another officer, 
with the consent of the masters. They had two children, born within Free- 
labor territory. The mother had been bought by the master of Scott, and 
when he returned to Missoui'i he held the parents and children' in bondage. 
They were sold, and Scott finally sued for his freedom, on the ground of his 
involuntary residence for years in a Free-labor region. The State Circuit Court 
of St. Louis County, in which the case was tried, gave judgment in his fiivor. 
This was reversed by the Supreme Court of the State, and the question was 
carried to and heard by the Supreme Court of the United States, at Washing- 
ton, in May, 1854, Chief Justice Taney presiding. The decision was reserved, 
for alleged prudential reasons, until after the Presidential election, in the 
autumn of 18.56.^ That decision, uttered by the Chief Justice, was against 
Scott, the majority of the court agreeing with its head in denying to any per- 
son, " whose ancestors were imported to this cou;itry and sold as slaves," any 
right to sue in a court of the United States ; in other words, denying the right 
of citizenship to any person who had been a slave, or was the descendant of a 
slave. 

The legitimate business of the court was simply a denial of jurisdiction ; 
but the Chief Justice took the occasion to give the sanction and aid of that 
august tribunal to the eiforts of the slave-holders to nationalize the institution 
of slavery. With a strange disregard of popular intelligence, he asserted, in 
opposition to testimony to the contrary, found in abundance in our records of 
legislation and social life, that the framcrs and supporters of the Declaration 
of Independence did not include the black race in our country in the great 
proclamation that " all men are created equal ;" that our Revolutionary fathers 
and their progenitors, " for more than a century before," regarded the black 
race among us as " so far inferior, that they had no rights which the white man 
■teas bound to respect" and that they " were never thought or spoken of except 

ber following he was elected to that high office, and on tlie 4th of March, 1861, he again retired 
to private life at his seat, called " Wheatland," near Lancaster, Pennsylvania, where he still [1867] 
remains. 

' George AVnshington Parke Ciistis, the grandson of Mrs. Washington, the adopted son of the 
l)ntriot, and the last surviving executor of his will. Mr. Custis died at Arlington House, near 
Washington City, in the autumn of 1857. 

" He appointed Lewis Cass, Secretary of State ; Howell Cobb, Secretary of the Treasury ; Joliu 
1). Floyd, Secretary of War; Isaac Toncey, Secretary of the Navy; Jacob Thompson, Secretary 
of the Interior; Aaron Y. Brown, Postmaster-General; and Jeremiah S. Black, Attorney- 
General. 

" The majority of the Judges of the Supreme Court at that time, whose sympathies were with 
the slave-holders, decided that, on account of the excitement produced by the Nebraska bill and 
events in Kansas, it was best to postpone the decision. " It is quite probable." says the 
author of The American Conflict, i. 252. "that the action of the court in tlie premises, if made 
public at the time originally intended [Term of 1855—6], would have reversed the issue of that 
Presidential election."' 



]S57.] BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 533 

as property.'''' He furllier alleged that the franiers of the Constitution " held the 
same views, as is equally evident from its provisions and language," when in 
that instrument slaves are always spoken of as " persons," and not as property. 
Having, with these and other statements, equal!)' discordant with the facts of 
history, declared the colored people of our country incapable of being citizen?, 
he proceeded to declare also that the Missouri Compromise Act, and all other 
acts of Congress restricting slavery, were unconstitutional, and that neither 
Congress, nor local Legislatures, had any authority for restricting the spread 
of the institution of slavery The majority of the court agreed with the Cliief- 
Justice in these extra-judicial opinions, and the leaders of the dominant politi- 
cal party assumed that the nation was bound to acquiesce in the judgment of 
these five or six fallible men, who proposed to turn back the tide of Christian 
civilization into the darker channels of a barbaric age from which it had broken, 
and was making the desert of Immaiiity " blossom as the rose." The conscience 
of the nation refused acquiescence.' - 

The newly elected President, who appears to have been informed of this 
decision before its promulgation, regarded it with great favor, and acted 
accordingly. In his inaugural address, delivered two days before the decision 
was promulgated, he hinted at the measure as one that would "speedily and 
finally " settle the slavery question.' " The whole Territorial question," he said, 
" being thus settled upon the principle of popular sovereignty — a principle as 
ancient as free government itself — every thing of a practical nature has been 
decided," and -he expressed a ho])e that the long agitation of the subject of 
slavery was " approaching its end." A council of priests could not stop the 
motion of the earth, and Galileo knew it, and said so ; the opinions of a few 
men could not prevent the great heart of the nation beating with strong 
desires to have our Republic in fact, as in name — ■ 

" The land of tlie free and tlie home of the brave." 

Kansas was still a battle-field on which Freedom and Slavery were openly 
contending. The energetic measures of John W. Geary, who had succeeded 
Shannon as governor of the Territory, liad smothered the fires of civil war for 
a time. He was succeeded by Robert J. Walker, a IMississippian, who was 
Secretary of the Treasury under President Polk ; and Frederick P. Stanton, of 
Tennessee, was appointed Secretary of the Territory. The two parties were 

' Roijer Brooke Taney was born in Maryland, on the Hth of March, 1777, and was admitted 
to the bar as a practicing lawyer in 1799. He served, at an early age, in the Senate and Assembly 
of Maryland. He was appointed Attorney-General of the United Slates in 1831. and Secretary of 
the Treasnry in 1S33. He was appointed Chief Justice of the United States on the death of Jndge 
Marshall, and took his seat as such in January, 1837. He remained in tliat office until his death, -in 
the city of Washington, on the 12th of October, 1864, when his place was filled by Salmon P. 
Chase, of Ohio, the present [1867] incumbent. 

' Discussing the right of the citizens of a Territory to settle the question whether or not 
slavery should exist in sucli Territory, he said : " It is a judicial (piestion, which legitimately 
belongs to the Supreme Court of the United States, before wliom it is now pending, and will, it is 
understood, be speedily and finally settled. To their decision, in common with all good citizens. 
I shall cheerfully submit." It should be remembered that the subject of discussion was never 
before the court for adjudication in any shape, and that the decision was an extra-judicial opinion 
of the Chief Justice, supported by some of his associates, and of no more bindmg force in la-w 
than the opinion of any other citizen. Tliat opinion was promulgated on the 6th of March, 1S5T. 



5;^4 "^"^ NATION. [1858. 

working energetically for the admission of Kansas as a State, with opposing 
ends in view. The pro-slavery party, in convention at Lecompton early in 
September, 1857, formed a constitution, in which was a clause providing that 
" the rights of property in slaves now in the Territory shall in no manner be 
interfered with," and forbade any amendments of the instrument until 1864. 
It was submitted to a vote of the people on the 21st of December following, 
but, by the terms of the election law, no one might vote agamst that Consti- 
tution. The vote was taken : " For the Constitution, icith slavery," or " For 
the Constitution, without slavery ;" so that, in either case, a Constitution that 
protected and perpetuated slavery would be voted for. The vote for the Con- 
stitution with slavery was, of course, largely the majority. 

Meanwhile, an election for a Territorial Legislature was held. Assured by 
Walker that justice should rule, the friends of Free labor generally voted, and, 
notwithstanding enormous frauds,' they carried the Legislature and elected a 
delegate to Congress. The new Legislature, unquestionably legal, ordered the 
Lecompton Constitution to be submitted to the people of the Territory for 
their adoption or rejection. The result was its rejection by over ten thousand 
majority." Regardless of this strong expression of the will of the people of 
Kansas, the President sent the pro-slavery Lecompton Constitution to Con- 
gress [February 2, 1858], wherein was a large Democratic majority, with a 
message in which he recommended its acceptance and ratification.^ It was 
accepted by the Senate (32 yeas, 25 nays), but in the House a substitute pro- 
posed by the venerable Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky, was adopted, which 
provided for the re-submission of the Lecompton Constitution to the people of 
Kansas. It was done, and that instrument was again rejected by about ten 
thousand majority. The political power in Kansas was now in the hands of 
the friends of freedom, and finally, at the close of January, 1861, that Territory 
was admitted into the Union as a Free-labor State, and the thirty-fourth 
member of the family. So ended one of the most desperate of the skirmishes 
before the great battle between Freedom and Slavery, which we shall consider 
presently. And in 1862, the opinion of Chief Justice Taney, that a descendant 
of a slave could not become a citizen of the Republic, was practically rejected 
as unsound, by the issuing of a passport to one, by the Secretary of State, to 
travel abroad as a " citizen of the United States." 

While the friends of freedom were anxiously considering how they should 
save their country from the perils with which the institution of slavery threat- 
ened it, the friends of that system, emboldened by the sympathy of the 
government, formed plafts for its perpetuity, and their own profit and aggran- 
dizement, which would practically disregard the plain requirements of tlic 

' One or two examples may be given. In a little precinct on the Missouri border, where there 
were but forty-three legal votes, 1,600 votes were taken: and at another place, where no poll was 
opened, 1,200 were returned. 

" The vote was, for the Constitution with slaverv, 138: for it without slavery. 24: against it, 
10,226. 

° la that message he said, referring to the opinion of Chief Justice Taney, alrcidy considered : 
"It has been solemnly adjudged, by the liighest judicial tribunal known to our laws, that slavery 
exists in Kansas by virtue of the Constitution of the United States. Kansas is, therefore, at 
this moment, as much a slave State r.s Georgia or South Carolina." 



1857] BUCnANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 535 

National Constitution, and defy the laws of the land and the humane spirit of 
the time. They resolved to re-open the African slave-trade. In direct viol.i- 
tion of the laws, native Africans were landed on the coasts of the Southern 
States, and placed in hopeless bondage. In Louisian.a, leading citizens engaged 
in a scheme for legalizing that horrid traffic, under the deceptive guise of what 
they called the " .Vfrican Labor-supply Association,'" and in Savaimah, Georgia, 
a grand jury, who were compelled by law to find several bills against persons 
charged with complicity in the slave-trade, actually protested against the laws 
they were sworn to support." Southern newspapers openly advocated the 
traffic ;' and a prominent Southern clergyman asserted his conviction that the 
horrible African slave-trade was "the most worthy of all missionary societies."* 
Southern legislatures and conventions 
openly discussed the subject of re-opening 
the trade.' JohnSlidell, of Louisiana, one of 
the arch-conspirators against the life of the 
Republic, urged in the Senate of the United 
States the propriety of withdrawing Ameri- 
can cruisers from the coast of Africa, that 
the traffickers in human beings might not be 
molested ; and the administration of Mr. 
Buchanan was made to favor this sclieme 
of the great cotton-planters, by protest- 
ing against the visitation of suspected 
slave-bearing vessels, carrying the American 
flag, by British cruisers.' 

The Fusritive Slave Act was now bear- 




JOHN SLIDELL. 



' The President of that association was the late Mr. De Bow, editor of De Bow's Review, pub- 
hshed in New Orleans. That magazine was the acknowledged organ of the oligarchy of slave- 
holders, and wa.s one of tlie cliief promoters of the late rebellion. 

" "We feel humbled," they said, "as men. in the consciousness that we are freemen but in 
name, and that we are living, during the existence of such laws, under a tyranny as supreme as 
that of the despotic governments of the Old World. Heretofore tlie people of the South, firm in 
their consciousness of riglit and strength, have failed to place the stamp of condemnation upon 
such laws as reflect upon the institution of slavery, but have permitted, unrebuked, tlie influence 
of foreign opinion to prevail in their support." 

" The True f-'outlu-on. published in Mississippi, suggested the " propriety of stimulating the 
zeal of the pulpit by founding a prize for the best sermon in favor of free-trade in negroes." This 
proposition was widely copied with approval, and in many pulpits professed ministers of the 
gospel exhibited " zeal" in the service of the slave power, without the stimulus of an offered prize. 

* Doctor James H. Thornwell, President of the Presbvterian Theological Seminary at Columbia, 
South Carolina. Dr. Thornwell, who died at the beginning of the late rebellion, was distinguished 
as "the Calhoun of the Church" in tlie South. 

' The "Southern Commercial Convention," held at Yicksburg, Mississippi, on the lUh of 
May, 1859, resolved, by a vote of 47 to IG, that "all laws, State or Federal, prohibiting the 
African slave-trade, ought to be abolished." There is ample evidence on record, that Jefferson 
Davis, Alexander H. Stephens, William L. Yancey, and other leaders in the late rebellion, were 
advocates of the foreign slave-trade. 

° By an arrangement between the governments of the United States and Great Britain, tlic 
cruisers of each were empowered to board vessels of either nation suspected of being engaged 
in the African slave-trade. When, in tlie summer of 1858, it was known that the trade 
was about to be carrie.d on actively by men of the Slave-labor States, the British cruisers 
in the Gulf of Mexico were imusually vigilant, and in the course of a few weeks boarded 
about forty suspected American vessels. Our government, inspired by men like Slidell, protested 



^3(3 THE NATIOX [1S.J7. 

ing the fruit desired by its author.' Tlie evident intention of the slave-liolders, 
assisted by the President and tlie Chief Justice, to nationalize slavery, increased 
the sense of its offensiveness ; and the denial of the obvious meaning of the 
vital doctrine of the Declaration of Independence awakened in the breast of 
the people, especially in the Free-labor States, strong desires for removing 
from the national escutcheon the horrid stain of human bondage.' The Legis- 
latures of several Free-labor States adopted measures to prevent, by lawful 
means, its most injurious actions, and in a special manner to prevent the 
carrying away of free persons of color into slavery, the law denying the right 
of the alleged fugitive to trial by jury. The Legislature of New York re- 
affirmed the determination of the State autliorities to make every slave free 
that should bo brought involuntarily within its borders, and denounced the 
opinion of the Chief Justice, wliich denied citizenship to men of color. Ohio 
passed a bill of similar character; and Maine, JIassachusctts, Connecticut, 
Michigan, and "Wisconsin took strckng ground in favor of the freedom of the 
slave, without assuming an attitude of actual resistance to the obnoxious Act, 
which all were bound to obey so long as it remained unrepealed. These " Per- 
sonal Liberty Laws," as they were called, exasperated the slave-holders, and 
they were used by the politicians as a pretext, as it was intended they should be, 
for kindling the flames of civil war. At about the same time a " National 
Emancipation Society" was formed at Cleveland, Ohio [August 26, 1857], 
having for its object the maturing of a plan for ending slavery by the purchase 
of the slaves by the National government. 

against what it was pleased to call the odious British doctrine of " tlie right of searcli," and tlie 
British government, for "prudential reasons," put a stop to it, and laid the blame on the officers 
of tlie cruisers. 

' See page 521. 

" Wlien the Declaration of Independence was promulgated, its precepts struck at tlie root of 
human bondage in every form; and eflbrts were made, in several States, to eradicate tlie institu- 
tion, sometimes in the form of propositions for immediate, and at otliers for gradual, emancipation. 
It had been expelled from England by the decision of Lord Mansfield, just before the kindling of 
the American Revolution. This decision was in the case of James Somerset, a native of Africa, 
who was carried to A^irginia, and sold as a slave, taken to England by his master, and there 
induced to assert his freedom. The first case of a similar nature on record in England was in 
1697,, when it was held that negroes "being usually bought and sold among merchants, as mer- 
chandise, and also being infidels, there might be a property in them sufficient to maintain trover." 
This position was overruled Ijy Chief Justice Holt, who decided that " so soon as a negro lands in 
England, he is free." To this decision Cowpcr alludes, wlien he says, "Slaves cannot breathe in 
England;" In 1702, Justice Holt also decided that "there is no such thing as a slave by the law 
of England." In 1729. an opinion was obtained, that "negroes legally enslaved elsewhere might 
be lield as slaves in England, and that baptism was no bar to the master's claim." This was 
held as good law until Mansfield's decision above mentioned. 

In the English colonies in America, the most enlightened men, regarding slavery witli groat 
disfavor, made attempts from time to time to limit or to eradicate it. Tlie utterances and actions of 
George Washington, Ilcnry Laurens, Tliomas Jefl'erson, and other slave-holders, and of Dr. 
Franklin, John Jay, and many other leading patriots, directly refute the assertion of Judge Taney, 
that in their time Africans by descent "were never thought or spoken of except as property." 
Among the important public acts of those men so misrepresented, was the famous Ordinance of 
1787 [see page 362], adopted before the National Constitution was fralned. which was the. final 
result of an effort commenced in the Continental Congress some years before [1784] to restrict 
slavery. That action was in relation to a plan for the government of the Western Territory, then 
inchid'ing the whole region west of the old thirteen States, as far south as the thirty-first degree 
of north latitude, and embracing several of the late Slave-labor States. _ The plan was submitted 
by a committee, of which Thomas Jefl'erson was chairman. It contemplated the ultimate diyisioii 
oi' that territory into seventeen States, eight of them below the latitude of the present city of 



1859.] BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 537 

The attention of tlie public mind was somewhat diverted for a while from 
the absorbing topic of slavery by the movements of the Mormons in Utah,' 
early in 1857. Incensed because their Territory was not admitted as a State, 
they commenced revolutionary proceedings. They destroyed the records of 
the United States Court for the District ; and luider tlie instructions of their 
Governor and spiritual head, Brigham Young," they looked to him for all laws. 
The President determined to enforce those of the United States. He appointed 
Colonel Cumming Governor of Utah, and sent an army to uphold his authority. 
Young issued a proclamation, declaring his intention to resist the troops ; but 
when Cumming arrived there, in April, 1858, while the army was at Fort 
Bridger, Young received him with courtesy, and surrendered to him the Seal 
of the Territory ; at the same time he and his people prepared to leave the 
country, declaring that they would emigrate to a new land rather than submit 
to military and Gentile rule. The troops, who had lost a provision train, 
destroyed by the Mormons, were recalled; the "Mormon War" ended, and 
Young and his people were soon again applying for the admission of their 
Territory as a State.^ They are yet [1867] unsuccessful. Polygamy is the 
hindrance. 

The autumn of 1859 was the witness of a most extraordinary excitement 
on the subject of slavery. The feverishness in the public mind, produced by 
the discussions of that topic, had somewhat subsided, and there was unusual 
calmness in the political atmosphere. Utah was quiet ; difficulties which had 
arisen between our government and that of Paraguay, in South America, had 
been settled, and the Indian troubles on the Pacific coast were drawing to a 
close.' Walker's fillibustering operations against Nicaragua were losing much 
of their interest in consequence of his failures,' and the National Legislature, 
during its short session, had been much engaged in action upon the Pacific 
Railway, Homestead, Soldiers' Pension, and other bills ©f national interest. 
The summer had passed away in general quietude throughout the country, 
and the weary in the political field were hoping for rest, when the whole na- 
tion was startled, as by a terrific thunder- peal, by an announcement from Balti- 



Loiiisville, in Kentucky. Amon;; the rules for the government of that region, reported by Mr. 
Jefferson, was the following : " That after tlie year 1 800 of the Christian era, tliere sliall be neither 
slavery nor involuntary servitude in any of the said States, otherwise than in punishment of crimes, 
whereof the party shall have been convicted to be personally guilty." This clause was stricken 
out [April 19, 1"84], on motion of Mr. Spaight, of North Carolina, seconded by Mr. Read, of South 
Carolina. A majority of the States were against striking it out, but the Articles of Confederation 
required a vote of nine States to carry a proposition. See Journals of Congres". In the Ordinance 
of 1787 [see page 362], this rule, omitting the words, "after the year 1800 of the Christian era," 
was incorporated. 

' See page 504. 

" The successor of Joseph Smith [page 504], who wag duly appointed Governor of Utah by 
President Fillmore in 1.50, and yet (18ij7) holds that position. 

'■' Early in 1SI12 they formed a new State Coustitutien, elected senators and representatives 
I'.nder it, and applied for admission when Congress assembled, near the close of the 3'ear. No 
action was had on the application: but Congress passed a law "to punish and prevent tl.e prac- 
tice of polygamy in the Territories of the United States," and in other places, and disapproving 
and annulling certain acts of the Legislative Assembly of the Territory of Utah. The law 
agninst polygamy is a dead letter In our statute-books. 

' I'age 525. ' rage 525. 



538 '^^^ NATION. [1859. 

more [October 17, 1859] that "an insurrection had broken out at Harper's 
Ferry,' where an armed band of Abolitionists have full possession of the Gov- 
ernment Arsenal." This was the celebrated " John Brown's Raid," which 
kindled a blaze of intense excitement throughout the Slave-labor States, and 
revived the " slavery agitation " with fiercest intensity. 

The outline of the story of " John Brown's Raid " may be given in few 
words. Brown' had acted and suffered much in Kansas during the civil war 
there, where he was a prominent anti-slavery man. He was enthusiastic, fanat- 
ical, and brave, and believed himself to be the destined liberator of the slaves 
in our land. He went into Canada from Kansas by way of Detroit, with a 
few followers and twelve slaves from Missouri, whom he led to freedom in the 
dominions of the British Queen. At Chatham he held a convention [May 8, 
1859], whereat a "Provisional Constitution and Ordinances for the People of 
the United States " was adopted, not, as the instrument itself declared, for the 
overthrow of any government, " but simply to amend and repeal ;" adding, 
" and our flag shall be the same that our fathers fought under in the Revolu- 
tion." It was part of a scheme for an uprising of the slaves for the obtaining 
of their freedom. 

The summer of 1859 was spent in preparations for a decisive movement, 
and Brown finally hired a farm a few miles from Harper's Ferry, where he was 
known by the name of Smith. There a few followers stealthily congregated, 
and pikes and other weapons were gathered, and ammunition was provided, 
for the purpose of striking the first blow against slavery in Virginia. The 
appointed time for delivering that blow was Sunday evening, the IGth of 
October, when Brown, moving in profound darkness, with seventeen white and 
five colored men, entered the little village of Harper's Ferry, extinguished the 
public lights, seized the armory and the railway bridge, and quietly arrested 
and imprisoned in the government buildings citizens as thoy appeared in the 
streets, one by one, in the morning, ignorant of what had happened. The 
news soon went abroad. Virginia militia flocked to the rescue, and in the 
course of twenty-four hours Colonel Robert E. Lee was there with government 
troops and cannon. Struggles between the raiders and the militia and citizens 
resulted in several deaths. Two of Brown's sons were killed, and the leader 
was captured. He expected a general uprising of the negroes in that region, 
but was disappointed. He was indicted for exciting slaves to insurrection, 

' At the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah rivers, in Virginia, where the united 
streams burst througli the Blue Ridge. There was a National armory, in wliich a large quantity 
of arms were stored at the time we are considering. 

' John Brown was bora in Farmington, Connecticut, on tlie 0th of May, 1800. When he 
was five years of age liis family settled in Hudson, Ohio, and, as a cattle-driving boy, he was at 
the surrender of Hull at Detroit, in 1812. His school education was meager, and he learned the 
trade of tanner and currier. He commenced studying for the ministry, but weak eyes compelled 
him to desist. He worked at his trade and farming in both Ohio and Pennsylvania. He engaged 
extensively in wool dealing, and on account of that business went to Europe. Incurring lieavy 
loss, and returning a bankrupt. He moved from place to place, and finally went to Kansas with 
song by his first wife, where he was active in public matters. He became an abolitionist in early 
life, and the conviction that he was to be a liberator of the slaves possessed him so early as 18.'!9. 
He was twice married, and had seven children by his first wife and thirteen by his last, who yet 
[1867] survives him. 



1859.] BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION, 539 

and for treason and murder. He was tried and found guilty [October 29], and 
was executed on the 2d of December, under the laws of Virginia. 

The most exaggerated reports concerning this raid went abroad. Terror 
spread over Virginia. Its Governor (Henry A. Wise) was almost crazy with 
excitement, and incurred the pity and ridicule of the whole country.' Through- 
out the Slave-labor States there was a wide-spread apprehension of slave insur- 
rections, and every man there from the Free-labor States was suspected of 
being an emissary of the abolitionists. Attempts were made to implicate 
leaders of the Republican party, and the inhabitants of the Free-labor 
States generally, in this scheme for liberating the slaves. The author of the 
Fugitive Slave law, James M. Mason," was chairman of a committee of the 
United States Senate appointed to investigate the matter; and Clement L. 
Vallandigham, of Ohio, then a member of the Lower House, volunteered to 
aid in proving the charge against the people of the North. The result was 
positive proof that Brown had no accomplices, and only about twenty follow- 
ers. Although Brown's mad attempt to free the slaves was a total failure in 
itself, it proved to be one of the important events which speedily brought 
about the result he so much desired. 

The elections in 1858 and 1859 indicated a remarkable and growing strength 
in the Republican party, and it was evident to the slave-holders that their dom- 
ination in the councils of the nation would speedily end. They saw no chance 
for the election of another President of their choice, and the leaders of that 
powerful oligarchy, who had been for years conspiring for the overthrow of 
the Republic by a dissolution of the Union, so as to establish the great slave 
empire of their dreams within the Golden Circle,^ perceived that they must 
strike the blow during or at the immediate close of Mr. Buchanan's adminis- 
tration, or perhaps never. They must have a pretext for the crime, and they 
set diligently to work to create one more specious than the opposition to the 
Fugitive Slave law would afford. They were in full political alliance with the 



' The excited Governor was prepared, according to his own words, to make war upon all the 
Free-labor States, for the honor of Virginia, In a letter to the President [Nov, 25, 1859], after 
saying that he had good authority for the belief that a conspiracy to rescue John Brown existed 
in Ohio, Pennsjdvania, New Yorlc, and otlier States, he said : — I protest that my purpose is 
peaceful, and tliat I disclaim all tlireats when I say, with ail tlie might of meaning, tliat if another 
invasion assails tliis State or its citizens from any quarter, I will pursue the invaders wlierever 
they may go, into any territory, and punisli them wherever arms can reach them, I shall send a 
copy of this to the Governors of Maryland, Ohio, and Pennsylvania, — Autograph Letter. Before 
tlie close of the late civil war, of whicli AVise was one of tlie fomenter.s a daughter of .lohn 
Brown was a teaclier of a scliool of colored children in tlie ex-Governor's liousc, near Norfolk, 
Virginia, then in possession of tlie government. 

Wise was willing to find victims to "punish" by secret and dishonorable means. In a let- 
ter to the President, written twelve days before [November 13] the one above cited, he asked 
the Executive and the Postmaster-General to aid him in a sclieme for seizing and taking to Vir- 
ginia Fredericlc Douglas, an eminent and widely-known colored citizen, wlio had escaped from 
slavery many years before, and was tlien living in the western part of the State of New York, 
though Wise, as appears by the letter, supposed him to be in Micliigan, Douglas was an elo- 
quent and influential pleader for tlie emancipation of his race, and was feared and intensely hated 
by the slave-holders. He was guilty of no crime — no act tliat a slave-liokier could complain of 
but escape from bondage. That was a crime quite sufficient for the crazy Governor of Virginia 
to have justified himself in hanging Douglas on the same gallows with John Brown, 

" Page 521, " Page 520, 



540 



THE NATION*. 



[18C0. 



Democratic party then in power, and might, by acting with it in good faith, 
and electing a President of its choice in 1 860, maintain its possession of the 
government for some time longer, but with no certainty of a Listing tenure, 
for a large faction of that party, under the leadership of Senator Douglas, 
showed tangible proclivities toward affiliation with the opponents of slavery. 
So the leaders of the oligarchy resolved to destroy the supremacy of that 
party, and allow the Republicans to elect their candidate, whoever he might 
be, and thus, with the pretext that he was a sectional President, and an enemy 
to the institution of slavery, they might, witli plausible appeals to the domi- 
nating passions of their class, "fire the Southern heart," and make a success- 
ful revolution possible. This was a plan formed by conspirators like Jefferson 
Davis, of Mississippi ; John Slidell and Judah P. Benjamin, of Louisiana ; 
William L. Yancey, of Alabama ; Robert Toombs and Howell Cobb, of Geor- 
gia ; the Rhetts, W. P. Miles, and L. M. Keitt, of South Carolina ; T. Cling- 
man, of Xorth Carolina ; D. L. Yulee, of Florida ; Louis T. Wigfall, of Texas ; 
and James M. Mason and R. M. T. Hunter, of Virginia, who appeared most 
prominently as actors at the opening of the late rebellion. These men, as the 
ordeal to which their wickedness soon exposed them proved, were lacking in 
the true elements which constitute statesmen, but had for years assumed the 
character of such, and were self-constituted leaders of opinion and action in 
the more southern Slave-labor States, to the mortal hurt of the deceived 
people. 

Almost six hundred chosen representatives of the Democratic party assem- 
bled in convention in the hall of the South Carolina Listitute, in Charleston, 

South Carolina, on the 
2od of April, ]860, for 
the purpose of nomi- 
nating candidates for the 
Presidency and Yice- 
Presidency of the Repub- 
lic. It was evident from 
the first liour of the ses- 
sion that the spirit of the 
slave system was there, 
full of mischief, and as 
potential as Ariel in the 
creation of elementary 
strife. For months there 
had been premonitions of 
a storm Avhich might topple from its foundatio-as tlic organization known as 
the Democratic party. Violent discordant elements were now in close con- 
tact, and all felt that a fierce tempest was impending. 

Caleb Cushing, of ]\Lassachusetts, was chosen the Chairman of the Conven- 
tion. The choice was in accordance with the wishes of the slave-holders. In 
his inaugural speech Mr. Cushing declared it to be the " high and noble part 
of the Democratic party of the Union to withst.and — to strike down and con- 



/?v - 



\\H-\ W 





SOUTH CAROLINA INSTITUTE. 



18G0.] BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. ^^l 

quer" the " banded enemies of the Constitution," as he styled the anti-slavery 
Republican party. But those in the Convention inost clamorous for the Con- 
stitution were not anxious, at that time, to "strike down" the Republican 
party. They were more intent upon striking down their own great party, for 
the moment, by dividing it ; and a greater portion of the delegates from the 
Slave-labor t>tates came instructed, and were resolved to demand from the 
Convention a candidate and a platform which should promise a ojuaranty for 
tlie speedy practical recognition, by the general government and the people, 
W the system of slavery as a national institution. Senator Stephen A. Doug- 
las,' of Illinois, was the most prominent candidate of the party for a nomina- 
tion before the Convention. It was well known that he was committed to a 
course that would not allow him or his friends to agree to such a platform of 
principles. His rejection by the representatives of the slave-holders would 
split the Democratic party asunder, and then the first great and desired act in 
the drama of rebellion against their government would be auspiciously begun. 
They resolved to employ that wedge. 

The Democratic party throughout the Union had accepted the doctrine of 
" Popular Sovereignty," of which Douglas was the sponsor and exponent, and 
which was put forth in the resolutions of the Convention at Cincinnati that 
nominated Buchanan," as the true solution of the slavery question; but now it 
was rejected by the slave-liolders as too dangerous to their interests. Their 
experience in Kansas taught H,hem that positive law, and not public opinion, 
must thereafter be relied on for the support of slavery. So when the Conven- 
tion, by a handsome majority, reaffirmed the Cicinnati platform of principles — ■ 
adopted the "Douglas platform" of Popular Sovereignty — preconcerted rebel- 
lion lifted its head defiantly. Le Roy P. Walker, who was Jefferson Davis's 
so-called " Secretary of "War" at the beginning of the late rebellion, declared 
that he and his associates from Alabama were instructed not to acquiesce in or 
submit to any such platform, and, in the event of such being adopted, to with- 
draw from the Convention. That contingency had nqw occurred, and the 
Alabama delegates formally withdrew. 

This action of the Alabamians was imitated by delegates from otlier States. 
They were followed out of the Convention by all the delesrates from Missis- 
sippi, all but two from Louisiana, all from Florida and Texas, three from 
Arkansas, and all but two from South Carolina. On the following day twenty- 
six of the thirty-four delegates from Georgia withdrew. Two delegates from 
Delaware followed, and joined the seceders ; and all met that nisjht in St. 
Andrew's Hall, to prepare for a new organization. The disruption of the 
Democratic party represented in the Convention was now complete, and the 
traitorous intentions of the seceders were foreshadowed by Glenn, of Missis- 
sippi, one of their number, who said to the Convention, before leaving it : 
" I tell Southern men here, and for them I tell the Xorth, that in less than sixty 
days you will find a united South standing side by side with us." He was 
vehemently cheered, especially by the South Carolinians, and Charleston was 

' Page 518. 2 Page 530. 



542 'I''^'^ NATION. [1860. 

the scene of great delight that night, because of this auspicious beginning of a 
rebellion by the arrogant oligarchy of slave-holders. 

The seceders, with James A. Bayard, of Delaware, as their chosen head, 
assembled the next day, organized what they called a " Constitutional Con- 
vention," sneeringly called the majority they had deserted a " Rump Conven- 
tion," and prepared for vigorous action. On the evening of th# 3d of May, 
they adjourned to meet in Richmond, Virginia, in June, and invited the 
" Democracy " who sympathized with them to join them there. The original 
Convention adjourned to meet in Baltimore, Maryland, in Juno, to which tim* 
the nomination of a candidate was postponed. The latter reassembled in the 
Front Street Theater, in that city [June 18, 1860], with Mr. Cushing in the 
chair. There was a stirring time again, the subject of slavery being the 
exciting cause, and Crushing and most of the Massachusetts delegation with- 
drew.' The seceders, who had met at Richmond, were now in Baltimore, and 
these and the Cushing malcontents organized a Convention in the Maryland 
Institute. The regular Convention chose David Tod, of Ohio, for their presi- 
dent, and proceeded to nominate Mr. Douglas for the Chief IMagistracj'.' The 
seceders, calling themselves the National Democratic Convention, nominated 
John C. Breckenridge, then Vice-President of the Republic, for President. 

On the 9th of May [1860], representatives of a party then about six months 
of age assembled in convention in Baltimore, styled themselves the National 
Constitutional Union Partu, and was jjresided»over by the late Washington 
Hunt. They nominated for President John Bell, of Tennessee,' and for Vice- 
President, Edward Everett, of Massachusetts. They adopted as their platform 
the National Constitution, with the motto, The Union, the Constitution, 
AND THE Enforcement of the Laws. A few days later, chosen representa- 
tives of the Republican party, and a vast concourse of people, assembled [May 
16, 1860] in an immense building in Chicago, erected for the purpose, and 
called a " wigwam," to nominate a candidate for the Presidency. George 
Ashmun, of Massachusetts, presided. The Convention adopted a platform of 
principles in the form of seventeen resolutions,* and on the 19th nominated 

' Benjamin F. Butler, one of the Massachusetts seceders from the Convention in Baltimore, 
said before leaving it: "We put our withdrawal before you upon the simple groimd, among 
others, that there had been a withdrawal, in part, of a majority of the States ; and, further (and 
that, perhaps, more personal to myself), upon the ground that I will not sit in a convention where 
the African slave-trade — which is piracy, by the laws of my country — is approvingly advocated." 

'' James Fitzpatrick, of Alabama, was nominated for Vice-President. He declined, and 
Herschel V. Johnson, of Georgia, was substituted. 

' When the'Rebellion broke out, in the spring of 1861. Mr. Bell was one of the earliest, if not 
the very first, of the professed Unionists of distinction who joined the enemies of his country, in 
their attempt to overthrow the Constitution, and destroy the nationality of the Republic. Breck- 
enridge, the candidate of the pro-slavery wing of the Democratic party, became a m.ajor-general 
in the army of the conspirators against the life of the Republic. 

* After affirming that the maintenance of tlie principles promulgated in the Declaration of 
Independence, and embodied in the National Constitution, is essential to the preservation of. our 
Republican institutions ; congratulating the country that no Republican member of Congress liad 
uttered or countenanced any threats of disunion, "so often made by Democratic members without 
rebuke, and with applause from their political associates," and denouncing such threats as "an 
avowal of contemplated treason," the resolutions made explicit declarations upon the topic of 
slavery, so largely occupying public attention. In a few paragraphs, they declared tliat each 
State had the absolute right of control in the management of its own domestic coucerns ; tlial the 



1860 ] 



BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



543 



Abraham Lincoln,' of Illinois, for the Presidency, and Hannibal Hamlin, of 
Maine, for the Vice-Presidency of the Republic. There, in that " wigwam," 
war was openly declared against the principles and purposes of the oligarchy 
of the Slave-labor States, and the standard of revolt was raised against the. 
operations of a tyranny which was rapidly enslaving the nation, materially 




THE " WIGWAM " AT CHICAGO. 

and morally. In that " wigwam " Abraham Lincoln was made the standard- 
bearer in that revolt which resulted in the overthrow of slavery, and the puii- 
fication and strengthening of the nation. 

And now, in the early summer-time of I860, the most important political 
campaign known in this country was opened with four parties in the field, but 
only two of them (the Republicaii, and the pro-slavery wing of t'he Democratie 



new dogma, that the Constitution, of its own force, carries slavery into any or all of the Terri- 
tories of the United States, was a dangerous political heresy, revolutionary in its tendency, and 
subversive of the peace and harmony of the country ; tliat the normal condition of all the territory 
of the United States is that of freedom, and that neitlier Congress nor a Territorial Legislature, 
nor any individuals, have authority to give legal existence to slavery in any Territory of the 
United States, and that the reopening of the African slave-trade, then recently commenced in the 
Southern States, under the cover of our national Hag, aided by perversions of judicial power, was 
a crime against humanity, and a burning shame to our country and age. 

' Abraham Lincoln was born in Hardin County, Kentuclcy, February 12, 1809. His ancestors 
were Quakers iu Pennsylvania. When he was seven years of age, his father settled, with his 
family, in Indiana. He received but little education. He worked hard for ten years on a farm, 
and, at tlie age of nineteen years, went to New Orleans as a hired hand on a flat-boat. In 1830 
he settled in Illinois, became a clerk in a store, and was a captain of volunteers in the Black 
Hawk war, in I8;!2. He was elected to the Illinois Legislature in 1834, in which he served 
four years. He was licensed iu 1836 to practice law, and commenced the profession in Spring- 
field in 1S:17. He rose to distinction. He was elected to Congress in 1846. He was named for 
the position in which Fremont was placed by the Ripuljlicans in 1856 [page 530]. He was 
always an anti-slavery man, but did not rank with "Abolitionists." In November, 18G0, he was 
elected President of tlie United States, and performed the duties of his office with singular fidelity, 
zeal, and wisdom, during the terrible Civil War that ensued. He was re-elected President in 
1864, and was inaugurated for his second term on the 4th of March. 1865. On the evening of the 
14tli of April ne.vt ensuing he was shot by an assassin, and expired early the following morning, 
at the age of little more than fifty-six years. His remains repose in a vault in the Oak Ridge 
Cemetery, at Springfield, Illinois. 



544 THE NATION. [18G0 

party) exliibiting tangible convictions, as units, on the great topic which had 
so long agitated the nation,' and these took issue, squarely, dwfinitely, and 
defiantly. It had been declared by the former, whose standard-bearer was 
Abraham Lincoln, that there was " an irrepressible conflict between Freedom 
and Slavery," — " that the Republic cannot exist half slave and half free," and 
that " freedom is the normal condition of all territory." It had been declared 
by the latter, whose standard-bearer was John C. Breckenridge, that no power 
existed that might lawfully control slavery in the Territories ; that it existed 
in-any Territory in full force, whenever a slave-holder and his slaves entered 
it ; and that it was the duty of the National go\ernment to protect them. 
This was the issue. The conflict during the canvass, from July to November, 
was severe. The cons])irators against the life of the Republic were with the 
Breckenridge faction, and they and their followers used every means in their 
power to excite the slave-holders, and the masses of the people in the Slave- 
labor States, against those of the Free-labor States. During the summer and 
autum of 1860, they traversed the latter States, everywhere vindicating the 
claims put I'orth by the extremists of the pro-slavery party. Among these 
orators, in the interest of the oligarchy, William L. Yancey, one of the most 
daring of the Conspirators, was the most conspicuous. He was treated kindly, 
and listened to patiently, and then he went back, with treason in his heart 
and falsehood upon his lips, to deceive and arouse into rebellion the confiding 
people he was about to betray. Like an incarnation of discord, he cried sub- 
stantially as he had written two years before :" — " Organize committees all over 
the Cotton States; fire the Southern heart; instruct the Southern mind ; give 
courage to each other ; and at the proper moment, by one organized, concerted 
action, precipitate the Cotton States into revolution." 

Yancey, in principles and action, was a type of- politicians in the other 
Slave-labor States who now worked in co-operation with him in bringing about 
a rebellion against the government, by the slave-holders. Their pretext was 
found in the doctrines andpracticesof the Republican party, as revealed in their 
convention, during the canvass, and at the election [November 6, 1860], which 
resulted in the choice of Abraham Lincoln for President.^ Although Mr. Lin- 
coln had a large majority over each candidate, and V'as elected in accordance 
with the letter and spirit of the National Constitution, yet the fact that he 
received 979,163 votes less than did all of his opponents, gave factitious vigor to 

' The wing of the Democratic party led by Mr. Douglas, in its platform, assumed not to know 
positively whether slavery might or might not have a lawful existence in the Territories, witliout 
the action of the inhabitants thereof but expressed a willingness to abide by the decisions of the 
Supreme Court in all cases. The National Constitutional Union party, led by John Bell, declined 
to express any opinion upon any subject. 

'' In a letter to James Slaughter, June 15, 1858. 

' The electoral college [see .Article XII. of the Amendments to the Constitution] then chosen 
was composed of 303 members. Mr. Lincoln received 180 votfes, or 57 more than all of his oppo- 
nents. Bell received 30; Douglas, 12; and Breckenridge, 72. Of the popular vote. Lincoln 
received 491.205 over Douglas, 1,018.499 over Breckenridge, and 1.275.871 over Bell. The votes 
for the four candidates were, respectively: For Lincoln. 1.866,452: for Bell. 590,631 ; for Douglas, 
1,375,141; and for Breckenridge, 847.953. A fair analysis of this popular vote shows that of the 
4.690.180 ballots east, at least 3.500,000, or three-fourths of the whole, were given by men 
opposed to the further extension of the institution of slavery. 



1860] BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 545 

the plausible cry, which was immediately raised by the conspirators and their 
friends, that the President-elect would be a usurper when in office, because he 
had not received a majority of the aggregate vote of the people ; and that his 
antecedents, the principles of the Republican platform, and the fanaticism of 
his supporters, pledged him to wage relentless war upon the system of slavery, 
and the rights of the Slave-labor States.' 

When it was known that Mr. Lincoln was chosen for the Presidency, there 
was great rejoicing among the politicians in the Slave-labor States. It was 
the pre-concerted signal for open rebellion. Making that choice and its alleged 
menaces a pretext, the conspirators and the ])oliticians in their service at once 
adopted measures for precipitating "the cotton States into revolution."' A 
system of terrorism was organized and put in vigorous operation, to crush 
out all active loyalty to the government. In it the liangman's rope, the incen- 
diary's torch, and the slave-hunter's blood-hound, were prominent features in 
the region below North Carolina; and the promise of Senator Clingman, of the 
latter State, that Union men should be hushed by " the swift attention of vigi- 
lance committees," was speedily fulfilled. In this unholy work the Press and 
Pulpit became powerful au.viliaries, and thousands upon thousands of men 
aiKl women, regarding these as oracles of truth and wisdom, followed them 
reverentially in the broad highway of open treason. " Perhaps there never 
was a people," wrote a resident of a Slave-labor State in the third year of the 
war, "more bewitched, beguiled, and befooled, tlian we were when we drifted 
into this rebellion." 

The conspirators, who had been colleagues or were disciples of John C. 
Calhoun,' and had been for yeare plotting treason against their government, 
now organized rebellion. They were of one mind in regard to the overt act; 
they differed somewhat as to time and maimer. Those of South Carolina, who, 
by common opinion, were expected to lead in the great movement, were 
anxious for immediate action, and when they found those of sister States hesi- 
tating, they resolved not to wait for their co-operation. For a while thi*. 
question divided the secessionists, but it was soon settled by general co-opera- 
tion. Every thing was favorable to their plans. Tlie governors of all the 
Slave-labor States had been elected by the Democratic party, and were ready, 
with the exception of those of Maryland and Delaware, to act in sympathy, if 
not in open co-operation with the conspirators. Tluee, if not four, of the 
leading conspirators were then members of President Buchanan's cabinet,^ and 
the President himself and his Attorney-General (.Jeremiah S. Black, of Penn- 
sylvania) were ready to declare that the Constitution gave the Executive no 

' The fact was kept out of siglit, that in nine of tlie Slave-labor States the politicians had not 
allowed the people to liave an electoral ticket, and thereby prevented an expression of the popular 
will. These States were North Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Louisiana, 
Arkansas, Florida, and Texas — the States which the politicians of each attempted to sever from 
the Union. The electors of South Carolina were chosen by the Legislature, and not by the people. 

" Page 544. ' Page 458. 

' The traitor.s and conspirators in the cabinet were Howell Cobb, of Georgia, Secretary of the 
Treasury; John B. Floyd, of Virginia, Secretary of War; and .Jacob Thompson, of Mississippi, 
Secretary of the Interior. Floyd and Cobb became general officers in the army of the con- 
spirators, and the former perished miserably. Thompson was charged with the most heinous 

35 




5^g THE NATION. [I860 

power to stay tlie arm of rebellion. Of the President, Jacob Thompson, of 
• his cabinet, said : " Buchanan is the truest friend of the South I have ever 
known in the North. He is a jewel of a man.'" Cobb, the Secretary of the 
Treasury, wished to hold back the blow until the close of Buchanan's term, but 
he was overruled by the other conspirators, who counted upon the President's 
passive, if not active, symi)athy with them. 

According to agreement, the politicians of South Carolina took the first 
step toward open rebellion. For that purpose, an extraordinary session of the 
Legislature was held at the time of the Presidential election [November 6, 
1860], and pn the morning after, when the result was known, the Governor of 
that State was the recipient of many congratulatory clectographs from officials 
in Slave-labor States, giving assurance of co-operation." In Charleston, badges 
called Palmetto cockades^ were everywhere seen, and they 
were fi-eely worn even in Washington City. Members of 
both Houses of Congress, from South Carolina, made trea- 
sonable sjieeches at the capital of that State,* and the Legis- 
lature authorized a convention of delegates, for the purpose 
of declaring the State separated from the L^nion, and taking 
measures for maintaining what they called the " Sove- 
reignty of South Carolina." The members of that Convention 
were chosen on the 3d of December, and on the 17th of that 
PALMETTO COCKADE, month they assembled at Columbia, when tlie prevalence of 
the small-pox in that city caused them to adjourn to Charles- 
ton. There, on the 20th [December, 1S60], they adopted an Ordinance of 
Secession," and that evening, in the presence of the Governor and his council, 

crimes during the rebellion, even of complicity in the assassination of President Lincoln. William 
H. Trescot, the Assistant Secretary of State, was also one of the conspirators i and of Mr. Bu- 
chanan's seven cabinet ministers, only two (General Cass, Secretary of State, and Joseph Holt, 
Postmaster-General) seem to have been wholly disconnected with the plotters against the Gov- 
ernment. 

' Autograph letter, November 20. ISGO. 

' "The people are much excited. North Carolina will secede," said one. "Large numbers 
of Bell men." said another, from Montgomery, Alabama, "headed by T. H. "Watts, have declared 
for secession since the announcement of Lincoln's election. The State will undoubtedly secede.'' 
"The State is ready to assert her rights and independence; the leading men are eager for the 
business," said a dispatch from the capital of Georgia. "If your State secedes," said another, 
from Richmond, "we wiU send you troops and volunteers to aid you," and so from other States 
came greetings and offers of aid. 

' Made of blue silk ribbon, with a button in the center bearing the image of a palmetto-tree. 

* James Chestnut. Jr., member of the United States Senate, spoke of the undoubted right of 
South Carolina to secede, and recommended its immediate action in that direction, saying : " The 
other Southern States will flock to our standard." W. 'W. Boycc, member of Congress, said : 
"I think the only policy for us is to arm as soon as we receive autlicntic intelligence of the elec- 
tion of Lincoln. It is for South Caroluia, in the quickest manner, and by the most direct means, 
to withdraw from tlie Union. Then we will not submit, whether the other States will act with us 
or with our enemies." 

' This ordinance was drawn by John A. Inglis, and is as follows: "We, the people of South 
Carolina, in convention assembled, do declare and ordain, and it is hereby declared and ordained, 
that the ordinance adopted by us in convention, on the twenty-third day of May, in the year of 
our Lord one thousand seven hundred .nnd eighty-eight, whereby the Constitution of the United 
States was ratified, and also all Acts and parts of Acts of the General Assembly of the State, 
ratifying Amendments of the said Constitution, are hereby repealed, and the Union now subsisting 
between South Carolina and other States, under the name of the United States of America, is 
hereby dissolved." 



1861.] BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 54^ 

the Legislature, and a vast concourse of citizens, it was signed in tlie great 
Hall of the South Carolina Institute,' by one hundred and seventy of the mem- 
bers. This action was speedily imitated hy the politicians in the interest of 
the conspirators in the States of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama, Georgia, 
Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Arkansas, Xorth Carolina, and Tennessee." On the 
4th of February, 1801, delegates appointed by the secession conventions in six 
of the States in which there had been action on the subject, assembled at 
Montgomery, in Alabama, and formed a league, with the title of Coxfederate 
States of America.^ A provisional constitution was adopted ; Jefferson 
Davis,* of Mississippi, was chosen " Provisional President," and Alexander IL 



' See page 540. This building, and others identified with the treasonable movements of the 
conspirators and their followers in Charleston, were in ruins early in the Civil War that ensued, 
and yet (1867) stand as ghastly illustrations of one of the blackest pages in the history of our 
Republic. On the occasion of the signing of the Ordinance of Secession, a significant banner was 
hung baclc of the chair of the president of the convention. Upon it was represented an arch 
composed of fifteen stars (each indicating a Slave-labor State) rising out of a heap of broken and 
disordered stones, representing the Free-labor States. The key-stone was South Carolina, on wliich 
stood a statue of Calhoun. This banner was a declaration of the intention of the convention to 
destroy the Kcpublic, and to erect upon its ruins an empire whose corner-stone should be slavery. 
Beneath the design on the banner were the words: " Built frosi the Ruixs.'' 

' Secession ordinances were passed in the conventions in the eleven States named, in the fol- 
lowing order: Souih Carolina. December 2(1, ISCO; Missksippi. January 9, I8iil ; Florida, January 
10; Alabama, January 11; Geonjia. .lanuary 19; Louisiana, Jatuiary 2G; Texas, February 1; Vir- 
ginia, A.^n\ 17 ; Arhmsa'^, May U ; Ntrlh Carolina, May 20 ; Tmneasee, June 8. 

The case of Arkansas is an example of the method of secession. The conspirators, by means 
of Knighls of the Golden Circle [see page 520], procured the election of a disloyal Legislature and 
Governor, wlio called a convention to vote on secession. That convention voted for Union by a 
majority of over two-tltirils. The foiled conspirators, by false promises, gained the consent of the 
Unionists to an adjonrnincnt, subject to the call of the President, who pretended to be a loyal 
man, but was really one of the traitors. It was agreed to refer the question back to the people, 
and that the convention should not reassemble before the vote should be taken in August. The 
President, in violation of that pledge, called the Convention in May, soon after Fort Sumter was 
taken. The hall in which the members met was filled by an excited crowd, ^'hcn the roll had 
been called, a conspirator offered an Ordinance of Secession, and moved that the "yeas" and 
" nays " on the question should be taken without ckbate. The President fraudulently declared the 
motion carried ; and when the vote on the Ordinance was taken, and it was found that there was 
a majority against it, he arose, and in the midst of cheers and threats of the mob, he urged the 
Unionists to change their votes to "ay" immediately. It was evident that the mob was prepared 
to execute their threats, and the terrified Unionists complied. There was one exception. His 
name was Murphy. lie was compelled to fly for his life. He was the Union Governor of the State 
in IS-IG. Thns, by fraud and violence, Arkansas was placed in the position of a rebellious State. 
The conspirators at once conunenced a system of terrorism. Unionists were murdered, imprisoned, 
and exiled. Confederate troops from Texas and Louisiana were brought into the State, and Arkansas 
troops, raised chiefly by fraud and violence, were sent out of the State. The voice of opposition 
was silenced; and the usurpers, with their feet on the necks of the people, proclaimed the 
unanimitij of the inhabitants of Arkansas in favor of disunion ! 

' Tliis name does not express the truth. No States, as States, Iiad withdrawn from the Union, 
for the people, who compose a State in our Republic, had never been asked to sanction such 
change. Only certain persons in certain States were in rebellion against the National authority. 
They usurped the power and suspended the constitutions of several of the States ; but the con- 
federation formed at Montgomery was only a league of confiderated rebels, not of States. With 
this qualification, the name of '■ Confederate " may be properly applied to the insurgents, and in 
the sense of that qualification it is used in the narrative of the Civil War that follows this intro- 
duction. 

' Jefferson Davis was born in Kentucky, on the 3d of June, 1808. He was educated at the 
National Military Academy at West Point, where he was graduated m 182t. He remained in the 
army seven years, and was in the ''Black Hawk War" in 1832. He became a cotton-planter in 
Mississippi in 1835. He was a Democratic Presidential fjlector in 1844, and was elected to a seat 
in Congress in 1845. He was a colonel of a Mississippi regiment in the war with Mexico. He 
was sent to the National Senate, to fill a vacancy, in 1848, and was regularly elected to that post 




548 THE NATION. [18C1. 

Stephens,' of Georgia, " Vice-President." And this organization of conspira- 
tors, wholly the work of politicians (for no ordinance of secession was ever 

submitted to the jieoiile), made war upon 
tlie Republic, by seizing forts, arsenals, 
ships, custom-houses, and other public 
property, and raising armies for the over- 
throw of the government. 

In the mean time Congress had assem- 
bled [December 3, 1860] at the National 
Capital, and the conspirators in both 
Houses were out-spoken, truculent, and 
defiant. The President's message pleased 
nobody. It was full of evidence of faint- 
heartedness and indecision, on points 
where courage and positive convictions 
should have been aiiparent in its treat- 

JEFFBRSON D.WIS. . t ^\ ^ 2 ■ ^\ CW 11 

nient oi tlie great topic then iilhng all 
hearts and minds ; and it bore painful indications that its author was involved 
in some perilous dilemma, from which lie was an.xiously seeking a way of 
escape. It contained many patriotic sentiments, which offended the conspira- 
tors, but it contained more that was calculated to alarm the loyal people of 
the land. It declared substantially, under the advice of the Attorney-General, 
that the Executive possessed no constitutional power to use the army and 
navy for the preservation of the life of the Republic; and from the time of its 
promulgation until his term of office expired, three months later, the President 
sat with folded arms, as it were, while the conspirators were perfecting their 
horrid enginery for destroying the Nation.- Encouraged by his declaration 
of the weakness of the government, and the assurances of leaders of his party 
in the Free-labor States that they need not fear interference,' they worked in 

in 1851. President Pierce called liim to liis cabinet, as Secretary of TVar, in 185.'!. He again 
entered the Senate, on liis retirement from tlie War Department, in 1 So 7, and was there con- 
spicuous as one of the conspirators against the life of the Republic. In February, ISGl, he was 
elected •■ Provisional President of the Confederate States of America," anjl in 1862, " Permanent 
President." At tlie close of the Civil War he was captured, and confined in Fortress Monroe, 
charged with high crimes. See the closing cliiipter of this work. 

' Stephens, with an avowed false pretense, had made a pica for the Union, at the capital of 
Georgia, in November, ISGO. By his own private confession it was only a political trick. Ho 
and Robert Toombs, one of the leading conspirators in Georgia, were aspirants for the supremacy 
as political leaders in tliat State. Toombs was an open rel)el. Stephens expected to debase him 
by taking a stand for the Union, but was defeated ; and within the space of three montlis he was 
the second ofBcer in the so-called " govenmient " of the conspirators, and working with them in 
trying to destroy what he had declared to be the fairest political fabric on the face of the earth. 

^ After arguing that even Congress had no constitutional riglit to do more than defend the 
public property, the Attorney-General intimated that if it should attempt to do more, tlie people 
of the Slave-labor States interested in the matter would be justified in reljelling — " would be com- 
pelled to act accordingly." He wished to know whether, under such circumstances, all the States 
would "not be absolved from their Federal obligations." He virtually counseled the President to 
allow the Republic to be destroyed by its internal foes, rather than to use force for its preserva- 
tion ; and the Chief Magistrate followed his advice. 

' At a large political meeting in Philadelphia, on the 16th of .Tanuary. 18C1, one of the resolu- 
tions declared: "We are utterly opposed to any such compulsion as is demanded by a portion of 
the Republican party ; and the Democratic party of the North will by all constitutional means, 



18G1.] BUCHANAN'S ADMINISTRATION. 54.9 

open sunshine with the avowed intention of overthrowin<j the government. 
They seized public property, and fired upon the National flag, even before they 
had formed their league at Montgomery; and when their plans were fairly 
matured, the conspirators in Congress, after rejecting every peaceful proposi- 
tion that might be made, consistent with the dignity and safety of the govern- 
ment,' both in that body and in a peace convention held at Washington City' 
[February 4, 1860], they formally withdrew from the National Legislature, 
with the avowal that treason to their government was their object. And yet 
there sat the Chief Magistrate of the Republic in passive obedience to some 
malignant will, holding in his hands the lightning of power confided to him by 
the people, by which, in a moment, as it were, he might have consumed those 
enemies of the Constitution and violators of the law. 

Charleston harbor had now become the seething caldron of rebellion. 
Major Robert Anderson, a loyal Kcntuckian, was in command of the fortifica- 
tions there. He had warned his government of the evident intention of the 
South Carolina conspirators to seize their strongholds, and had urged it to 
employ measures for their protection. Floyd, a Virginian conspirator, then 
Secretary of War, and who had stripped the arsenals of the North and filled 
those of the South, preparatory to rebellion, paid no attention to his entreaties. 
Finally, when it was evident to Anderson that the South Carolinians intended 
to seize the forts, and capture his little garrison of less than one hundred men, 
he took the latter from the weaker fort, iloultrie, and placed them, with his 
supplies, in stronger fort Sumter, where he might defy all assailants. This 
act astounded and exasperated the conspirators. The traitorous Secretary of 
War rebuked the loyal commander, but the patriotic people blessed him for 

and with its moral and political influence, oppose any such extreme policy, or a fratricidal war 
thus to be inaugurated." On tlie 22d of February, a political State convention was lield at Harris- 
burg, the capital of Pennsylvania, when the members said, in a resolution : " We will, by all 
proper and legitimate means, oppose, discountenance, and prevent anj' attempt on the part of the 
Republicans in power to make any armed aggressions upon the Soutliern States, especially so long 
as laws contravening their rights shall remain unrepealed on the statute-books of Northern States 
[Personal Liberty Laws, see page 53G], and so long as the just demands of the South shall con- 
tinue to be \mrecognized by the Republican majorities in these States, and unsecured by proper 
amendatory explanations of the Constitution." Such utterances in the great State of Pennsyl- 
vania, and similar ones elsewhere, by the chosen representatives of a powerful party in conven- 
tions assembled, encouraged the conspirators in a belief that there would be no war made upon 
them, and for that reason they were defiant everywhere and on all occasions. 

' In the House of Representatives, John J. Crittenden, of Kentucky, offered amendments tn 
the Constitution and a series of joint resolutions, known as the "Crittenden Compromise," which 
formed as perfect a guaranty for the protection and perpetuation of the slave system as the slave- 
holders had ever, hitherto, asked for. Had the conspirators not been determined on the destruc- 
tion of the Republic, this would have been satisfactory. But they rejected it ; nor did it meet 
with anv favor on the part of the Republicans. 

' For the purpose of gaining time to perfect tlieir treasonable schemes, the conspirators of 
Virginia planned a conference of delegates from all the States, to consider measures for averting 
Civil War. The President favored the movement. Delegates from twenty-one States assembled 
in Wasliington City on the 4th of Februarj-, 18G!. John Tyler, of Virginia [see page 476], was 
chosen president. A plan was adopted, having all of the essential features of the " Crittenden 
Compromise." Tyler and his associates from X'irginia pretended to acquiesce in this result, and 
in his closing address, after solemn asseverations of satisfaction, he said: "So for as in me lies, I 
shall recommend its adoption." Thirty-si.x hours afterward, in a speech in Richmond, he cast 
off the mask of hypocrisy, and denounced the Peace Convention and its doings. He thereafter 
labored with all his might to precipitate Virginia into the vortex of Revolution, and was suc- 
cessful. 



550 



THE NATION. 



[1861. 



the glorious fleed. The intelligence of it increased the excitement in the Na- 
tional capital, caused bj' the discovery of a heavy robbery of Indian Trust 
Bonds, held in the Department of the Interior — a crime in which the Secretary 
of AVar was involved — and a session of the cabinet on the 27th was a stormy 
one. The dismayed conspirators in that council discovered tliat the President 
was not disposed to follow them into paths of 
actual treason. Floyd, fearing the consequences 
of his cxjjosed villainy, resigned the seals of his 
office and fled to Virginia, where his fellow- 
conspirators gave him a ])ubllc dinner. He was 
succeeded in office by Joseph Holt. A recon- 
struction of the cabinet, with sounder materials, 
immediately followed," and the loyal people felt 
some assurance of safety. 

The first two months of the year 1861 was a 
period of great anxiety and gloom. Business 
was prostrated. Cobb, the conspirator, had used 
his power as Secretary of the Treasury, in injur- 
ing, as far as possible, the public credit. Pre- 
parations for rebellion were seen on every side. The conspiratoi-s in Con- 
gress were withdrawing from that body, and the conspirators in conventions 
were declaring the secession of States. The President remained a passive 
sijcctator of the maturing mischief The General-in-Chief of the Army (Lieu- 
tenant-Gcneral Scott) was feeble in mind and body, and as the time approached 
for the inauguration of Mr. Lincoln, evidence appeared that the conspirators, 
in their desperation, had determined to assassinate him. Warned of this, he 
succeeded in passing through Baltimore, where the tragedy was to be jier- 
formed, unnoticed, and, to the chagrin and even consternation of the traitors, 
he suddenly appeared in Washington City on the morning of the 2.3d of Feb- 
raarv, and remained there until his inaucfuration. 




ROBERT ANDERSON. 



'.General Cass, the Secretary of .State, wlio had cli.scovered tlie treasonable designs of some 
of his associates, had resigned some time before, and his place was filled by the Attorney-General. 
Edwin M. Stanton was called to the Attorui y-lirinnil.'ihip, and .John A. Dix was made Secretary 
of the Treasury in place of Cobb, who li:iil i^um' tn (icorgia to assist in phmging tlie people of 
that State into the vonex of rebellion, lloli. ]ii.\. :iii(l Stanton were loyal men, and tliwartcd by 
their vigilance and energy the scliemes of llic conspirators to seize the government before the 
President-elect shonld be inaugurated. ''Wo intend," said one of the disuiiionists, "to take pos- 
session of the Army and Navy, and of the archives of the government; not allow the electoral 
votes to be counted; proclaim Buchanan Provisional President, if he will do rs we wish, and if 
not, choose another; seize the Harper's Ferry Arsenal and the Norfolk Navy Yard simultane- 
ously, and, sending armed men down from the former, and armed vessels up from the latter, take 
possession of Washington, and establish a new government." 



18i;i.] . LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 551^ 

V CHAPTER XVI. 

LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. [ISGl — 1805.] 

Abraham Lincoln,' the sixteentli President of the Republic, was inaugu- 
rated on the 4th day of March, 1861, under circumstances of peculiar interest. 
In expectation of open violence on the part of the conspirators and their 
adherents, General Scott had made ample provision for the preservation of 
order by the strong arm of military power, if it should be necessary. This 
fact was known, and no disorder occurred. The oath of office was adminis- 
tered by Chief Justice Taney as quietly as on former occasions ; and \a ith a lirm 
voice the new President read from the eastern portico of the Capitol to the 
assembled thousands liis remarkable Inaugural Address. In it he expressed 
the most kindly feelings toward the people of every portion of the Pepublic, 
and his determination to administer the government impartially for the jjrotec- 
tion of every citizen and every interest. At the same time he announced liis 
resolution to enforce the laws, protect the public pro])erty, and repossess that 
which had already been seized by the insurgents. The vast multitude then 
dispersed, and in the evening the usual pageant of an Inauguration Ball was 
seen. On the following day the Senate, relieved of most of the consjtirators, 
confirmed the President's cabinet nominations,'^ and the new administration 
began its memorable career. 

The first business of the new cabinet was to ascertain the condition of the 
nation, especially its resources, and its ability to meet the crisis of rebellion, 
evidently at hand. Cobb had deeply injured the public credit, but the loyal 
men in Congress had adopted measures for restoring it. The army and na\ y 
promised very little aid. The former was composed of only 16,000 men, and 
tlicse were principally on the frontiers of the Indian country,^ while sixteen 
foi'ts had already been seized by the insurgents, with all the arsenals in the 
cotton-growing States.'' The little navy, like the army, had been placed far 

' See note I, page 5i.T. 

' He nominated William H. Seward, of New York, for Secretary of 8t;ite ; Salmon P. Chase, 
of Ohio, for Secretary of the Treasury ; Simon Cameron, of Penasylvaui.-i, for Secretary of War; 
Gideon Wells, of Connecticut, for Secretary of the Navy ; Caleb Smith, of Indiana, for Secretary 
of the Interior ; Montgomery Blair, of Maryland, for Postmaster-General ; and Edward Bates, of 
Missouri, for Attorney-General 

^ Many of the officers of the army were natives of Slave-labor States, and a Greater portion 
of these not only abandoned their flag and joined the insurgents, but attempted to corrupt ihj 
patriotism of the common soldiers. Among the most flagrant acts of treason was the conduct of 
General David E. Twiggs, whom Floyd liad placed in command of the troops in Te.ias, to assist 
in the worlc of rebellion. He first tried to seduce the troops from their allegiance. Failing in this, 
he betrayed them into tlie hands of the enemies of their co\nitry in February, LSOl. His command 
included nearly one-half of the military force of the United States. Tliey were surrendered to 
the rebellious ••authorities of Texas," with public property valued at §1, •250. 000. 

* The defensive works within the "seceding States," as they were called, were about thirty 
in number, and mounting over .3,000 g\ms. The cost of these works and their equipment was at 
least $:!O,O0O,000. It is estimated that (he value of National property which the insurgents 
seized before the close of Buchanan's administration was at least $oO,000,000. 



552 



THE NATION. 



[1861. 



beyond the immediate use of the government. Only forty-two vessels were in 
commission, and the entire force inimediately available for the defense of the 
whole Atlantic coast of the Republic was the Brooklyn, of twenty-five guns, 
and a store-ship. A large number of naval officers, born in Slave-labor States, 
had resigned ; and weakness and confusion in that arm of the public service 
were everywhere visible. The public offices were swarming with disloyal 
men. It was difficult to decide who were and who were not trustworthy, and 
as it was necessary for the President to have proper implements to work with, 
he was engaged for nearly a month after his inauguration in exchanging false 
for true men in the employment of the government. lie knew that rising 
rebellion could not be suppressed by proclamatisns, unless the insurgents saw 
behind them the invincible power of the State, ready to be wielded by the 
President, with trusty instrumentalities. These he endeavored to find. 




FORT SUMTER LN J861. 

Meanwhile rebellion was open and defiant, especially at Charleston. Soon 
after Major Anderson transferred his garrison to Fort Sumter,' the insurgents, 
who at once flocked to Charleston, began the erection of fortifications for the 
purpose of dislodging him. They seized the other forts that were for the 
defense of the harbor, and when, so carlj' as the second week in January, a 
government vessel {Star of the West) attempted to enter with men and pro- 
visions for Fort Sumter, and with the National flag at her fore, she was fired 



Page 549. 



1861.] LISCOLN'd ADMINISTRATION. 553 

upon by great guns and driven to sea.' When the Confederation was formed 
at Montgomery,- they commissioned Major P. G. T. Beauregard, a Louisiana 
Creole, who had deserted his flag, a brigadier-general, and sent him to com- 
mand the insurgents at Charleston. Under his direction Fort Sumter was 
besieged; and when, early in April [1861], the government informed the authori- 
ties of South Carolina that supplies would be sent to Fort Sumter peaceably 
or forcibl)^ Beauregard was ordered by Davis and his fellow-conspirators to 
demand its immediate surrender. This was done [April 11], when Anderson, 
whose supplies were nearly exhausted, agreed to evacuate the fort within five 
days, if he should receive no relief from his government. Hoping to " fire the 
Southern heart " by bloodshed, the conspirators would not wait for so peace- 
able a way for gaining possession, and under their direction Beauregard, with 
thousands of armed men at his back, opened full thirty heavy guns and mor- 
tars upon the fort [April 12], Avhich was defended by only about seventy men.' 
The little garrison gallantly responded, and fought bravely, with a hope that 
a naval expedition, which they knew had been sent for their relief, might 
arrive in time to raise the siege. A heavy storm prevented the succor. Pro- 
visions were exhausted. The buildings in the fort were set on fire li}' the 
shells of the insurgents, and a greater portion of the gunpowder had to be 
emptied into the sea, to prevent its ignition by the flames. Finally, hopeless 
of aid, and almost powerless, Anderson agreed to evacuate the fort. This he 
did on Sunday, the 14th, and i-etired with the garrison to the government 
vessels hovering outside the harbor, bearing away the flag of Fort Sumter. 
Precisely four years afterward [April 14, 1865J he took it back, and raised it 
again over the fortress, then an almost shapeless mass of ruins. He evacuated,, 
but did not surrender Fort Sumter, and he and its flag, the emblem of the 
sovereignty of his government, were borne to New York.^ Thus commenced 

CIVIL WAR, IX ISOl. 

Twenty-four hours after the evacuation of Fort Sumter, the President issued 
a proclamation, in which he called out the militia of the country for three 

' This overt act.of treason and of war was eorameniied by the Leptislature of South Carolina, 
which resolved, unanimously, "That this General Assembly learns with pride and pleasure of tlie 
successful resistance this day by t!ie troops of tliis .State, acting under the orders of the Governor, 
to an attempt to re-enforce Fort Sumter.'' The public press of Charleston said: '■ We are proud 
that our harbor has been so honored," and declared that " if the red seal of l^lood was yet lacking 
to the parchment of tlieir liberties," there sliould he " blood enough to stamp it all in red! For, 
by tlie God of our fathers," shouted tlie exultant journalist, " the soil of South Carolina shall be 
freer — Charleston Mercury, laanaxj ^, 18G1. 

" Page 547. 

' A Virginia Congressman, named Roger A. Pryor, made a speech in the streets of Charleston 
on the night of the 10th. A secession convention was then in session in Vir^'inia, in which the 
Unionists were holding the conspirators in clieclc. Pryor, in defending the seeming hesitanej' of 
his State, said : •' Do not drstrnst Virginia. Strike a blow I Tlie very moment that blood is shed. 
Old Virginia will make common cause with her sisters of the South." This cry for blood was 
telegraphed to Montgomery tlie next morning. It was consonant with the diabolical spirit of the 
more zealous conspirators everywliere. Gilclirist, a member of the Alabama Legislature, said to 
Diivis, Walker, Benjamin, and Memminger: "Gentlemen, unless you sprinkle blood in the face 
of the people of Alabama, they will be back in the old Union in less than ten days." And so 
Davis and his " Cabinet " ordered Beauregard to shed blood, and " fire the Southern heart." 

' F. W. Pickens, then Governor of South Carolina, made the evacuation of Sumter tlie ocea- 



554 ^^I^ NATION. [ISCl. 

iiionths' service, to the number of seventy-five thousand men, to suppress the 
rising rebellion.' The Secretary of War simultaneously issued a requisition 
upon the several States for their prescribed quota."'- These calls were received 
with unbounded favor and enthusiasm throughout the Free-labor States. In 
the six Slave-labor States included in the call, they were treated with scorn 
and defiance, the Governors sending insulting responses to the President, while 
Davis and his fellow-conspirators at Montgomery received the Proclamation 
with " derisive laughter." In the Free-labor States there was a wonderful 
ujirising of the people. Nothing like it, in sublimity of aspect, had been 
seen on tlie earth since Peter the Hermit and Pope Urban the Second filled all 
Christian Europe with religious zeal, and sent arm'>d hosts, with the cry of 
" God wills it ! God wills it !" to rescue the Sepuleher of Jesus from the hands 
of the infidel. Tlic Republic was to be rescued from the hands of the assassin. 
Men, women, and children felt the enthusiasm alike ; and, as if by pi-econcert- 
ed arrangement, the National flag was everywhere displayed, even from the 
spires of churches and cathedrals. In cities, in villages, at way-side inns, all 
over the country, it was unfurled from lofty poles in the presence of large 
assemblies of people, who were addressed frequently by some of the most 
eminent orators in the land. It adorned the halls of justice and the sanctua- 
ries of religion; and the "Red, White, and Blue," the colors of the flag in 
combination, became ornaments of women and tokens of the loyalty of men. 

The uprising in the Slave-labor States at the same time, though less general 
and enthusiastic, was nevertheless marvelous. The heresy of State supi-e- 
raacy, which Calhoun" and his disciples adroitly called State rh/hts, because a 
right is a sacred thing cherished by all, was a political tenet generally accepted 
as orthodox.* It had been inculcated in every conceivable form, and on every 
conceivable occasion ; and men who loved the Union and deprecated secession 
were in agreement with the conspirators on that point. Hence it was that, in 
the tornado of passion then sweeping over the South, where reason was dis- 

sion for an exultant speech in the streets of Charleston, on that Sunday. " Tliank God." lie 
exclaimed, " tlie war is open, and we will conquer or periph. We have humbled the flag of the 
United States." Alluding to his State as a sovereignty, lie said, "That proud flag was never 

lowered before to any nation on the earth It has been humbled to-day before the glorious 

liitle State of South Carolina." The churches of Charleston that flay were filled with treasonable 
harangues. In old St. Philip's the venerable and blind Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal 
Church cried out ; " Your boys were there, and mine were there, and it loai right Unit tliey should 
he tliere." And in tlie Roman Catholic Cathedral Bit^hop Lynch had a Te Dium clianted in grati- 
tude to God for the beginning of tlie most horrid civil war on record I 

' The President's authority for this act may be found in tlie second and third sections of an 
act of Congress approved February 28, 1795. That law would not allow the President to hold 
them to service for more than three months. 

" The quota of each State was as follows, the figures denoting the number of regiments : 
Maine, 1 ; New Hamp.^liire, 1 ; Vermont, 1 ; Massachusetts, 2 ; Rhode Island. 1 ; Connecticut, 1 ; 
New York, 17; New Jersey, G; Pennsylvania, 16: Delaware, 1; Tennessee, 2; Maryland, 4 : 
Virginia, 3; North Carolina, 2 ; Kentucky, i; .Vrkansas, 1; Missouri." 4 ; Ohio, 13 ; Indiana, 6 ; 
Illinois, 6 ; Michigan, 1 ; Iowa. 1 ; Minnesota, 1 ; Wisconsin, 1 ; 

° See note 3. page 459. 

' This was in the form of a political dogma, which declares that each Stale is a sovereign: that 
the Union is only a league of sovereign States, and not a nationality ; that the States are not sub- 
servient to the National government : were not created by it. do not lieloiig to it, and that thry 
created that government, whose powers they delegate to it. and that to them it is responsible. 
Such was the essential substance of the old Confederation, before the National Constitution was 



18G1.] LINCOLX'S ADMINISTRATION. 555 

carded, thousands of intelligent men, deceived by the grossest misrepresenta- 
tions respecting the temper, character, and intentions of the people of tlie 
Free-labor States, flew to arms, well satisfied that they were in the right, 
because resisting what they believed to be usurpation, and an unconstitutional 
attempt at the subjugation of a free people on the part of the Xutional gov- 
ernment. 

Within a week after the attack on Fort Sumter the insun-ection assumed 
the huge proportions of a great rebellion. Its forces were at work in all the 
Slave-labor States, and the most extraordinary exertions were immediately put 
forth by the conspirators to execute the first and most important part of their 
plan, namely, the seizure of the National Capital. Thousands of their follow- 
ers, armed with weapons stolen from their government, were pressing into Vir- 
ginia for that pui-jioso. At the time of his in.-vuguration at Montgomery' Jef- 
ferson Davis had said : " We are now determined to maintain our position, 
and make all loho oppose us smell Southern jMwder and feel Southern steel f 
and he now began to carry out that threat ■\\-ith a high hand, while his lieuten- 
ant, Alexander II. Stephens, who a few months before had declared and proven 
that rebellion against the government would be a monstrous crime,- now hur- 
ried toward Richmond, making Georgia, the Carolinas, and Virginia ring with 
his cry of " On to Washington P'' Le Roy Pope Walker, Davis's "Secretary 
of War,'" had prophesied on the day when Fort Sum- 
ter was attacked [April 12, 1801], saying: "The flag 
that now flaunts the breeze here will float over the 
dome of the old capitol at Washington before the 
first of May. Let them try Southern chivalry, and 
test the extent of Southern resources, and it may 
float eventually over Faneuil Hall, in Boston." The 
most intense desire to seize Washiniiton Citj- prc- 

., -, , . , 1 T " T .1 , THE COXFEDERATE FLAG.' 

vailed among the insurgent leaders, anil the people 

of the cotton-planting States soon realized the promise uttered by Governor 
Pickens : " You may plant your seed in peace, for Old Virginia will have to 
bear the brunt of battle." 

Virginia did, indeed, bear much of the bnnit of liattle. It was now in an 
uproar, and its people was soon made to feel the terrible efl^ects of the treason 
of some of their leading politicians. They had assembled a convention to 
consider the subject of secession from the Union. The Unionists were the 

framed. Tliat Constitution refutes tliis Iiorcsy of State sovereignty and supremacy, in terms and 
spirit: "We, tlie People," says its preamble, "do ordain and establisli," &c. That Constitution 
was the work of the people, not of State organizations ; and it is tlie political creator of every State 
since admitted into the Union, first as a Territory, and then as a State, solely by the exeioise of 
the potential will of the people, expressed througli Congress. "Without tlie consent of Congress, 
under the provisions of the Constitution, no State can enter the Union. The National govern- 
ment is the creator of the States. See Section ii. Article IV. of the National Constitution. 

' Page 547. 

^ See Lossing's Pictorial History of the Civil War, vol. I., pages 54 to 57, inclusive. 

^ Page 541. 

' This is a picture of the flag of the "Southern Confederacy" adopted by the conspirators, 
and first unfurled over the State-House at Montgomery on the 4th of March, 1S61. 




556 '^^'^ NATIOy. [1861. 

majority in that body. The crisis had now come. The blow had been struck. 
The bloodshed evoked by the wretched Pryor had occurred. Virginia, within 
whose ancient embrace was the capitol of the nation to be destroyed, must be 
actively on the side of the conspirators, or all might be lost. Maryland, on 
the other side of the District of Columbia, was a doubtful auxiliary, for her 
loyal Governor and people were holding treason and rebellion in check in that 
State. The violent spirit of the conspirators everywhere manifested must not 
be backward in Virginia, the mother of Disunion ; so the politicians, perceiv- 
ing [April 16] that if the seats of ten Unionists in the Convention could be 
made vacant an ordinance of secession might be passed, waited upon that 
number of such men and gave them the choice of voting for secession, keepinf 
away from the Convention, or being hanged. They kept away. The secession 
ordinance was adopted [April 17, 1861], and, in defiance of an order of the 
convention that it should be submitted to a vote of the people, a committee 
appointed by that body, with John Tyler at its head,' concluded a treaty with 
Alexander II. Stephens, acting in behalf of Jefferson Davis, by which their 
commonwealth was placed under the absolute military control of the arch- 
conspirator. This was done within a week [April 25, 1 S61 ] after the Ordinance 
of Secession was passed, and a month before the time appointed for its submis- 
sion to the people. When that day arrived, fraud and violence deprived the 
latter of their right.' Virginia became a part of the Confederacy, and, by 
invitation of its politicians, who had dragged the people into the vortex of 
revolution, the so-called " government " of the conspirators was transferred 
from Montgomery to Richmond, and there it remained during the war that 
ensued. 

While troops were hurrying toward Washington from the Slave-labor 
States, to seize it, others, in larger numbers, were flocking from the Free-labor 
States to defend it. The secessionists of Maryland were active, and tried to 
place a barrier in the way of the loyal men in Baltimore, through which city 
they were compelled to pass. They slightly assailed some Pennsylvanians 
(five unarmed companies) who passed through on the 18th of April, and 
were the first of its defenders to reach the National capital;' and on the 
following day a mob of ten thousand men assailed a single Massachusetts regi- 
ment (the Sixth), as it marched from one railway station to the other. A fight 
ensued. Lives were lost.'' The loyal people of the nation were terribly exas- 
perated, and it was with difiiculty that the city in which the tragedy occurred 



' The commissioners consisted of John Tyler, William Ballard Preston, S. M. McD. Moore, 
James P. Holcombe, James 0. Bruce, and Lewis E. llarvie. 

' The baj'onet was ready everywhere to control the elections. That Union men might be 
kept from the polls, Mason, the inithor of the Fugitive Slave Law [page 022J, addressed a public 
letter to the people, telling those wlio were disposed to vote against tlie Ordinance that they must 
not vote at all, "and il' they retain such opinions theii must leave the Slate." He asserted in 
another form Jefferson Davis's threat, that all opposers should " smell Southern powder and feel 
Southern steel." 

^ There were the Washington Artillery and National Light Infaii try companies of Potlsville; 
the Ringgnkl Light Artillery, of Reading; the Logan Guards, of Lewistown: and the Allen Infantry, 
of Allentown. 

* The mob, encouraged by the Chief of Police (G. P. Kane) and well-known citizens, assailed 



1861.J 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



557 



was preserved from destruction. "Turn upon it the guns of Fort McHenry," 
said one. " Lay it in ashes I" cried another. " Fifty thousand men may be 
raised in an hour to march tlirough Baltimore," exclaimed a third; and^ue of 
our popular poets (Bayard Taylor) wrote: — 

" Bow down in haste thy guilty head I 

God's wrath is swift and sure : 
Tlie sky with gathering bolts is red — 
Cleanse from thy skirts tlie slaughter-shed, 
Or make thyself an ashen bed 

Baltimore !" 

The defenders of the capital were not there any too soon. Already the 
Virginians had begun to play their part in the plan for seizing Washington. 
On the passage of the ordinance of secession by the Virginian convention,' 




harper's ferry in the summer of 18G1. 



Governor Letcher proclaimed the independence of the State and his recognition 
of the Confederacy; and, less than twenty-four hours afterward, troops were in 
motion lor seizing Harper's Ferry and the Navy Yard near Norfolk.'- Warned 
of their approach, and his force too small to make successful resistance, Lieu- 
tenant Jones, who was in command at Harper's Ferry, set fire to the Armory 
and Arsenal buildings there [April 18], and withdrew into Pennsylvania. The 



the troops with every sort of missile. Two of the troops were killed. One was mortally and 
several were slightly wounded. Nine citizens of Baltimore were killed, and a considerable mim- 
ber were wounded. 

' I'age 50G. ' See note 1, page 5J0. 



558 THE NATION. [1861. 

insurgents took possession of tlie post, and were about to march upon Wash- 
ington, when tliey lieard of its armed occupation by loyal men. At the same 
time, Virginians were before tlie Navy Yard at Gosport, opposite Norfolk, 
demanding its surrender. The commander of the station (Commodore McAu- 
ley) finding treason to be rife among his officers, and ajiprehending immediate 
danger from foes without, prepared to abandon tlie ]iost without resistance, and 
to scuttle the vessels. Commodore Paulding arrived while the vessels were 
sinking, and finding it to be too late to save them, he ordered them and the 
buildings of the navy yard to be fired. An immense amount of property 
was destroyed, and the Virginians, on taking possession, acquired, as spoils, 
about two thousand cannon. These armed many a battery throughout the 
Confederacy soon afterward. 

The National capital was still in great danger. Thousands of insurgents 
from below the Koanoke were pouring into Virginia and jjressing up toward 
Washington, while, for about a week, all communication between the capital 
and the loyal States was cut off. Under the sanction of the Mayor and 
Chief of Police of Baltimore, the bridges of the railways extending northward 
from that city were burned on the night after the massacre in its streets, and 
the telegraph-wires were cut. The President and his cabinet and the General-in- 
chief of the Army were virtual prisoners in the capital for several days, and 
were relieved just in time to prevent their actual ca]>tnre, by the energy of the 
veteran General John E. Wool, and the LTnion Defense Committee of New York 
City, in forwarding troops and supplies in a manner to avoid the blockade of the 
direct highway at Baltimore, and to secure the capital. The well-known Seventh 
Regiment of New York and some Massachusetts troops, under General Ben- 
jamin F. Butler, jjroceeded by water to Annapolis [April 21], seized the railway 
between that city and its junction with tlie one leading from Baltimore to 
Washington [April 25], and took possession a few days later at the Relay 
House, nine miles from the former city, where the Baltimore and Ohio Railway 
turns northward toward Harper's Ferry. From that point, on the evening of 
the 13th of May, Butler, with a little more than one thousand men, went into 
Baltimore, under cover of intense darkness and a thunder-storm, and quietly 
took post on Federal Hill, an eminence commanding the city.' The first inti- 
mation the citizens received of his presence was a proclamation from him, 
published in a newspaper the next morning, assuring all peaceable persons of 
full jirotection, and intimating that a greater force was at hand, if needed, for 
the purposes of the outraged government. Troops then passed quietly through 
Baltimore to Washington City,' and at the middle of May the capital was 
safe. Thus rebellion in Maryland was throttled at the beginning, and it was 
kept from very serious mischief during the war that ensued.' 

' Butler's troops consisted of tlie entire Sixth Massachusetts, wliicli was attaclisd in Baltimore 
on the 19th of April [page 556] ; a part of tlie New York Eighth ; Boston artillerymen, and 
two field-pieces. They were placed in cars, headed, as a feint, toward Harper's Ferry.- At 
evening they were backed into Baltimore, just as a heavy tliunder-storm was about to break 
over the city, and tlie troops, well piloted, went quietly to Federal Hill. 

'■' Tliree days earlier [May 10] Pennsylvaniau troops passed unmolested through Baltimore to 
Washington, under Colonel Patterson. 

" General Scott had planned an expedition for the seizure of Baltimore, to consist of four 



18G1.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 559 

At tlie bt'giiiniiig of May, by fraud, violence, and treacliery, the conspirators 
and their friends had robbed tlie government to tlie amount of forty million 
dollars ; put about forty thousand armed men in the field, more than half of 
whom were then concentrating in Virginia ; sent emissaries abroad, with the 
name of " commissioners," to seek recognition and aid from foreign powers ;' 
commissioned numerous pirates to prey upon the commerce of the United 
States ;' extinguished the luminaries of light-houses and beacons along the coasts 
of the Slave-labor States, from Hampton Roads to the Rio Grande,'' and enlisted 
actively in their revolutionary schemes the governors of thirteen States, and large 
numbers of leading jtoliticians in other States/ Encouraged by their success 
in Charleston harbor,' they were investing Fort Pickens, which had been saved 
from seizure by the vigilance and energy of Lieutenant Slemmer, its commander.' 
Insurrection liad become Rebellion ; and the loyal people of the country 
and the National government, beginning to comprehend the magnitude, po- 
tency, and meaning of the movement, accepted it as sucli, and addressed 
themselves earnestly to the task of its suppression. The President called [May 

columns of three thousand men each, to approach it simultaneously from different points. Butler, 
by bold and energetic action, accomplished the desired end in one night, with a thousand men. 
Scoit could uot forgive him lor this independent action. He demanded his removal from the 
command of that department. The President complied, promoted Butler to Major-General, and 
gave him a more important command, with his head-quarters' at Fortress Monroe. 

' These were William L. Yancey [see page 544], of Alabama ; P. A. Rost, of Louisiana ; A. 
Dudley Mann, of 'Virginia, and T. Butler King, of Georgia. Yancey was to operate in Kngland, 
Rost iu France, an^ Mann in Holland and Belgium. King seems to have had a kind of roving 
commission. Tliese men so (itly represented their bad cause in Europe, that confidence in its 
justice and ultimate success was so speedily impaired, that they went wandering about, seeking 
in vain for willing listeners among men of character in diplomatic circles, and they finally aban- 
doned their missions with disgust, to ihc relief of European statesmen, who were wearied with 
their importunities and ofiVmded by their duplicity. 

" Davis summoned his so-called "Congress" to meet at Montgomery on the 29th of April. 
He had already announced, by proclamation [April 17, 1861], his determination to employ pirate 
vessels against the commerce of the United States, and the '" Confederate Congress " now author- 
ized the measure, with the barbarous offer, by the terms of the Act, of a bounty of S'-O for 
the murder, by fire, water, or otherwise, on the high seas, of every man, woman, or child — "each 
person" — that might be found by the pirates. That the men engaged in this business, under the 
sanction of the conspirators, were pirates, is shown bj' the laws of nations. Piracy is defined as 
" robbery on the high seas without authority." Davis, Toomb.s, and their fellow-conspirators 
had no more authority to commission privateers, as legalized pirates are called, than had Jack 
Cade. Nat. Turner, or John Brown, for they represented no acknowledged government on the 
earth. 

' The light-houses and beacons darkened by them, between Cape Henry, in Virginia, and 
Point Isabel, iu Texas, numbered 133. 

* These were Letcher, of Virginia; MagoflSn, o{ Kentucky ; Ellis, oC North Carolina; Harris, of 
Tennessei' ; .Tackson, oi Missouri; Pickens, oV South Carolina; Brown, of Georgia, Moore, of Ala- 
bama; Pettus, of Mississip2)i ; Rector. o( Arkansas; Moore, of Louisiana; Perry, of Florida; and 
Burton, of Delmare. Only Governor Hicks, of Maryland, and Houston, of Texas, of the fifteen 
Slave-labor States, were loyal to the National government. The former remained so until his 
death ; but Houston yielded in the course of a few months, and became a reviler of the President 
and the loyal people. 

' Page 553. 

° Early in January [ISCI], Lieutenant Slemmer received information that Fort Pickens and 
other fortifications on Pensacola Bay, under liis charge, would be seized by the Governor of 
Florida. He took measures accordingly. Observing a gathering cloud of danger, lie placed all 
the public property he possibly could, and his garrison, in stronger Fort Pickens. The insurgents 
seized the Navy Yard on the Main (Fort Pickens is on Santa Rosa Island), and tried to secure 
the fort, but in vain. Slemmer held it until he was re-enforced, at about the time when Fort 
Sumter was abandoned, when a large number of troops, under General Bragg (who had aban- 
doned his flag), were besieging it. 



560 



THE NATION. 



[1861. 



3, 1861] for sixty-four thousand more troops (volunteers) to serve "during the 
war," and eighteen thousand men for tlie navy. Forts Monroe and Pickens 
were re-enforced, and tlie bkickade of the Southern ports, out of which the con- 
spirators were preparing to send cruisers, was prochxinied. 

The first care of the government was to secure the safety of the capital, and 
for this purpose Washington City and its vicinity was made the general gath- 
ering-place of all the troops raised eastward of the Alleghany Mountains. 
When, on the 4th of July, Congress met in extraordinary session, pursuant to 
the call of the President, in his proclamation for troops on the 15th of April,' 
there were about 230,000 volunteers in the field, independent of the three 
months' men, a larger portion of whom were within ten miles of the capital. 
Congress approved the act of the President in calling them out, and authorized 
[July 10, 1861] the raising of 500,000 troops, and an appropriation of 
$500,000,000 to defray the expenses of the kindling Civil War.' Towns, vil- 
lages, cities, and States had made contributions for this service to an immense 
amount, and the people of the Free-labor States, of every political and religious 
creed, were imited in efforts to save the life of the Republic. At the same 
time Confederate troops in Virginia, estimated at more tlian 100,000 in num- 
ber, occupied an irregular line, from Harper's Ferry, by way of Richmond, to 
Norfolk. Their heaviest force was at Manassas Junction, within about thirty 
miles of Washington City, and there, very soon, the first lioavy shock of war 
was felt. 

Congress felt the necessity of bending all its energies to a speedy ending 
of the rebellion. From the beginning of the trouble it was evident that most 
of the foreign governments and the ruling classes of Europe would view with 
satisfaction a Civil War that might destroy the Republic, give a stunning blow 
to Democracy, and thus renew their lease of power over the people indefinitely. 
Most of the foreign ministers at Washington, regarding the secession move- 
ments in several States as the beginning of a permanent separation, had 
announced [February, 1861] to their respective governments the practical 

' Pnge 553. 

" Secretary Chase, whose management of tlie finan- 
cial affairs of the country during a greater portion of the 
period of tlie war was considered eminently wise and 
cfBcicnt, asked for §2-10,000,000 for war purposes, and 
$S0,000, 000 to meet tlie ordinary demands for the fiscal 
lear ending on the 30th of June, 1SG2. He proposed to 
raise the $80,000,000 in addition to $60,000,000 already 
appropriated, by levying increased duties, and by excise, 
or by the direct taxation of real and personal property. 
To raise the amount for war purposes, he proposed loans, 
to be issued in the form of Treasury noles and bonds, 
or certificates of debt, to be made redeemable at a future 
day, not exceeding thirty years distant. 

Salmon P. Chase is a native of New Hampshire, 
where he was born in 1808. In 1 SI'.O he commenced 
the practice of the law in Cincinnati, and was one of the 
lounders of the "Liberty Party " in Ohio, in 18-11. In 
1849 he was chosen a Senator of the United States, and 
in 1855 was elected Governor of Ohio. Mr. Lincoln 
appointed him Secretary of the Treasury in 1861, and. 
afterward Chief Justice of the United States. 




SALMON p. CHASE. 



1861] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 5Q [ 

dissolution of the American Union ; and statesmen and publicists abroad 
affected amazement because of the folly of Congress in legislating concerning 
tariff and other National measures, when the nation was hopelessly expiring ! 
And before the representative of the new administration (Charles Francis 
Adams) could roach England, the British ministry (already having an agree- 
ment with the Emperor of the French that the two governments should act in 
concert concerning American affairs) procured, in behalf of the conspirators, a 
Proclamation of Neutrality by the Queen [May 10], by which a Confederate 
government, as existing, was acknowledged, and belligerent rights were 
accorded to the insurgents.' Other European governments hastened to give 
the conspirators similar encouragement. Only the Emperor of Russia, of all 
the reigning monarchs, showed sympathy with our government in its great 
trouble. Considering this, and the possibility that they might, with equal 
unseemly haste, recognize the independence of the Confederates, and possibly 
lend them material aid. Congress worked diligently in preparations to confront 
the rebellion with ample force. While doing so, that rebellion assumed the 
proportions of Civii, Waii in a sanguinary battle fought so near the capital that 
the sounds of great guns engaged in it were heard thei-e. 

Blood had already been spilled in conflicts on battle-fields. The importance 
of holding possession of Western Virginia, and so the control of the ]>alti- 
more and Ohio Railway, which connected Maryland and the capital with the 
great West, was apparent to the conspirators. Equally imjwrtant was it for 
them to possess Fortress Monroe, and efforts to seize and hold both wore early 
made. The strife for Western Virginia began first. The people of that region 
were mostly loyal, and had already taken steps toward a separation from the 
Eastern or rebellious portion of their State. Troops were accordingly sent 
from Richmond to restrain their patriotism. The people rushed to arms, and 
under the leadership of Colonel B. F. Kelley, a considerable force was organ- 
ized in the vicinity of Wheeling, where, early in May, a mass convention of 
citizens had resolved to sever all connection with the conspirators at Rich- 
mond. A delegate convention was hold there on the 13th of May, and made 
provision for a more formal and effective convention on the 11th of June. In 
that body about forty counties were represented, and an ordinance of seces- 
sion from the old Virginia government was adopted. They established a 
provisional government [.June 20, 1861], and elected Francis H. Pierpont 
Chief Magistrate. The people ratified their acts in the autumn, and in con- 
vention formed a State Constitution. In June, 1863, West Vibgixia was 
admitted into the Union as a new State. 



' British sympathy for a rebellion avowedly for the purpose of strengthening ami perpetuating 
the institution of slavery, was a strange spectacle. Among the people of the carlh, the Enghsh 
appeared pre-eminently the opposers of slavery. And so, in fact, the great body of the people 
of England were. It was the government and the dominant class in that country — the govrrn- 
ing few as against the governed manij — who were thus luitrue to principle. The Queen and the 
Prince Consort did not share in the unfriendly feeling toward us. As parents they could not 
forget the e.^ceedinp kindness bestowed by our people upon their son, the heir-apparent nf the 
throne, who visited this country in 1 8G0 ; and it is known that herMajesty restrained her ministers 
from recognizing the independence of the Confederates, as they were anxious to do. 

36 



562 



THE NATION. 



[1S61. 




SEAL OF WEST VTRGINIA. 



The government perceived the necessity of aft'onling aid to the Western 
Virginia loyalists, and General George B. McClellan, who liad been placed in 
command of the Department of the Ohio, was ordered 
to assist Kelley in driving out the Confederate troops. 
Thus encouraged, the Virginia commander moved on 
Grafton, when tlie Confederate leader, Portorfield, fled 
to Philippi. Tliither he was followed hy Kelley, and 
also liy Ohio and Indiana troops, under Colonel Du- 
mont. They drove Porterfield from Philippi [June 
3] after a battle (the first after war was proclaimed), 
in which Kelley was wounded, and for a while matters 
were quiet in that region. Grafton was made the 
head-quarters of the National troops in Western Virginia. 

Meanwhile Confederate troops under Colonel Magruder, who had aban- 
doned his flag,' had been moving down the peninsula between the James and 
York IJivers, for the purpose of attempting to seize Fortress Monroe. General 
Butler, in command at the latter post, informed that the insurgents were in a 
fortified camp at Big Bethel, a few miles up the peninsula, resolved to dislodge 
them, for the two-fold purpose of making Fortress Monroe more secure, and 
for carrying out a plan he had conceived of seizing the railway between Suflblk 
and Petersburg, and, menacing the Weldon road which connected Virginia 
with the Carolinas, draw Confederate troops back from the vicinity of Wash- 
ington. He sent a force under General E. W. Peirce for the purjjose, one 
column moving from Fortress Monroe, and the other from Newport-Newce, on 
the James River. Meeting in the gloom before dawn, they fired upon each 
other, alarmed the Confederate outposts, and caused a concentration of all 
the insurgent forces at Big Bethel. There a conflict occurred [June 10, 1861], 
in which Lieutenant J. T. Greble, a gallant young artillery officer, was kilfed. 
He was the first officer of the regular army who perished in the Civil War. 
The expedition was unsuccessful, and returned to Fortress Monroe. 

The misfortune at Bethel was atoned for the next day [June 11], when Col- 
onel (afterward Major-General) Lewis Wallace, with a few Indiana troops, dis- 
persed five hundred Confederates at Roraney, in Hampshire County, Virginia. 
It was a most gallant feat. Its boldness and success so alarmed the insurgents 
at Harper's Ferry, that they fled to Winchester [June 15], eighteen miles up 
the Shenandoah Valley, and there, under the direction of their accomplished 
commander, Joseph E. Johnston,' they made preparations for resisting the 
threatened invasion of that region. The evacuation of Harper's Ferry was 
followed by its speedy occupation by National troops. On the day after 



' "Mr. Lincoln," said Magruder to the President, at tlie middle of April, "every one else 
may desert you, but / never will." The President thanked him. Two days afterward, having 
done all in his power to corrupt the troops in Washington, he fled and joined the insurgents. — See 
Greeley's American Conflict, i. 50G. 

' Johnston was a veteran soldier, and had been a meritorious officer in the National armv. He 
had taken command of the Confederates at or near the confluence of the Potomac and Shenan- 
doah Rivers, late in May, and had about 12,000 men under his command. 



1861.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 563 

Johnston's fliulit, General Robert Patterson threw 9,000 men, from the Penn- 
sylvania militia, across the Potomac at tVilliamsjiort, but was compelled to 
recall them in consequence of a requisition from the (ieneral-in-Chief to send 
his most efficient troops to Washington, then in peril. On the 2d of July 
Patterson crossed with about 11,000 troops, and took ))ost at Martinsbnrg. 
His advance, under General Abercrombie, met, fought, and conquered at Falling 
Waters a considerable force under the afterward famous " Stonewall " Jackson. 

In the mean time stirring events were occurring in Western Virginia. For 
a time it seemed as if Wallace, near Cumberland, must be cut off, and the Bal- 
timore .and Ohio liailwaypass into the possession of the insurgents. But that 
vigilant officer gallantly maintained his position against great odds, wliile 
General McClellan, advancing southward from Grafton, was striking the Con- 
federates in the Tygart River region severe blows. Porterfield had' been suc- 
ceeded by General (iarnett, whose head-quarters were at Beverly, in Randolph 
County ; and the notorious Henry A. Wise,' bearing the commission of a 
Brigadier-General, was with a force in the Valley of the Great Kanawha 
River, where he was confronted by General J. D. Cox. 

McClellan's entire command was composed of about 20,000 troops. A 
portion of these, under General W. S. Rosccrans, fought and conquered a force 
under Colonel Pegram on liieh Mountain, not far from Beverly, on the 11th 
of July. This alarmed Garnctt, who, with a portion of his force, fled into the 
wild mountain region of the Cheat River, pursued by General T. A. Morris, of 
]\IcClellan's command. Morris overtook Garnett at Carricksford, on a tribu- 
tary of the Cheat River, whei-e a sharp conflict ensued. Ganiett was killed 
and his troops were dispersed. Another portion of his followers, who fled from 
Beverly toward Staunton, had been pursued to the summit of the Cheat ^Sfoun- 
tain range, where an outpost was established under the care of an Indiana 
regiment. General Co.v, in the mean time, h.ad driven Wise out of the 
Kanawha Valley, and the war in Western Virginia seemed to be at an end. 
McClellan was called to the command of the Army of the Potomac [July 22], 
as the forces around Washington were designated, and his own troops were 
left in charge of General Rosccrans. 

While these events were occurring beyond the Blue Ridge and the Alle- 
ghany Mountains,' others of great moment were attracting public attention 
to the National capital and its vicinity. Toward the close of May, it was 
evident that the Confederates were preparing to plant batteries on Arlington 
Heights, which would command Washington City. Robert E. Lee, of Arling- 
ton House,^ an accomplished engineer officer in the army, had lately abandoned 
his flag and joined the insurgents under circumstances of peculiar ]icrfidy.' He 

• Page 562. ' Pago 539. 

' These are nearly parallel ranges of mountains whioli divide Virginia between the Ohio and 
the Atlantic slopes. 

' This was for more than fifty years the residence of the late George Washington Parko 
Custia [see note 1. page 532], who was the father-in-law of Colonel Lee. It overlooked the 
Potomac, Washington City, and Georgetown, and batteries on the range of hills on which it stood, 
called Arlington Heights, would command the National capital completely. 

' Lee was then a lieutenant-colonel in the cavalry service, stationed in Te-xas, and, after the 



504 



THU NATION. 



[1861. 



was now chief of the Virginia forces, knew the value of batteries on Arling- 
ton Heights, and had, it is believed, been there with engineers from Rich- 
mond. To prevent that perilous move- 
ment, troops were sent over from 
Washington City [May 24, 1801] to 
take possession of Arlington Heights 
and the city of Alexandria, on the river 
below. The troops for the occupation 
of the Heights crossed the bridges 
from Washington and Georgetown, 
while those sent from Alexandria went 
by water. The New York 3^'ire Zouaves' 
were the first to enter Alexandria, 
where their gallant J'oung commander. 
Colonel Ellsworth, was speedily killed.' 
At the same time, fortifications were 
commenced on Arlington Heights, where 
Fort Corcoran was speedily built by 
an Irish regiment [Sixty-ninth], and named in honor of their commander, 
Colonel Corcoran. This and Fort Kunyon, near the Long Bridge, built by 
New Jersey troops, were the first regular works erected by the Nationals at 
the beginning of the Civil War, and the first over which the flag of the Re- 
public was unfurled. A few days later a flotilla of armed vessels, under 
Captain Ward, after encountering a battery erected by the insurgents on 
Sewell's Point, not far from Norfolk, moved up the Potomac, and at Aquia 
Creek, sixty miles below Washington, had a sharp but unsuccessful engage- 
ment [May 31 and June 1] with Confederate batteries constructed there. 




ROBERT E. LEE. 



election of Mr. Lincoln, he was permitted to leave his regiment ami return home, wlien he was 
cordially greeted by General Scott, wlio loved him as a son, and frave him his entire confidence. 
In this relation Lee remained, making himself conversant with all the plans and resources of the 
government for the suppression of the rebellion, and at the s.imo time keeping up a continual 
commnnication with its enemies, until more than a week after the attack on Fort Sumter, and 
six days after the conspirators at Richmond had promised him the position of commander-in-chief 
of the Virginia forces. Then [April 20] he resigned liis command, hastened to Richmond with 
his important knowledge of attairs at the National capital, joined the conspirators against his 
government, and speedily rose to the position of general-in-chicf of the Rebel army. 

' These composed a regiment under the command of Colonel K. E. Ellsworth, who were imi- 
formed in tlie picturesque costume of a French corps, first organized in Algiers, and bearing the 
name of Zouave. Tljese were famous in the war on the Crimea [page 526], and their drill, 
adopted by Ellsworth, was exceedingly active. The lirst Zouave organization in this country was 
that of a company at Crawfordsville, Indiana, under Captain (afterwards Major-General) Lewis 
Wallace, in 1860. A few weeks later. Captain Ellsworth organized a company at Chicago. 
There were many Zouave regiments at the beginning of the war, but the gay colors of their cos- 
tume made them too conspicuous, and that uniform soon fell into disuse. See next page. 

' Ellsworth's death, and the circumstances attending it, produced a profoimd impression. Over 
an inn in Alexandria, called the Marshall House, the Confederate Hag [page 555] had been flying 
for several days, and, immediately after landing at the city, Ellsworth proceeded to remove it. 
He went to the roof, took it down. au<l, while descending a flight of stairs, the proprietor of the 
inn, waiting for liim in a dark passage, shot him dead. The murderer was instantly killed by one 
of Ellsworth's companions. On tlie day previous to the invasion of A'irginia [May 23], William 
McSpeddon, of New York City, and Samuel Smith, of Queen's County, New York, went over from 
Washington and captured a Confederate flag. This was the first flwj taken from tJte insurgents. 



ISGl] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTR ATIOX. 



565 



About a month later [June 27] Captain Ward attacked the Confederates at 
Matthias Point, farther down the Potomac, where his force was repulsed and 
he was killed. At this place, and in its vicinity, the Confederates established 
batteries that defied the National vessels, and for many months that river, a 
great highway for supplies for the Army of the 
Potomac, was eifectually blockaded by them. 

While these stirring events were occurring east- 
ward of the Alleghanies, others equally important 
were observed in the Mississippi valley. In May 
and June, 1861, Civil War was kindling furiously 
wherever the slave-system prevailed, for it was 
waged in the interest of that institution. In tlu' 
border Slave-labor States of Kentucky and Mis- 
souri, the contest began early. The governor of 
each (Beriali Magoffin,of Kentucky, and Claiborne 
F. Jackson, of Missouri) was in complicity with 
the conspirators; and in Kentucky, Simon B. Buck- 
ner, a captain of the National anny, who had been 
placed at the head of a military organization 
known as the Kentticky State Guard, was cm- 
ployed by them, through its potential means, 
for corrupting the patriotism of the young men 
of that commonwealth. His work was facilitated 

by the leading politicians of that State, who claimed to be Union men, but 
who, at the outset, resolved to withhold all aid to their government in sup- 
pressing the rising rebellion.' They succeeded in placing their State in a 
position of neutrality in the conflict, and the consequence was that it suffered 
terriblj' from the ravages of war, which might have been averted had the great 
majority of the citizens, who were loyal, been allowed to act in accordance with 
their feelings and judgments. 

In Missouri the loyalists were the majority, but the disloyal governor and 
leading politicians, in their endeavors to unite its destinies with the slave- 
holders' Confederation, caused that State, too, to be desolated by war. So 
early as at the close of February [1861], a State convention was held at the 
capital, in which not an openly avowed disunionist appeared. It reassembled 
at St. Louis [March 4], when Sterling Price, a secret enemy to the government, 
but pretending to be its friend, presided. The loyal men gave a loyal tone to 
the proceedings, and the Governor, despairing of using that body for his trea- 




ELLSWORTU ZOUAVE. 



' The Louisville Journal, the organ of the so-called Unionists of Kentucky, said of the Presi- 
dent's proclamation calling for troops to put down rebelUon : " We are struck witli mingled 
amazement and indignation. The policy announced in the proclamation deserves the unqualified 
condemnation of every American citizen. It is unworthy, not merely of a statesman, but of a 
man. It is a policy utterly harobramed and ruinous. If Mr. Lincoln contemplated this 
policy m his inaugural address, he is a guilty dissembler; if he conceived it under the excite- 
ment aroused by the seizure of Fort Sumter, he is a guiltj' Hotspur. In either case he is 
miserably unlit for the exalted position in which the enemies of the country have placed him. 
Let the people instantly take him and his administration into their own hands if they would 
rescue the land from bloodshed, and the Union from sudden and irretrievable destruction." 



560 



THE NATION. 



P861. 




ARSENAL AT ST LOUIS 



sonable purposes, turned to the more disloyal Legislature for aid. The latter 
yielded to his wishes, and, under the inspiration of Daniel M. Frost, a native 
of New York, and a graduate of the Military Academy at West Point, they 
made arrangements for enrolling the militia of the State, and placing in the 
hands of the governor a strong military force, to be used against the power 
of the National government. Arrangements were also made for seizing the 

National Arsenal at St. 
Louis, and holding pos- 
session of that chief city 
of the Mississippi valley. 
For this purpose, and 
with the pretext of dis- 
ciplining the militia of 
that district, Frost, com- 
missioned a brigadier- 
general by the Gover- 
nor, formed a camp near 
the city. But the plan was frustrated by the vigilant loyalists of St. Louis 
and Captain Nathaniel Lyon, commanding the military post there. When it 
became evident that Frost was about to seize the arsenal, Lyon, with a large 
number of volunteers, surrounded the traitor's camp, and made him and his 
followers prisoners. 

The government and the authorities of ^lissouri now took open issue. Sat- 
isfied that the conspirators had resolved to secure to their interest that State 
and Kentucky, the National authorities took possession of and fortified Cairo, 
at the junction of the Ohio and Mississippi rivers, and of Bird's Point, a low 
bluff opposite, on the Missouri side of the " Father of Waters." It was a 
timely movement, for Governor Jackson 
speedily called [June 12, 1861] into the 
service of the State of Missouri fifty thou- 
sand of the militia, " for the purpose of 
repelling invasion," et cetera, and at Jefler- 
son City, the capital of the common- 
wealth, he raised the standard of revolt, 
with Sterling Price' as military commander. 
At the same time the authorities of Tennes- 
see, who, led by the disloyal Governor, '^ 
Isham G. Harris, had placed that State in 
a military relation to the Confederacy simi- 
lar to that of Virginia,' were working in 
harmony with Jackson, their troops being sterling price. 

under the command of General Gideon J. 

Pillow. That officer was making earnest efforts for the seizure of Cairo, when, 
early in July, Leonidas Polk, Bishop of the Protestant Episcopal Church of 




I a 



' Page aG5. 



' Page 556 



18G1.] • LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. qQ^ 

the Diocese of Louisiana, and a graduate of "West Point Academy, succeeded 
him in command. ^Icanwhilc, Lyon, who liad been promoted to Major-General, 
and placed in command of the Department of Missouri, moved a strong force 
against the insurgents at the State capitaL With 2,000 men he went up the 
Missouri River in two steamers. ^Yhen he approached Jefferson City the 
insurgents fled. He hotly pursued, and overtook, fought, and dispersed them 
near Booneville. The vanquished Missourians again fled, and halted not until 
they had reached the southwestern borders of the State. Lyon now held 
military control of the most important portions of it.' 

There was now great commotion all over the land. War had begun in 
earnest. Confederate pirate-ships were depredating upon the ocean. The 
fife and dnim were heard in every hamlet, village, and city, from the St. 
Croix to the Rio Grande. Compromises and concessions seemed no longer 
possible. The soothing lullaby of the last "Peace Convention"-* was lost in 
the din of warlike preparations, and it was evident that the great question 
before the people, whether the retrogressive barbarism of slave institutions or 
the progressive civilization of free institutions should prevail in the Republic, 
could only be settled by the arbitrament of the sword, to which the friends of 
the former and the enemies of the Union had appealed. A mighty army of 
defenders of the Republic was rapidly gathering and earnestly drilling at its 
capital, and was animated by an intense desire (shared by the loyal people) to 
go forward, disperse the army of the conspirators, and drive their chief and 
his counselors from Richmond, where, with great energy, they were devising 
and putting into execution plans for the overthrow of their government. The 
gratification of that desire was promised when, at the middle of July, the 
General-in-Chief gave orders for the movement of the army upon the foe at 
Manassas, then commanded by Beauregard.^ 

Lieutenant-General Scott was too feeble to take command of the army in 
the field,'' and that duty was assigned to General Irwin McDowell, then at the 
head of the Department of Virginia. Already Ohio and South Carolina troops 



' He so held tlie ■whole region north of the Misso\iri River, and east of a line running south 
from Booneville on that stream to the Arkansas border, thus giving; the government the control 
of the important points of St. Louis, Hannibal, St. Josepli, and Bird's Point, as bases of opera- 
tions, with railways and rivers for transportation. 

' The Virginia conspirators repeated the trick of a '" Peace Convention " [see page 549] on a 
more limited scale after they had dragged their State into the Confederation. Tliey proposed a 
convention of delegates from the border Slave-labor States, to be held in Frankfort, ICentucky. 
The 27th of May was appointed as the day for their assembling. There were present no dele- 
gates from Virginia, and only five beside those appointed in Kentucky. Those present professed 
to be eminently "neutral," and talked of "wrongs endured by the South." and the "sectional- 
ism of the North," and regarded the preservation and National protection of the slave-system as 
"essential to the best hopes of our country." The trick was too apparent to deceive anybody, 
and had no efl'cct. It was the last " peace conference " of its kind. 

' Page 551!. On taking command of that army, at the beginning of June, Beauregard, who 
was noted throughout the war for his official misrepresentations, ludicrous boastings, and signal 
failures as a military leader, issued a proclamation so infamous and shameless, considering the 
conduct of himself and his superiors at Richmond, that honorable Confederate leaders like John- 
ston, Ewell, and Longstreet blushed for shame. 

* He was afflicted with dropsy and vertigo, and for fjur months previously ho had not been 
able to mount a liorse. 



5G8 



THE NATION. 



[18G1. 




WINFIELD SCOTT IN 18G5.- 



liad measured strength at Vienna, a few miles from Washington, in an 
encounter [June 17th] concerning the possession of the railway between 

Alexandria and Leesburg ;' and now the 
National army was eager to repeat the 
contest on a larger scale. The opportunity 
speedily offered. A little more than 
vOjOOO troops moved from Arlington 
Heights and vicinity' toward Manassas 
at the middle of July, and on the 18th 
a portion of these, under General Tyler, 
had a severe battle at Blackburn's Ford, on 
Bull's "Run, not far from Centrevillc, in 
Fairfax County. The Nationals were re- 
pulsed and saddened, and the Confederates 
were highly elated. The loss of men 
was about equally divided between the 
combatants, being about sixty on each side. 

McDowell's plan was to turn the right flank of the Confederates, and com- 
pel both Beauregard and Jolinston to fall back ; and Tyler's movement near 
Blackburn's Ford was intended as a feint, but ended in a battle. The result 
of that engagement, and his observations during a reconnoissance on the fol- 
lowing day [July 20], satisfied McDowell that his plan was not feasible. He 
therefore resolved to make a direct attack on the foe. It was important that 
it should be done speedily, because the terms of enlistment of his " three 
months men '" were about to expire, and Patterson, yet at Martinsburg, was 
in a position to give him instant assistance, if necessary. The latter had been 
ordered to so menace Johnston as to keep him at Winchester and prevent his 
re-enforcmg Beauregard, or to go to the support of McDowell, if necessary. 
Such being the situation, the commander of the Nationals felt confident of 
success, and at two o'clock on Sunday morning, the 21st of July [1861], he set 
his army in motion in three columns — one under General Tyler, marching to 
menace the Confederate left at the Stone Bridge over Bull's Run, on the War- 
renton road, while two others, under Generals Hunter and Heintzelman, taking 
a wide circuit more to the left, were to cross the stream at different points, and 



' The National troops were commanded by Colonel A. XIcD. MeCook, who had been sent out 
to picket and guard the road. They were accompanied on l!iis occasion by General Robert C. 
Schenck. The Confederates were in charge of Colonel Maxcy Gregg, who had been a leading 
member of the South Carolina Secession Convention. 

'' At this time the main body of McDowell's troops, about 45,000 strong, occupied a line, with 
the Potomac at its back, extending from Alcxaudria, nine miles below Washington, almost to the 
Chain Bridge, si-x miles above the capital. The remainder of the National arm.v. about 18,000 
strong, was at or near Martinsburg, niuler General Patterson. Both armies were liable to a sud- 
den decrease, for the terms of enlistment of the ''three months men" were about expinng. - 
The main Confederate army, under Beauregard, was at and near Manassas Junction, in a verj' 
strong defensive position, abont half way between the more eastern range of the Blue Ridge and 
the Potomac at Alexandria. Johnston's force at Winchester was larger than Patterson's, and 
was in a position to re-enforce Beauregard without much difBculty. He made his position quite 
strong, by easting up earthworks for defense. 

" See page 485. ' Page 551. 



IS61.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



569 



make the real attack on Beauregard's left M'ing, menaced by Tyler. At the same 
time troops under Colonels Richardson and Davies were to march from near 
Centreville, and threaten the Confederate right.' These movements were duly 
executed, but with some mischievous delay, and it was well toward noon 
before the battle was 
fairly begun. 

Beauregard had 
planned an attack on 
McDowell at Centre- 
ville, the same morn- 
ing. The authori- 
ties at Kielmiond, 
informed of the lat- 
ter's movements, had 
ordered Johnston to 
hasten to the aid of 
Beauregard, who was 
now compelled to act 
on tlie defensive. Af- 
ter several hours' 
hard fighting, with 
varying fortunes on 
both sides, and the 
mutual losses dread- 
ful, the Nationals, 
with superior numbers, were on the point of gaining .a complete victory, when 
from the Shenandoah Valley came six thousand of Johnston's fresh troops, and 
turned the tide of battle. Johnston had managed to elude Patterson, and had 
hastened to Manassas, followed by his troops, and there, as senior in rank, he 
took the cliief command. Patterson, awaiting promised information and 
orders from the General-in-Chief (which he did not receive), failed to re-enforce 
McDowell, and when, at about three o'clock in the afternoon, Johnston's troops 
swelled the ranks of Beauregard to a volume greater than those of his foes, 
the Nationals were thrown back in confusion, and fled in disastrous rout 
toward Washington City.' Jeiferson Davis had just arrived on the battle- 
field when the flight began. He sent an exultant shout by telegraph to his 




RUINS OF THE STOXE BEUJGE 



' Tlie Confederate army lay along a line nearly parallel to the general course of Bull's Run, 
from Union Mills, where tlie Orange and Alexandria railway crosses that stream, to the passage 
of the Warrenton turnpike, at the Stone Bridge geveral miles above. 

' A large number of civilians saw the smoke of battle from Centreville and its vicinity. Sev- 
eral memlxTS of Congress, and many others, went out from Washington to see the light, as they 
would a holiday spectacle, not doubting the success of the National troops. These were seen flying 
back in the greatest terror, while Congressman Alfred Kly, and one or two other civilians, were 
captured, and held as prisoners in Richmond for several months. Among the fugitives was W. 
H. Russell, correspondent of tlie London Times, who, notwithstanding he had not seen the battle, 
wrote an account of it the same night, while in an unfit condition, as he acknowledged, to write 
anv thing truthfully. It was very disparaging to the Nationals, and filled the enemies of the 
Republic in Europewith joy, because of the assurance it gave of the success of the conspirators. 



570 THE NATIOX. [1861. 

fellow-conspirators at Richmoiul,' and the whole Confederacy speedily rano- 
with its echoes ; while the remnant of the vanquished army hastened hack in 
fragments to the defenses of "Washington, and the gloom of deepest despond- 
ency oversliadowed the loyal heart of the nation for a moment. While one 
section of the Republic was resonant with sounds of exultation, the other was 
silent and cast down for a moment. 

The extraordinary session of Congress' had not yet closed, when the disas- 
ter at Bull's Run occurred. That event did not disturb the composure or the 
faitli of that body. Friends of the Confederates who yet lingered in the 
National Legislature were using every means in tlieir power to thwart legisla- 
tion that looked to the crushing of the rebellion f but the patriotic majority 
went steadily forward in their efforts to save the Republic. When tlie battle 
occuiTed, they had under consideration a declaratory resolution concerning the 
object of the war on the part of the government, and wliile the capital was 
filled with fugitives from the shattered Kational army, and it was believed by 
many that tlie seat of government was at the meix-y of its enemies, Congress 
deliberated as calmly as if assured of perfect safety, adopted the Declaratory 
Resolution,'' and made tliorough provisions for jsrosecuting tlic war vigorously. 
The same faith and patriotic action were soon visible among the loyal people. 
Their despondency was momentary. Almost immediately tlicy recovered from 
the stunning blow to their hopes and desires. They awakened from the 
delusive and dangerous dream that their armies were absolutely invincible. 
There was at once another wonderful uprising of the Unionists, and while the 
Confederates were wasting golden moments of opportunity in celebrating their 
victory, thousands of young men were seen flocking toward the National capi- 
tal to join the great Army of Defense. Within a fortnight after the battle 
just recorded, when the terms of service of the " three months men " had 



' From Manassas Junction lie telegraplicd, saying: — " Niglit has closed upon a hard-fought 
field. Our forces were victorious. The enemy was routed, and fled precipitately, abandoning a 
large amount of arms, ammunition, knapsack.s, and baggage. The ground was strewn for miles 
with those killed, and the farm-houses and the grounds around were filled with tlie wounded." 
"Our force," he said, " was 15.000 ; that of the enemy estimated at 30,000." This was not only 
an exaggeration, but a misrepresentation. From the most reliable authorities on both sides, it 
appears that, in the final struggle, the Nationals had about lii.OOO men. and the Confederates 
about 27,000. The latter had been receiving re-enforcements all day, while not a man crossed 
Bull's Run after twelve o'clock at noon to re-euforce the Nationals. 

" Page 5i;0. 

' Page 540. Slidell, Tulce, and other Senators, remained for some time, for the avowed pur- 
pose of preventing legislation that might strengthen the hands of the government. 

* .J. J. Crittenden oflcred the following joint resolution : — " That the present deplorable Civil 
TV'ar has been forced upon the country bj' the disunionists of the Southern States now in revolt 
against the constitutional government, and in arms around the capital; that in this National 
emergency Congress, banishing all feeling of mere passion or resentment, will recollect only its 
duty to its country ; that this war is not waged on our part in any spirit of oppression, not fc.r 
any purpose of conquest or subjugation, nor purpose of overthrowing or iuterferitig with the 
rights or established usages of those States; but to defend and maintain the supremacy of tl.o 
Constitution, and to preserve the Union, with all the dignity, equality, and rights of the several 
States unimpaired ; and as soon as these objects are accomplished, the war ought to cease." 

This resolution was adopted by an almost unanimous vote in both Houses of Congress. It 
alarmed the conspirators, for it positively denied those false allegations with which they had 
deceived the people. They were so fearful that their dupes might see it and abandon their bad 
cause, that no newspaper in the Confederacy, it is said, was allowed to pubUsh the fact. 



1861.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 571 

expired, niore than an equal number of volunteers were in the camp or in the 
field, engiiged for "three years or the war." Nine-tenths of the non-com- 
batants shared in the faith and fervor of those who took up arms, and the 
people of tlie Free-labor States presented a spectacle difficult to comprehend. 
That terrible crisis in the life of the nation was promptly met, and the salva- 
tion of the Republic was assured. At the same time that " United South " 
against the government, which the conspirators had falsely proclaimed months 
before, now became a reality. The prestige of victory, the pressure of a ter- 
rible despotism, and the menaces of banishment and confiscation acts, passed 
by the Confederate " Congress," together with the prospect of the establish- 
ment of a new nation, suddenly carved by the sword out of the Republic, with 
whose fortunes it seemed their duty and interest to link themselves, so aifected 
the great body of the Unionists at the South, that they yielded to necessity, 
and the voice of opposition was speedily hushed into silence.' 

On the day after the Battle of Bull's Run [July 22, 1861], General McClel- 
lan, whose'troops had been successful in "Western Virginia,- was called to the 
command of the army at Washington. He at once set about the reorganiza- 
tion of that broken force with skill and industry. It was perfected by the 
middle of October, when seventy-five thousand well-armed^ and fairly disci- 
plined troops were in a condition to be placed in active service in the field. 
McClellan's moral power was then tremendous. He had the confidence of the 
army and the Avhole country, and he was called a " Young Napoleon." And 
when, on the 1st of November, General Scott resigned his position, and on his 
recommendation his place as General-in-Chief was filled by the appointment 
of McClellan,' that act was hailed as a promise of a speedy termination of the 
rebellion, for he had said that the war should be " short, sharp, and decisive." 
He spent the remainder of the autumn, and the whole winter, in making 
preparations for a campaign for the capture of Richmond ; and when, at the 
beginning of March, his force, which was called the Grand Army of the 
Potomac, was put in motion, it numbered 220,000 men.' In the mean time, 

' The pressure brought to bear on the Union men was terrible, and the youtli of that class 
were driven into tlie army by thousands, because of the social i)ro.«eription to whicli they were 
subjected. The zeal of the women in the cause of rebelUon was unbounded, and their influence 
was e.xtremely pitential. Young men who hesitated when asked to enlist, or even waited to be 
asked, were shunned and sneereil at hy the young women ; and many were the articles of women's 
apparel whicli were sent, as sisinificant pifts, to these laggards at home. Men who still dared to 
stand firm in their true allegiance were deaoiuiced as "traitors to their country," and treated as 
such. 

"- Page 5C3. 

^ We have observed [pag? o49] that Secretary Floyd, in preparation for the rebellion, had 
stripped the arsenals and armories of the Free-labor States, and filled those of the Slave-labor 
States. It was necessary for the government to send to Europe for arms. For that purpose 
Colonel George L. Schuyler, of General ■Wool's staflF, was dispatched [July, 1861], and lie pur- 
chased 116,000 rifles, 10,C00 revolvers, 10,000 cavalry caibines, and 21,000 sabers, at an 
aggregate cost of little over $2.0;)0,000. Impediments were at first cast in the way of his 
purchase of arms in England and France, the sympathy of those governments being with the 
conspirators. He purchased the greater portion of them in Vienna and Dresden. 

^ See General Orders, No. 91, November 1, ISGl. 

' Of this number, about thirty thousand were sick or absent. Among the latter class were 
several hundred prisoners captured at Bull's Run and Ball's Bluff, on the Upper Potomac. The 
prison-life of ciptives among the Confederates wa.s often very terrible. 



572 



THE NATION. 



[1861. 



the Confederate army, under Johnston, lying between Washington City and 
Richmond, not more than 40,000 strong at any time, had remained undisturbed, 
and Washington City had been made impregnable by the erection around it 
of no less than Hfty-two forts and redoubts. 

While the process of reorganizing the Army of the Potomac was going on, 
the war was making rapid progress west of the Alleghanies, and especially in 
Missouri We left General Lyon, victorious, at Booneville,' and the fugitive 




insui gents, under 
Puce and Jack- 
son, in the south- 
^\ estei n pai t of the State. 
Whde Ly on w as pursu- 
ing the main body of 
the insurgents, anothei 
Union foice, undei Colo- 
nel Franz Sigel, an ac- 
complished German sol- 
dier, was pushing for- 
ward from St. Louis, 
by way of Rolla. When he heard of the flight of the insurgents toward 
the borders of Arkansas, he pressed on in that direction, passing through 
Springfield and Sarcoxie, and near Carthage he fell in with the main 
body of the Confederates, much superior to him in numbers, and espe- 
cially in liorsemen. Sigel had more cannon than liis foe, but, in a sharp 
engagement that ensued [July 5, 1861], the overwhelming force of the insur- 
gents pushed him back, and he retreated in good order to Springfield. To 



FORTIFICATIONS IN AND AROUND WASHINGTON CITY. 



Page 561. 



18fil.] LINfrOLN'S ADMIXISTR ATIOX. 57p, 

that point Lyon liastened when he licard of the apparent peril that threatened 
Sigel, and on the 13th he took command of the united forces. Meanwliile the 
insurgent Missouriaus had been largely re-enforced by troops from Texas and 
Arkansas, and at the close of July the combined force, about 20,000 strong (a 
large proportion cavalry), under Generals Price, Ben McCulloch, Pcarce, Rains, 
and McBride, were marching on Springfield. Lyon's force did not exceed 
6,000 men (400 cavalry) and eighteen cannon. 

Feeble as he was, Lyon went out to meet the advancing foe. In a beauti- 
ful valle}', at a place called Dug Springs, nineteen miles from Springfield, he 
met, fought, and vanquished his enemies, under McCulloch and Rains. So 
desperate were the charges of a few of Lyon's cavalry, under Stanley, that 
Confederate prisoners inquired: "Are they men or devils?" Lyon returned 
to Springfield [August 4], and a few days later [August 9] the Confederate 
army, under the general command of SlcCulloeh, wearied and half-starved, 
encamped at Wilson's Creek, about ten miles south of the town. Lyon again 
went out to meet tiiem, marching his little force in two columns, before dawn 
the next morning [August 10] ; one led by himself, to attack their front, and 
the other by Sigel, to fall upon their rear. A battle opened at an early hour. 
The brunt of it fell upon Lyon's column, for Sigel's, deceived by a trick,' was 
early dispersed or captured. Lyon's troops, inspired by their leader, fought 
great odds with vigor and gallantry. The commander was everywhere seen, 
encouraging his men, until at about nine o'clock in the morning he fell mor- 
tally wounded, and was succeeded in command by Major Sturgis. The battle 
ceased at eleven o'clock, when the Nationals were victorious. It was not safe 
for them to remain on the field of victory, nor to risk another encounter, so, on 
the following morning [July 11], the Avhole Union force, led by Sigel, retreated 
in good order toward Rolla, safely conducting to that place a government 
train valued at a million and a half dollars. 

The loyal civil authorities of Missouri were now striving against powerful 
influences to keep the State from the vortex of secession. The popular conven-' 
tion,'' which reassembled at Jefferson City on the 22d of July, declared the 
government of which the traitor Jackson was the head to be illegal, and 
organized a provisional government for service until a permanent one should 
be formed by the people. Meanwhile, Reynolds, Jackson's lieutenant-governor, 
issued a proclamation at New Madrid, as acting chief magistrate, in wdiich he 
declared the State to be separated from the Union, and that, by " invitation of 
Governor Jackson," General Pillow had entered Missouri at the head of Ten- 
nessee troops, to act in conjunction with M. Jeff. Thompson, a native leader, 
in upholding the secession movement. Jackson was then in Richmond, nego- 

' Sigel's force wag composed of twelve luindred men and si.x gnns. Ho marched so stealthily 
that the first intimation the Confederates had of his presence was the bursting of tlie shells 
from his guns over Rains's osmp. The Confederates fled, and Sigel took possession of their 
position, when it was reported that some of Lyon's column were approaching. When these, 
dressed like Sigel's men (they were Confederates in disguise), were within less than musket-shot 
distance of the latter, they opened a destructive lire upon tlie Unionists with cannon and small 
arms, spreading consternation in his ranks. He lost all but about three hundred men and one 
lield-piece. " Page 565. 



574 TH^ NATION. [1861. 

tiating with the conspirators for the annexation of Missouri to the Confederacy ; 
and the vain and shallow Pillow' assumed the pompous title of " Liberator of 
Missouri," dating liis orders and dispatches, "Head-Quarters Army of Libera- 
tion." Although the conditions of annexation were not complied with, men 
claiming to represent Missouri performed the farce of occupying seats in the 
so-called "Congress" of the conspirators at Richmond during a greater 
portion of the war. 

At this critical juncture, John C. Fremont,'' who had lately returned from 
Europe with some arms for his government, and bearing the commission of 
Major-General, was appointed to the command of the Western Department, 
with his head-quarters at St. Louis. He found ever}- thing in confusion, and 
much that was needed for the public service. He went vigorously at work in 
the important duty assigned him. He fortified St. Louis, and took measures 
for making the important posts of Cairo and Bird's Point'' absolutely secure, 
for these were menaced by Pillow and his associates. These measures alarmed 
the disloyal inhabitants and the invading troops, but when the retreat of the 
Nationals from Springfield and the death of Lyon'' became known, the seces- 
sionists assumed a bold and defiant attitude. They gathered in armed bands 
throughout the State. The civil authority was helpless ; so Fremont, seeing 
no other way to secure the supremacy of the National government than by 
taking the whole power in his department into his own hands, declared mar- 
tial law [August 31, 1861], and warned the disaffected that it would be 
rigorously executed. He acted promptly in accordance with his declaration, 
and the insurgents began to quail, when his vigor was checked by his govern- 
ment.' 

Soon after the battle at Wilson's Creek, Price was abandoned by McCul- 
loch, with whom he co\dd not agree, when he called upon the Missouri seces- 
sionists to fill his ranks, and early in September lie was moving with a con- 
siderable force northward toward the Missouri River, in the direction of 
Lexington, where nearly three thousand National troops were collected, under 
Colonel J. A. Mulligan. Colonel Jefferson C. Davis was then at Jefferson City 
with a larger force, and General John Pope was hastening in the direction of 
Lexington from the region northward of the Missouri, with about five thousand 
men. Price, aware of danger near, pressed forward and laid siege to Lexington 
on the 1 1th of September. Mulligan had cast up some intrenchments there, but 
his men had only about forty rounds of ammunition each, and his heavy arma- 
consisted of' six small cannon and two howitzers — the latter useless, 
because he had no shells. Price had an overwhelming force, and opened fire 
on the 12th. Re-enforcements came to him, and tlie insurgents finally numbered 



' Page 5GG. ' r.iges 488 and 530. = P.-ig-e 5G6. * Pa{?e 573. 

° In his proclamation of ra.irtial law, Fremont declared that whoever should be found gnilty 
of thereafter taking an active part with the enemies of the government in the field, should suffer 
the penalty of confiscation of their property to the public use, and have their slaves, if they pos- 
sessed any, made forever freemen. Tliis raised a storm of indignation among the so-called 
Unionists of the Border Slave-labor States, whose good-will the government was then trying to 
secure, and that efficient measure against the rebellion, which, two years later, the government 
itself used, Fremont was then forbidden to employ. 



1861.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 5^5 

about twenty-five tliousand men. Mulligan and his little band made a gallant 
defense until the morning of the 20th [September, 1861], when he was compelled 
to surrender.' He had held out with hopes of success, but when re-enforce- 
ments approached it was too late for them to penetrate to his lines. This 
disaster was severely felt, and on the 2Vth of September Fremont put in motion 
an army of more than twenty thousand men for the purpose of retrieving it, 
and di'iving Price and his insurgents out of the State. 

While these events were occurring in the heart of Missouri, important ones 
were taking place in Kentucky. Governor Magoffin' encouraged the seces- 
sionists as much as he dared. lie allowed them to establish recruiting camps 
for the Confederate army ; and when the loyal Legislature of the State assem- 
bled [September 2] he and his political associates, fearing the adverse action 
of that body, looked with complacency ujwn the invasion of the State, and the 
seizure of the strong position of Columbus [September 6], on the Mississippi, 
by Confederate troops under General (Bishop) Polk. In defiance of their 
avowed respect for the neutrality of Kentucky, the conspirators at Richmond 
sanctioned the movement,' and thus opened the way for the horrors of war, 
which filled Kentucky with distress. Columbus was held by the Confederates. 
The Legislature requested the Governor to call out the militia of the State "to 
expel and drive out the invaders," and asked the General Government to aid in 
the work. The Governor resisted, but was compelled to yield. General An- 
derson,'' in command there, at once prepared to act vigorously, and General 
Ulysses S. Grant, then in command in the district around Cairo, took military 
possession of Paducah, at the mouth of the Tennessee Rivei-. Thus ended the 
" neutrality " of Kentucky, which proved so disastrous to that State. Too late 
to avoid the consequences of that folly, the State now took a positive stand for 
the Union, and avoided many evils. 

Felix K. Zollicoffer, formerly a member of Congress, invaded Kentucky 
from East Tennessee (where the Unionists were horribly persecuted)' on the 

' Tlie private soldiers were paroled and the officers were held as prisoners of war. Mnlligan 
lost 40 killed and 120 wonnded. Price's loss was 25 killed and T5 wounded. The spoils were fi 
cannon, 2 howitzers, 3,000 stand of small arms, 750 horses, a large quantity of equipage, and 
commissary stores valued at $100,000. " Page 505. 

^ Some of the partisans of Davis, South and North, denied that he ever sanctioned this viola- 
tion of the pledged faith of the Confederates to respect tlie neutrality of Kentucky. The proof 
tliat lie did so is undeniable. His so-called Secretary of War, as a cover to the iniquity, tele- 
graphed puhlidy to Polk, directing liim to withdraw his troops from Kentucky soil. At tlie same 
time, Davis himself, with supremo power, telegraphed j^rivatehj to Polk, saying : " Tlie necessity 
must justify the act." For the proof, see Lossing's Pictorial History of the Civil War, II. 75 

' Tlio defender of Port Sumter [page 550] had been promoted to brigadier, and was then in 
command in Kentucky. 

' Jefferson Davis was quick to act upon tlie autliority given him by the confiscation and ban- 
isliment acts of his " Congress " In districts sucli as East Tennessee, and other mountain regions, 
where the blight of slavery was little known, the people were generally loyal to their government. 
Wlien tho Confederates held sway in such districts, tlie keenest cruellies were practiced upon the 
Union inhabitants. Kast Tennesseans were peculiar sufferers on tliat account through a greater 
portion of the war. Loyalists were hunted, not only by armed men, but by bloodliounds, with 
which fugitive slaves were pursued.* Tliey were taken to military camps, abused by mobs, 

* In the Memphis Appeal n^fenn-Am ndvertisement, in the autumn oflSei, for " fifty wi01-br.Ml" ami "on<' 
pair of thorouahlirc'cl bloorthrninds. that "ill taki' the tracli of a man. The purpose." said the adveitisemi'nt, "for 
which these doirs are wanted, is to chase the infiTnal, cowardly Lincoln bushwhackers [TTninnists] of Kast Ten- 
nessee and Kentucky to their haunts, and capture them." This was signed by F. N. McNairy anil II. H. Harris. 
Confederate officers in camp. 



570 



THE NATION 



day after Polk seized Columbus,' and Buckner, already' mentioned as the cor- 
rupter of the patriotism of the young men of that State,'-' who luid establislied 
a camp in Tennessee just below the Kentucky border, acting in co-operation 
with the two invaders, attempted to seize Louisville, but was foiled by the 
vigilance of Anderson and the troops under him. Buckner advanced as far as 
Elizabethtown, but was compelled to fall back to Bowling Green, on the Nash- 
ville and Louisville railway, Avhere he established an intrenched camp, and 
made it the nucleus of a jwwerful force gathered there soon afterward. < 

Let us turn again for a moment to the consideration of affairs in Missouri. 

We have observed that Fremont set a heavy force in motion to drive the 
Confederates out of Missouri. He had formed a general plan for driving them 
out of tjie Mississippi Valley, and re-opening the navigation of the great 
stream which the insurgents had obstructed by batteries.^ It was to capture 
or disperse the forces under Price, and seize Little Uock, the capital of Arkansas, 
and so completely turn the position of the forces under Pillow and otliers, as 
to cut off their supplies from that region and compel them to retreat, when a 
flotilla of gun-boats, then in preparation near St. Louis, could easily descend 
the river and assist in military operations against Memphis. If the latter 
should be successful, the army and navy might push on and take possession of 
New Orleans. Fremont accompanied his army in the initial movement of his 
plan, namely, against Price, and on the 11th of October, when well on his way 
toward Arkansas, his forces marching in five columns,'' he wrote: — "My plan 
is New Orleans straight. I would precij)itate the war forward, and end it 
soon and victoriously." But he was not allowed to carry out his plan, and at 
Springfield, where his body-guard, under Zagonyi, had made one of the most 
memorable charges on record upon the strong foe,' he was superseded in com- 
mand by General David Hunter, and the army, instead of going forward, 
marched sadly back toward St. Louis at the middle of November. Meanwhile 
detachments of Fremont's army, under various leaders, had been doing gallant 
service against bands of insurgents in various parts of Missouri, the most nota- 
ble of which were contests with M. Jeff Thompson and his guerrillas, in the 
eastern part of the State, who ware^defeated and dispersed in October, chiefly 
by Missouri, Illinois, and Indiana froofs. 

^.-■^'^ 

thrust into prisons, and some werc3 liango^fer no otlier crime than active loyalty to their povem- 

ment. Among the most notable of these sufferers in East Tennessee was Rev. Dr. Brownlow, a 

leading citizen, who liad been a poHtical editor at Knoxville for many years, was very influential 

as a citizen, and was feared and hated by the Confederates. His sufferings, and those of his 

fellow-patriots, form the subject of a volume from his pen, of great interest. At the close of the 

war lie was elected flovernor of tlie State (having been appointed Provisional Governor', and in 

1807 he was re-elected by an immense majority of the legal voters of Tennessee. 

' Page 575. ' Page 565. 

' So early as the 12th of January,. 1S61, three days after a convention of politicians in Missis- 
sippi had dec'lared that State severed from the ITnion. Governor Pettus directed a battery to he 
planted at 'Vicksburg, with orders to hail and examine every vessel that should attempt" to pass. 
Otlier liatteries were soon planted there and upon other bluffs in the river, and for more than two 
years tho commerce of the Mississippi was suspended. 

' Commanded respectively by Generals David Hunter, John Pope. Franz Sigel, J McKinstry, 
and A. Ashboth. 

' Zagonyi charged upon nearly two thousand infantry and cavalry with one hundred and fifty 
of his men, routed the foe, and came out of the conflict with eighty-four of his little band dead 
or wounded. 



18C1.J 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



577 



Before being deprived of his command, Fremont, in pursuance of his plan, 
directed General Grant to make a co-operative movement on the line of the 
Mississippi River. Grant determined to threaten Columbus' by attacking 
Belmont, on the Missouri shore ojiposite, to prevent Polk assisting Thompson. 
With about 3,000 troops (mostly Illinois volunteers, under General John A. Mc- 
Clernand), in transjjorts, accompanied by the wooden gun-boats TijUr and Lex- 
ingtoti, he went down the Jlississippi from Cairo, while another force was march- 
ing from Paducah' toward the rear of Columbus, under General Charles F. Smitli, 
to divert Polk's attention from the river expedition. That expedition suddenly 
and unexpectedly appeared just above Columbus on the morning of the 7th 
of November, when the gun-boats opened 
fire on Polk's batteries. The troops were 
landed on the Missouri shore, three miles 
above Belmont, and immediately marched 
upon that place. Polk sent over troojjs 
under General Pillow to re-enforce the 
garrison there. A sharp engagement en- 
sued, and the Nationals were victorious, 
but the ground being commanded bj^ the 
batteries on the bluffs at Columbus, it 
was untenable, and Grant withdre^\-. 
Polk determined not to allow him to 
escape. He opened upon the retiring 
troops some of his heaviest guns, sent 
Cheatham to re-enforce Pillow, and then 
led over two regiments himself to swell the ranks of the pursuei-s. Grant 
fought his wa}^ back to his transjjorts after suffering severely,' and re-embai'ked 
under cover of the gun-boats and escaped. The battle was gallantly fought 
on both sides, and many deeds of daring are recorded. 

Zollicoffer's invasion'' aroused the Unionists of Eastern Kentucky, and they 
flew to arms under various leaders. In a picturesque rcixion of the Cumber- 
land Mountains, known as the Rock CaStte^Hills, they fouoht and repulsed 

I ■' • 's' 
him. Still fixrther eastward in KentucKv^ loj^lists under General William 

Nelson fought and dispersed a Confederalc^e^rc^undcr Colonel J. S. Williams, 
near Piketon. The latter fled to the mountains at Pound Gap, carrying away 
a large number of cattle. These successes inspired the East Tennessee loyal- 
ists with hopes of a speedy deliverance, but they were compelled to wait long 
for that consummation. The Confederates, toward the close of 1861, had 
obtained a firm foothold in Tennessee, and occupied a considerable portion of 
Southern Kentucky, from the mountains to the Mississippi River, along a line 
about four hundred miles in length. At the same time the Nationals were 
preparing to drive them southward. Let us now consider events in the 
vicinity and eastward of the Alleghany Mountains, and along the sea-coast. 




LEONIDAS POLK. 



• Page 575. 

' Grant lost in killed, wounded, and missing, 4S5 men, and Poll: G:i2 



" Papre 5'15. 
* Page 575. 



578 T"^ NATION. [1861. 

In the autumn of 1861 the Confederates struggled severely for the posses- 
sion of "Western Virginia. General Robert E. Lee had been sent to take com- 
mand of the troops left by Garnett and Pegrara in Northern Virginia.' He 
made his head-quarters at Iluntersville, in Pocahontas County, and early in 
August [1861] he found himself at the head of about 16,000 troops. Floyd, 
the late Secretary of War,' had been commissioned a brigadier-general, and 
sent to the region of the Gauley River, with troops to re-enforce the incompe- 
tent Wise, and to take chief command. Floyd was expected to sweep down 
the Kanawha Valley, and drive General Cox across the Ohio, while Lee should 
scatter or capture the National forces under General Rosecrans in Northern 
Virginia, and open a way into Ohio, Maryland, and Pennsylvania. Prepara- 
tory to these decisive movements, Floyd took position between Cox and Rose- 
crans at Carnifex Ferry, on the Gauley River, a few miles from Summersville, 
the capital of Nicholas Countj', leaving Wise to watch the region nearer the 
junction of the Gauley and New River, which form the Kanawha. 

Rosecrans had organized an army of nearly 10,000 men at Clarksburg, on 
the Baltimore and Ohio railway, and early in September he marched south- 
ward to attack Floyd, wherever he might be, leaving a force under General J. 
J. Reynolds to confront Lee in the Cheat Mountain region. With great labor 
Rosecrans's troops climbed over the Gauley Mountains, and on the 10th 
[Sept.], passing through Summersville, they fell upon the Confederates at Car- 
nifex Ferry. A severe battle for three or four hours ensued. It ceased at 
dusk. Rosecrans intended to renew it in the morning, but his foes fled under 
cover of the darkness, and did not halt until they reached the summit of Big 
Sewell Mountain, thirty miles distant. 

The battle at Carnifex Ferry was soon followed by stirring movements 
between Reynolds and Lee. The former was holding the roads and passes of 
the more westerly ranges of the great Alleghany chain, from Webster, on the 
Baltimore and Ohio railway, to the head-waters of the Gauley, crossing the 
spurs of the Greenbrier Mountains. When Rosecrans moved against Floyd, 
Reynolds was at the western foot of the mountains, not far from Huttons\'ille. 
Lee was farther south. His scouts were everywhere active, and it ^^•as evi- 
dent, early in September, that he contemplated an attack either, ujion Reynolds 
or Rosecrans. He was watched with sleepless vigilance, and on the day after 
the battle at Carnifex Ferry it was perceived that he was about to strike the 
Nationals at Elk water and on the Summit,^ for the purpose of securing the 
great Cheat Mountain Pass, through which lay the road to Staunton, and so 
obtain free communication with the Shenandoah Valley. His troops attacked 
the two posts just named [Sej^t. 12, 1861], and were repulsed. Lee then with- 
drew from the Cheat ^Mountain region and joined Floyd, between the Gauley 
and New River, where the combined forces under his command amounted 



' Page 563. ' Page 549. 

' Here; as we have seen [pa^e 503], General McClellan established a post, and left there an 
Indiana regiment, under Colonel Kimball. It was an important point on t)ie great highway from 
Huttonsville, over the lofty ranges of rao\mtains to Staunton. 



1861.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 5^9 

to about 20,000 men. There he was confronted by Rosecrans with about 
10,000 men, composed of tlie brigades of Cox, Benhara, and Schenck. 

Lee, whose campaign had been thus far a failure, was soon recalled and 
sent to Georgia. The wretched Wise was ordered to Richmond, and Floyd 
and Rosecrans again became competitors for victory. Floyd took post on the 
left or western bank of the New River late in October, from which he was 
driven [Nov. 12] by the forces under Rosecrans, and pui'sued about fifty miles 
southward. There Floyd took leave of his army, and a few months later he 
was seen in a disgraceful position at Fort Donelson, in Tennessee. Meanwhile 
General Kelley, who had recovered from his wounds,' was performing gallant 
service in defense of the line of the Baltimore and Ohio railway ; and on the 
26th of October he struck the insurgents a blow at Romney that paralyzed 
the rebellion in that region. General Robert II. Milroy, who had succeeded 
Reynolds, was also active in the Cheat Mountain region, with his head- 
quarters, at first, at the Summit. In that vicinity he fought the Confederates 
under Colonel E. Johnston, of Georgia, and was repulsed. lie was more suc- 
cessful in an expedition against the Confederates at Huntersville, Lee's old 
head-quarters.' He dispersed the insurgents there late in December, destroyed 
their stores, and released some Union prisoners. This event closed the cam- 
paign in Western Virginia in 1801. 

While the events we have just considered were occurring in Western 
Virginia and in the Mississippi Valley, others even more important in their 
relations to the great contest were occurring on the sea-coast. We have 
already considered some hostile movements in the vicinity of Fortress Monroe.^ 
In Hampton Roads (the harbor in front of that fortress) and the then smoking 
ruins of Hampton Village,* a large land and naval armament was seen in 
August, 1801. It was designed for an expedition down the Atlantic coast, the 
land forces under General B. F. Butler' and the naval forces under Commodore 
Silas II. Stringham. Its destination was Ilatteras Inlet, eighteen miles from 
Cape Ilatteras, where the Confederates had erected two forts (liatteras and 
Clarke) on the western end of Ilatteras Island. The fleet, composed of trans- 
ports for the troops and war vessels, gathered off the Inlet toward the even- 
ing of the 27th of August, and on the following morning the navy opened fire 
on the forts and some of the land troops were put ashore. The assault was con- 
tinued at intervals by both arms of the service until the 29th, when the forts 
were formally surrendered to Stringham and Butler by S. Barron, who com- 

1 Page 562. ' Page 578. = Page 562. 

* After the battle at Big Bethel [page 562], General Butler abandoned the village of Hamp- 
ton, which he had previously occupied, and confined his troops to Fortress Monroe and Newport- 
Newce. The whole country between Old Point Comfort, on which Fortress Monroe lies, and 
Yorktown, was thus left open to Confederate rule. Magruder, with about 5,000 men, moved 
down the peninsula and tooli post near the village of Hampton, for the purpose of closely invest- 
ing the Fortress. Skirmishes ensued at Hampton bridge, and on the night of the "th of August, 
Magruder, while drunken with liquor, ordered tlie village to be burnt. The act was performed by 
Virginians. So wanton was it that the venerable parish church, standing out of danger from the 
flames of the town, was fired and destroyed. 

' General Butler was s\icceeded in the command at Fortress Monroe by the veteran General 
John E. Wool. 



580 



THE NATION 




FORT HATTERAS. 



manded a little squadron in Pamlico Sound, and Colonel Martin and Major 
Andrews, in command of the Confederate troops.' The post was then gar- 
risoned by a portion of Colonel Hawkins's New York Zouave regiment, and 
the expedition returned to Hampton Roads. General Butler was then com- 
^_ - _^_^ -, missioned to go to New 

^ i fe5&y ^-JH_.-kMtg=jffii„--'.- ^^^ 5 - England to "raise, arm, 

.■:^^"'^*^' ' '^ 7i?i- uniform, and equip a vol- 

unteer force for the war." 
It was done. Their im- 
mediate services will be 
observed hereafter. 

Hawkins was re-en- 
forced in September by 
some Indiana troops, and 
early in October the lat- 
ter, then a few miles np 
the Island, were attacked 
and driven back to the forts by some Confederates, who came over in steamers 
from Roanoke Island. Meanwhile Hawkins had issued a conciliatory address to 
the neighboring inhabitants of North Carolina. A convention of loyal citizens 
was held [Oct. 12], who called anothei-, when a statement of grievances and a 
declaration of their independence of the Confederate government of North 
Carolina was adopted [Nov. 18, 18G1]. There was so much promise of good 
in this movement, that the President ordered an election there for a member 
of Congress. One was chosen [Nov. 27], but this germ of active loyalty 
was soon crushed by the heel of Confederate power.- But tlie substantial 
victory gained by the National forces was a severe blow to the cause of the 
conspirators, for it opened the way to most important results in favor of tlie 
National authorities, as we shall observe hereafter. 

During the summer of 1861, Fort Pickens and its vicinity were witnesses 
of stirring scenes. We have observed that the fort was saved fi'om capture 
early in the year through the vigilance and bravery of Lieutenant Slemmer 
and his little garrison, and that it was re-enforced.^ The troops that first went 
to the relief of Slemmer [April 12, 1861] were marines from the government ves- 



' Barron was a naval officer -n-lio had abandoned his flag and joined the insurgents. The cap- 
tives received tlie treatment of prisoners of war. They were taken to New York, and afterward 
exchansred. Not one of the soldiers of tlie attacking fleet or army was injured in the fray. The 
loss of the Confederates was twelve or fifteen killed and thirty-live wounded. 

" This movement was brought proniinently before the citizens of New York by Rev. M. N. 
Taylor, one of the signers of the Declaration of Independence, at a meeting over which Mr. Ban- 
croft, the historian, presided. Taylor said that "some 4.000 of the inhabitants living on the 
narrow strip of land on the coast jiad, on the first arrival of the troops, flocked to take the oath 
of allegiance, and this had cut tliem off from their scanty resources of traffic with the interior. 
They were a poor race," he said, '• living principally by fishing and gathering of yoaknm, an 
evergreen of spontaneous growth, which tliey dried and exchanged for corn." The yoakum is a 
plant which is extensively used in that region as a substitute for tea. 

The appeal of Mr. Taylor in behalf of these people was nobly responded to by generous gifts 
of money, food, and clothing. 

' See note li, page 559. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



581 



sels Sabine and St. Louis, lying off the fort, and artillerymen under Captaiq 
Vogdes, from the Brooklyn? They were there just in time to co-operate with 
a loyal man at the Navy Yard in saving the fort from capture.- The garrison 
was again re-enforced, a few days later, by several hundred troops under Colo- 
nel Harvey Brown, who took the command, and Slemmor was furloughed for 
rest. Still later, while Bragg was gathering a large force in the vicinity, more 
troops were sent to defend the post. These were the New York Sixth regi- 
ment (Zouaves), Colonel William Wilson, who were encamped [June] on 
Santa TJosa Island, on which Fort Pickens stands. Early in October the Con- 
federates on the main attempted to surprise and capture them. It was done 
in the dark, with the cry of " Death to Wilson I No quarter !'" The assailed 






.T^M.f^t^y,'^ I, 



FORT PICKENS. 



Zouaves fought desperately in the gloom, and with the aid of help from the 
fort, under Majors Vogdes and Arnold, the invaders, after burning Wilson's 
camp, Avere driven to their boats with a loss of one hundred and fifty men, 
including some who were drowned. The Nationals lost in killed, wounded, 
and prisoners, sixty-four men. 



' Lieutenant Worden, of tlie Navy, was sent by the govcrnnient overlanii with a message to 
the connnander of the fleet off Pensacola, directing the re-enforcement of Pickens. On liis 
return he was treaolierously used by Bragg, and s\iffered a long captivit)'. as a prisoner of war. 
in the jail at Montgomery. 

' Tliis was Richard Wilco.T. The Confederates were in possession of tlie Navy Tard at TiVar- 
rington, opposite Fort Piekens, where Wilco.v, unsuspected of loyalty, was employed as a watch- 
man. He discovered that one of Sleramer's sergeants was in complicity with the Confederate 
commander in a plan for capturing the fort. Wilcox found means to apprise Slemmer of the 
fact. It was to have been executed on the night after Worden's arrival. 

' It was the general impression that Wilson's Zouaves were composed of New York " roughs," 
and the Southern people were taught to believe that they were sent for the purposes of plunder 
and rapine. 



582 



THE NATION. 



[1861. 



, Fort Pickens had been silent since the spring-time. Late in November its 
utterances were Heard for miles along the Gulf coast, mingled with the thun- 
der of cannon on war-vessels, co-operating in an attack upon the forts and 
batteries of the Confederates on the Florida main, then manned by about seven 
thousand troops under Bragg. The fort, and the steamers Niagara and Rich- 
mond, opened on the Confederate works on the morning of the 22d of Novem- 
ber. In the course of forty-eight hours, the heavy guns of the foe were 
silenced, and most of the Navy Yard, and the villages of Wolcott and War- 
rington, adjoining, were laid in ashes by shells from the fort. After that there 
was quiet in Pensacola Bay until the first of January [1862], when another 
artillery duel occurred, lasting about twelve hours, but with little eifect. 

Farther westward along the Gulf coast little sparks of war were seen at 
this time. The most notable of these was occasioned by a collision at the 
mouth of the Mississippi River [October 1 2], between the National blockading 
squadron, at the Southwest Pass, and a flotilla under Captain Hollins, of Grey- 
town notoriety.' By a telegraphic dispatch to the conspirators at Richmond, 
that startled the whole country, Hollins claimed a great victory, when the fact 
was that the only damage he had inflicted on his foe was slight bruises on a 
coal-barge, while he was driven up the river to Fort Jackson in great terror, 
because of the danger of his being caught and hanged as a traitor.- He was 
in command of a ram'' called Manassas, which promised to be formidable in 

competent hands, and this fact hastened 
preparations for sending an expedition 
to the Lower Mississippi. 

There was another land and naval 
armament inPIampton Roadsin October, 
more formidable and imposing than the 
one seen there in August.^ There were 
fifty war-vessels and transports, and on 
the latter were 15,000 troops, under 
General T. W. Sherman. The fleet was 
commanded by Commodore S. F. Du- 
pont, and all went to sea on a beautiful 
autumnal day (October 29, 1861), the 
flag-ship Wabash leading. Their des- 
tination was unknown to all but the 
chief commander, but each ship carried 




' See note 3, page 522. 

' The following is a copy of the dispatch, dated at Fort Jacl'Cson, below New Orleans, Octo- 
ber 12, ISGl: — "Last night 1 attacked tlio blockaders with my little Heet. I succeeded, after a 
very short struggle, in driving them all aground on the Southwest Pass bar, except the Prebl; 
which I sutijc. I captured a prize from them, and after they were fast in sand, I peppered them 
well. There were no casualties on our side. It was a complete success. — Hollins." This dis- 
patch and the facts caused the silly Hollins to be "peppered " well with ridicule. 

' A "ram" was an iron-clad vessel with a long, strong, sharp-pointed iron beak e.xtending 
from its bow, by wliich, when the vessel, impelled by steam, was in full motion, another might be 
pushed, penetrated, and sunk. These were very formidable weapons of war on the rivers. 

' See page 579. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



583 



sealed orders, to be opened in the event of a dispersion. That contingency 
occurred. The expedition had just passed Cape Hatteras, wlien a terrible storm 
arose, and on the morning of the 2d of November only one of the other ves- 
sels might be seen from the deck of the flag-ship.' The sealed orders were 
opened. These directed a general rendezvous off Port Royal entrance, on 
the coast of South Carolina, and there all of the vessels, excepting four trans- 
ports, were gathered around their leader by the evening of the 4th. The four 
transports had been lost, but no life was sacrificed, in the great storm. 

Port Royal entrance is between Hilton Head and Phillip's Island, and on 
each was a fort that commanded the channel. In Port Royal Sound was a 
small flotilla under Commodore Tattnall, and this, with the land troops who 
garrisoned the forts, comprised the obstacles to the entrance of the expedition. 
These were soon removed. On the morning of the 7th [Nov. 1861] every thing 
was in readiness. Dupont's war-vessels moved in, and, making an elliptical 
course, poured upon the forts' a storm of shell that soon silenced them. Tatt- 
nall's little fleet fled to the shelter of narrower waters ; the land troops under 
Generals Wright and Stevens went on shore and took possession, and the Con- 
federates abandoned the region and hastened to the main. The National forces 
took possession of Beaufort and the surrounding islands which the white peo- 
ple had abandoned,'^ and the last effort of the Confederates to defend them was 
at Port Royal Ferry, where, after a severe engagement [January 1, 1862], 
they were defeated and dispersed. Du — 

])ont, meanwhile, had taken possession of 
Tybee Island, at the mouth of the Savan 
nah River, without opposition ; and at 
the close of 1861 the National authority 
was supreme over the coast islands, from 
Wassaw Sound to the North Edisto 
River, well up toward Charleston. At 
about the same time an ineffectual 
attempt was made to temporarily close 
the harbor of Charleston, as a part of the 
method of blockade, by sinking vessels 
laden with stones in its channels of ap- 




PORl ROYAL FERRY. 



' This storm gave great hope of disaster to tlie National cause, amonK tlie Confederates, to 
whom the departure of tlie e.xpedition was known. They declared tliat tlie elements were assist- 
ing tliem. "The stars in their courses fought against Sisera," said a iiibilaut Richmond journal, 
and added, "So tlie winds of heaven figlit for the good cause of Southern Independence. Let 
the Deborahs of the Soutli sing a song of deliverance." 

' Tlie worli on Hilton Head was named Port Wallcer, in honor of the Confederate " Secretary 
of War;" and that on Bny Point of Phillip's Island, Fort Beauregard, in honor of an insurgent 
leader. 

^ Tlie negroes, generally, remained, excepting those whoso masters had compelled them to 
accompany them in their flight. Tliose who remained were soon organized into industrial com- 
munities, and a largo quantity of the valuable "Sea-Island Cotton," which tlie owners had not 
iMirnt on leaving, was secured. The faith of tlie slaves in the National government, and tlieir 
belief that the invaders were their friends, and were to be their deliverers from bondage, were 
hero first e.xhibited in a remarkable degree. They had been assured that tlie "Yankees," as all 
the inhabitants of the Free-labor States were called, were coming to steal tliem and sell them into 



584 TUE NATION. [1861. 

proach.' While the "stone fleet," as these vessels were called, was approach- 
ing, a fearful conflagration laid a large portion of the city of Charleston in 
ruins. 

Let us now turn from the sea-coast, and observe the current of events at 
and near the National capital. 

The new organization of the Army of the Potomac, as we have observed," 
was perfected at the middle of October. The Confederates, under Johnston, 
were yet lying in comjiarative inactivity near the field of their victory at 
Bull's Run, in July,' with the head-quarters of their leader at Centreville. 
Because of a lack of cavalry and adequate subsistence, Johnston had been 
compelled to lie idle, and see the army of his opponent grow immensely in the 
space of a few weeks. He knew it would be simple rashness to do as tlie shal- 
low Beauregard desired, and attack the intrenched Nationals at Washington ; 
and because of the interference of Davis, as Confederate experts say, he had 
not the means for executing his favorite scheme of crossing the Potomac into 
Maryland, and taking the National capital in reverse. So for several months 
these principal armies of the combatants lay within thirty miles of each other, 
without coming into a general collision. The people on both sides became 
impatient of delay. In the hearts of the loyalists still burned the desire which 
had given to their lips the cry of " On to Richmond !" but the memory of the 
disasters at Bull's Run^ made them circumspect and quiet. From time to time 
they were cheered by rumors and movements which promised an immediate 
advance. There were grand reviews, active drills, and sometimes skirmishes 
with the Confederates, whose audacity became amazing as the autumn 
advanced and the Nationals remained quiet. Their pickets approached within 
cannon-shot of Washington City, and for weeks they held Munson's Hill, 
where their flag might be seen from the dome of the Capitol. 

We have observed' that the Confederate batteries blockaded the Potomac. 
So early as June [1861] the Navy Department had called the attention of the 
military authorities to the possibility and danger of such an event, but noth- 
ing was done to prevent it until the close of September, when Confederate bat- 
teries were planted along the Virginia shore of the stream. Preparations 
were then made by McClellan to act in conjunction with the gun-boats on the 
Potomac in removing these perilous obstructions, but his delays, and his failure 
to co-operate with the naval force at the proper moment, paralyzed all eflbrts, 
and that blockade, so disgraceful to the government, and especially to the 
great army near the capital, Avas continued until the Confederates voluntarily 
evacuated their position in front of Washington, in March following. 

worse bondage in Cuba; and horrible tales were told to them of the "Northerners," who were 
described as monsters intent upon killing them and burying them in the sand. But that simple 
people did not believe a word of these tales. They universally believed that the Lord had sent 
the " Yankees " to take them out of bondage ; and when our ships appeared, they were seen 
with little bimdles of clothing on the shores, desiring to go on board. 

' The "stone fleet" was composed of twenty-five old vessels, chiefly whalers, whicli sailed 
from New England heavily laden with granite. These were sunken m the four channels, but 
were soon removed by the currents or lost in quicksands, for their presence was scarcely percep- 
tible after a few days. 

" Page 571. , ' Page 069. * Page 5T0. ' Pago 505. 



1S61.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION 585 

The Army of the Potomac was judiciously posted for oifensive or defensive 
measures from Budd's Ferry, on the Lower Potomac, to Poolesville, near the 
Upper Potomac. As it increased in numbers, it needed more space on the Vir- 
ginia side of the river than the narrow strip between the Potomac and the 
Confederate outposts. Measures were accordingly taken for pushing back the 
foe, and these resulted in skirmishes. One occurred near Lewinsville [Sept. 12, 
1861] between the National troops, under General W. F. Smith, and Confede- 
rates, under Colonel J. E. B. Stuart, afterward the famous cav.ilry leader, in 
which the Nationals were victors. A little later [September 15] some Confed- 
erates crossed the Potomac and attacked troops under Colonel J. W. Geary, 
not far from Darnestown, in Maryland, and were repulsed. Emboldened by 
successes, the Nationals advanced, and at the middle of October they per- 
manently occupied a line from Fairfa.x Court House well up toward Lees- 
burg. The Confederates retired from Munson's Hill [Sept. 28] and other 
advanced posts,' and fell back to Centreville without firing a shot. 

Early in October some National troops crossed the Potomac at Harper's 
Ferry,' to seize some wheat at mills near there belonging to the Confederates. 
Menaced by approaching foes, they called for help. Colonel Geary led six hun- 
dred men to their aid, and on the hills back of the village of Harper's Ferry, 
he had a severe contest [Oct. 16, 1861] with a superior force on his front and 
the heights near. Pie finally repulsed his foe, and the whole invading force 
recrossed the river mto Maryland. This movement was speedily followed by 
a more important one. For some time the left wing of the Confederate army 
under General Evans had been lying at Leesburg, confronted by a considera- 
ble National force imder General Charles P. Stone, encamped between Conrad's 
and Edward's ferries, on the LTpper Potomac. On being informed (errone- 
ously) that the Confederates had left the vicinity of Leesburg, McClellan 
ordered General McCall to make a reconnoissance from Drainsville in that 
direction, and telegraphed to Stone to aid the movement by a feint indicative 
of an intention to cross with his whole force. This was done at both ferries, 
and a part of a ilassachusctts regiment, under Colonel Devens, was ordered to 
Harrison's Island, in the Potomac, abreast of Ball's Bluff. A reserve of three 
thousand men, under Colonel E. D. Baker, a member of the National Senate, 
acting as brigadier, was held in readiness to cross promptly, if necessary. 

Misinformed concerning the position of the Confederates, and supposing 
McCall to be near to assist, if necessary, Stone ordered some Massachusetts 
troops, under Colonels Devens and Lee, to cross to the Virginia main from Har- 
rison's Island. They found no foe between Ball's Bluff and Leesburg. But 
Evans was near in strong force, watching them, and at little past noon [Oct. 

' For several weeks the Confederate works on Munson's Hill had been looked upon with much 
respect, because of their apparently formidable character. They were really slight earth- 
structiires, inclosing, by an irregular line around the brow of the hill, about four acres of ground," 
and the principal armament, which had inspired the greatest awe, consisted of one stove-pipe and 
two logs, the latter with a black disc painted on the middle of the sawed end of each, giving them 
the appearance, at a short distance, of the muzzles of 100-pounder Parrottgunsl These "Quaker 
guns," like similar ones at Manassas, had for six weeks defied the Army of the Potomac. 

' Page 557. 



586 



THE NATION. 



[1861. 



21, 1861] he assailed the invading troops, who had fallen back to the vicinity 
of Ball's Bluff. Baker had already been sent with reserves to Harrison's 
Island, clothed with discretionary power to withdraw the other troops, or 
re-enforce them. Supposing the force under McC'all and others to be near, he 
concluded to go forward. On reaching the field, he took the chief command 
by virtue of his rank, and was soon afterward instantly killed.' His troops, 
unsupported,' were overwhelmed by a superior force, and pushed back in great 
disorder toward the bluff. They M'ere driven down the declivity at twilight, 
where, unable to cross the swollen flood for want of transportation, they fought 
desperately a short time, when they were overpowered, and a large number 
were made prisoners. Many perished in trying to escape.' The entire 
National loss was full a thousand men, and two pieces of cannon. It was a 
disaster inexplicable to the public mind. An explanation was loudly called 
for, but the General-in-Chief declared that an inquiry " at that time would be 
injurious to the public service." It was stifled, and General Stone, whom 
McClellan at the time acquitted of all bl.ame,'' was afterward made a victim to 
appease the pojiular indignation.^ 



' Eye-witness said that a tall, red-liaired man suddenly emerged from the smoke, and when 
within five feet of Baker discharged into his body the contents of a self-cocking revolving pistol, 
and at the same moment a bullet pierced his skull just behind his ear. His death produced a 
profound sensation, and public honors were paid to his memory afterward. He was one of the 
most eloquent men in the National Senate. 

' McClellan had ordered McCall, the previous evening, to fall back to Drainsville, Ho neg- 
lected to inform Stone of this order. Had he done so, Baker would have recalled the troops on 
the Virginia side, and the disaster at Ball's Bluff would have been prevented. 

' Only one large flat-boat was there, and that, with an overload of wounded and others, at 
the beginning of its first voyage, was riddled by bullets and sunk. The smaller vessels had dis- 
appeared in the gloom, and there was no means of escape for the Unionists but by swimming. 
Some, attempting this, were shot in the water, others were drowned, and a few cscapecL 

' On the evening of October 22, 1861, McClellan, who had gone to the head-quarters of 
Stone, telegraphed to the President, saying, " I have investigated this matter, and General Stone 
is without blame." 

' A hundred days after the battle, when General Stone, in command of about 12,000 men, 
was preparing to strike the Confederates under D. H. Hill, lying opposite lus camp, he was 

arrested at midnight in Wash- 
ington City, by order of General 
McClellan, who directed him to 
be conveyed immediately to 
Fort Lafayette, near New York, 
then used as a prison for persons 
cliarged with treasonable acts. 
There he was kept m close 
confinement fifty-four days, 
. i when he was transferred to 
Fort Hamilton, near. He was 
released on the IGth of August, 
1862, but for nearly a year 
afterward he was denied em- 
ployment in the Held. General 
Stone was never informed why 
he was arrested, and no charge 
of misconduct of any kind was 
ever officially made against him. 
He appears to have been made a sc.ape-goat for the sins of his superiors. Without .any apparent 
cause, that fjithful officer and zealous friend of the country was made to suffer, unjustly, the cruel 
suspicion of being a traitor For a full vindication of his loyalty, made upon evidence, see Los- 
sing's Pictorial History of the Civil War, ii. 146. 




POET LAFAYETTE. 



1861.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION 587 

For the space of nearly two months after the disaster at Ball's Bluff, the 
public ear was daily teased with the unsatisfactory report : " All is quiet on 
the Potomac !" The roads leading toward the Confederate camps near Bull's 
Run were never in better condition. The entire autumn had been a magnifi- 
cent one in Virginia. Regiment after regiment was rapidly swelling the 
ranks of the Army of the Potomac to the number of two hundred thousand 
men, thoroughly equipped and fairly diseijilined, while at no time did any 
reliable report make the number of the Confederate army over sixty thousand. 
Plain people wondered whj^ so few, whom politicians called "ragamuffins" and 
a " mob," could so tightly hold the National capital in a state of siege, while 
so large a number of " the bravest and best men of the North " were in and 
around it. But what did plain people know about war? Therefore it was 
that when, late in December, the "quiet on the Potomac" was slightly dis- 
turbed by General E. O. C. Ord, who, with his brigade, fought a smaller 
number of Confederate foragers [Dec. 20, 1861], under J. E. B. Stewart, near 
Drainsville, and whipped them soundly, after a severe contest, the loyal people 
were delighted, for it gave them assurance that the Army of the Potomac was 
ready to fight bravely, whenever permitted to encounter the foe. 

While the friends of the government were anxiously waiting for the almost 
daily promised movement of the Grand Army toward Richmond as the year 
[1861] was drawing to a close, and hearts were growing sick with hope 
deferred, two events, eaeli having an important bearing on the war, were in 
progress • one directly affecting the issue, and the other affecting it incidentally, 
but powerfully. One was an expedition that made a permanent lodgment of 
the National power on the coast of North Carolina, and the other was inti- 
mately connected with the foi-eign relations of the government. Let us first 
consider the last-mentioned event. 

We have already observed that the conspirators, at an early period of their 
operations, sent commissioners to Europe to seek recognition and aid from 
foreign governments.' Their employers soon perceived the incompetency of 
these men to serve their bad cause acceptably, and they commissioned James 
M. Mason- and John Slidell,' two of their ablest and most unscrupulous com- 
jjeers, full " embassadors," the former accredited to the British government 
and the latter to the French government. These conspirators, each accom- 
panied by a secretary, left Charleston in a blockade-runner on a stormy night 
[October 12, 1861] and proceeded to Cuba, where they took passage in the 
English steamer Trent for St. Thomas, intending to go from there in the 
regular packet to England. Off the northern coast of Cuba the Trent was 
intercepted [November 8] by the National war-steamer San Jacinto^ Captain 
Charles Wilkes,'' who took from the British vessel the two " embassadors " 
and their secretaries, and conveyed them in the San Jacinto to Boston harbor, 
where they were placed in Fort Warren, then used, like Fort Lafayette,' as 
a prison for political offenders. 

' Page 559. " Page 522. ' Page 335. 

■* The commander of the South Sea Exploring Expedition, nieutioued on page 476. 
' Page 586. 



588 



THE NATIOX. 



The act of Captain Wilkes was applauded by all loyal men, and was 
justified and commended by the Secretary of the Navy, who assured him 

that it had the " emphatic approval of 
the Department." It was in strict con- 
formity to the British interpretation, 
theoretically and practically, of inter- 
national law, but it was in violation of 
often uttered American principles in rela- 
tion to the rights of neutrals — princi- 
ples for the maintenance of which the 
United States declared war against 
Great Britain in 1812.' With great 
inconsistency, the British government 
regarded it as a national insult, and, 
before any communication could be 
had with our government, made exten- 
sive preparations for war, with the 
same unseemly haste which characterized it in procuring the Queen's 
proclamation of neutrality.' A peremptory demand was made for the 
delivery of Mason and Slidell, and, when the matter became a subject for 
calm discussion, that demand was complied with, not because it was made 
in a truculent spirit, but because fidelity to American i^rinciples required 
it.' The conspirators were delivered [January 1, 1862] on board tlie 
British gun-boat Riiuddo, in which they were conveyed to St. Thomas, where 




CHARLES WILKES. 



' Page 409. 

° Page 5G1. The British press and Britisli speakers iu 
the interest of the government, led by the London Times, 
indulged in the coarsest abuse of the government and 
loyal people of the United States. So urgent seemed tlie 
necessity for preparations for war, that on Sunday, the 
day after the arrival of the news of the "Trent outrage," 
as it was called, reached England, men were engaged in 
the Tower of London in packing 2,500 muskets to be sent 
to Canada. Orders were issued for a largo increase in the 
naval squadrons «n the North American and TVest India 
stations, and the great steam-packet Persia was taken from 
the mail service to be emploj'ed in carrying troops to 
Canada. American securities were depressed, and fortunes 
were thereby made by wise persons, under the shadow of 
high places, who purchased and held them for a rise. The 
whole warlike movement was made to appear still more 
ridiculous, when our Secretary of State (William H. Seward), 
with inimitable irony, offered [January 12, 1802] the use 
of the railway that e.xtends through the United States ter- 
ritory from Portland, Maine, into Canada, for the trans- 
portation of British troops to be sent to light us, the St. 
Lawrence at that winter season being frozen, and therefore 
useless as a channel for British transports. 

' The calm thoughtfiilness of President Lincoln, in the midst of the storm of passion that pre- 
vailed on the reception of the news of the capture of Mason and Slidell, was a salutary 
power. To the writer, who had an interview with him a few hours after the news reached 
Washington, he said: "I fear the traitors will prove to be white elephants. AVe must stick to 
American principles concerning the riglits of neutrals. We fought Great Britain for insisting, by 
theory and practice, on the right to do precisely what Captain Wilkes has done. If Great 
Britain shall now protest against the act, and demands their release, we must give them up, 




WILLIAM n. SEWARD. 



1861.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



589 



they embarked for England. They were treated with merited contempt in 
Great Britain, and soon passed into obscurity.' This act of our government 
disappointed the hopes of the conspirators, for they expected great advantages 
to accrue to their cause by a war between Great Britain and our Republic. 
It silenced the arrogant pretensions of Great Britain concerning its right of 
search and of impressment, and made its hasty and belligerent actions in the 
premises apj)ear like an extremely ridiculous farce. 



CHAPTER XVII 



THE CIVIL WAR. [1861—1865.] 

The public mind was just becoming tranquil after the excitement caused 
by the " Trent affair," when its attention was keenly fixed on another expedi- 
tion to the coast of North Carolina, already alluded to. The land and naval 
armaments of which it was composed were assembled in Hampton Roads early 
in January, 1862. It comprised over one hundred steam and sailing vessels 
(warriors and transports), and about sixteen thousand troops, mostly recruited 
in New England. Of this expedition General Ambrose E. Burnside was com- 
mander-in-chief, and the naval opera- 
tions were intrusted to flag-officer Louis 
M. Goldsborough, then the commander 
of the North Atlantic Naval Squadron. 
Burnside's lieutenants were Generals 
Foster, Reno, and Parke, each in com- 
mand of a brigade. The fleet was in 
two sections, in charge respectivelj' of 
Commanders Rowan and Hazard. The 
expedition went to sea on the 1 1 th of 
January [1862]. Its destination had 
been kept a profound secret. 

This, like the other expeditions, 
encountered gales in the vicinity of 

. r< Tl 4.4. TD 1- £• 1 A. E. BtTRNSIDE. 

Stormy Cape llatteras. Pamhco hound 

and Roanoke Island was its destination, and it was several days before the 

apologize for the act as a violation of our doctrines, and thus forever hind her over to keep the 
peace in relation to neutrals, and so aolinowledge that she lias been wrong for at least sixty years.'- 
This was the key to the admirable action of our government by the able Secretary of State. 

' "Already," said a leading Liverpool journal, on their arrival, "the seven weeks' heroes have 
shrunk to their natural dimensions;" and the Lvmlon Times, speaking of the demand made by the 
government, and of their release, spoke of them as "worthless booty," and said, " England would 
have done just as much for two negroes." 




590 '''H^ NATION. [1S62. 

vessels, dispersed by the wind, had entered Hatteras Inlet. It was February 
before the expedition moved to an attack upon Roanoke Island, wliieh the 
Confederates had fortified. They had also obstructed the channels near it, 
and within these was a little flotilla of armed vessels, under the command of 
Lieutenant W. F. Lynch, who had abandoned his flag. The batteries planted 
at difierent points numbered about forty heavy guns, whicli had been taken 
from the Navy Yard at Gosport,' and were manned by Nortli Carolina troops, 
under the chief command of Colonel H. M. Shaw.' Upon the principal one of 
these (Fort Bartow), Goldsborough opened fire toward noon of the 6th of 
February, and that night, in the midst of a cold storm of rain, about eleven 
thousand troops were landed. These moved early the next morning to attack 
intrenchments that stretched across the narrower part of the island. General 
Foster leading. The Confederates made a gallant defense, but were driven 
before the Nationals, who outnumbered them.^ One after another of the other 
works yielded, the Confederate flotilla fled up Albemarle Sound, and Roanoke 
Island passed into the possession of the National forces.'' This was the severest 
blow the Confederates had yet experienced. It exposed the entire main of , 
North Carolina bordering on Pamlico and Albemarle Sounds to the National 
power, and opened a door of entrance to Norfolk in the rear.' 

The Confederate flotilla was followed [February 9] by Rowan, and in the 
Pasquotank River, near Elizabeth City, not far from the Dismal Swamp, it 
and land batteries were attacked by the National gun-boats. The vessels 
were abandoned, the batteries were silenced, and Lynch, with his men and the 
land troops, retired into the interior. The National flag was then planted on 
one of the shore batteries, and this was the portion of the main of North 
Carolina first " re-possessed " by the government. The conquest was followed 
by others for securing the control of the Sounds and the adjacent country; and 
Burnside and Goldsborough jointly issued a proclamation [February 18, 1861] 
to the peaceable inhabitants, assuring them that the government forces were 
there as their friends and not as enemies, and inviting them to separate them- 
selves from the rule of the conspirators and return to their allegiance. This 
was met by a savage counter-proclamation by the Governor of North Carolina, 
and the poor, oppressed people, who longed for deliverance, were held firmly 
under the yoke of the Confederate despotism. Here we will leave the National 
forces in the waters of North Carolina, preparing for other victories soon, and 

1 Page 558. 

'•■ General Henry A. Wise had been the chief commander, but at this time he was on Nag's 
Head, a sand-spit outside of Roanoke Island, and reported ill. 

' In this attack a part of the Nintli New York (Hawkins's Zoiiaves), led by Major E. A. Kim- 
ball, made a gallant charge across a narrow causeway and drove the garrison from the redoubt. 
These, and portions of the Fifty-first New York and Twenty-first Massachusetts, entered the 
works at about the same time, and tlie colors of the Fifty-first were first planted on the battery. 

' The National loss incurred in tlie capture of Roanoke Island was about 60 killed and 222- 
wounded. That of the Confederates was 143 killed, wounded, and missing. The spoils of vic- 
tory were forty-two heavy guns, three being lOO-pounders. 

' The disaster spread consternation throughout the Confederacy. Davis, in a communication 
to his "congress," casts reflections upon tlie Confederate troops engaged in the fight, but a com- 
mittee of that body charged the loss of the island to the remissness of Benjamin, the "Secretary 
of War." 



18G2.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



591 



observe the course of military events in the Valley of tlie Mississippi. There 
we left Fremont's dispirited army marching toward St. Louis,' Southern and 
Western Kentucky in the hands of the Confederates," and all Tennessee under 
the heel of their military power. 

Late in 1801, the Department of Missouri was enlarged,' and General II. 
W. Halleck, who had been called from California, was placed in command of 
it, and C4enoral Hunter was assigned to the command of the Department of 
Kansas.'' General Don Carlos Buell was placed in charge of the Department of 
the Ohio,' and the Department of New Mexico was intrusted to Colonel E. R. S. 
Canby. Such were the military divisions of the territory west of the Alleghany 
Mountains at the close of 18G1, when Halleck, with his head-quarters at St. 
Louis, was liolding the secessionists and insurgents in check with a vigorous 
hand. General Pope was assigned to all the National troops between the 
Missouri and Osage Rivers, in which region Price had been gathering recruits, 
after Hunter's retrograde movement." Detachments from Pope's army smote 
these banded recruits here and there ; and finally, at a bridge on the Black- 
water Creek, near Milford, Colonel Jefferson C. Davis fought and captured 
about a thousand insurgents,' and secured as spoils nearly as many horses and 
mules, and a large quantity of munitions of war. By vigorous movements, 
Pope swept over the State west of Sedalia, toward Kansas, far enough to foil 
the attempt of organized recruits to join Price, and to compel that leader to 
withdraw, in search of subsistence and safety, to the borders of Arkansas. 

Late in December, Price, encouraged by promises of re-enforcements from 
Ark.ansas, concentrated about twelve 
thousand men at Springfield. Against 
these a strong force under General S. R. 
Curtis, assisted by Generals Asboth, 
Sigel, Davis, and Prentiss, moved in 
three columns early in February. Price 
fled with his army on the night of the 
12th and 13th of that month, and did 
not halt until he reached a good position 
at Cross Hollows, in Northern Arkansas. 
He was driven a little farther south by 
the advance of the pursuing Curtis, and 
from near Pea Ridge, in Arkansas, he 
reported to Governor Jackson that he 
was " confident of the future." "With 




' Page 57G. ' Pages 515 and 517. 

^ It now included Missouri, Iowa, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Illinois, Arkansas, and that .portion 
of Kentucky lying west of the Cumberland River. 

' This included the State of Kansas, the Indian Territory west of Arkansas, and the Terri-' 
tories of Ncljraska, Colorado, and Dakota. 

' This included the State of Ohio and the portion of Kentucky lying eastward of the Cumber- 
land River. 

' Page 576. 

' Among the captives was Colonel Magoffin, brother of the Governor of Kentucky. 



592 THE NATION. [1SG2. 

equal confidence of tlic future, Ilalleck reported that lie had purcjed Mis- 
souri of armed insurgents, and that the flag of the Republic was waving in 
triumph over the soil of Arkansas. Curtis had crossed the line on the 18th of 
February, his soldiers cheering with delight as they saw the old banner waving 
in another of the so-called Confederate States. 

Curtis pushed on after Price, capturing squads of Missouri recruits, skir- 
mishing with the roar-guard of the fugitives at several places, and finally driv- 
ing the whole Confederate force over the range of hills known as the Boston 
Mountains. Then he fell back to Sugar Creek, not far from Bentonville, and 
encamped in a strong i)osition. Price, meanwhile, had been joined by McCul- 
loch ; and early in March Earl Van Dorn, the Confederate commander of the 
Trans-Mississippi Department, and one of the most dashing and energetic offi- 
cers in that region, arrived at his camp and took chief command. There, too, 
he was joined by the notorious Albert Pike with a band of Indians, trained by 
him for savage warfare,' and these forces combined, almost twenty-five thousand 
strong, jtrcpared to fall upon Curtis and drive him out of Arkansas. The force 
of the latter did not exceed eleven thousand men, with forty-nine jjieces of 
artillery. 

Van Dorn advanced so cautiouslj' tluit Curtis was not aware of his approach 
until he was very near [March 5], when the latter concentrated his forces near 
Mottsville, a short distance from Pea Ridge, a spur of the Ozark Mountains. 
There, on the morning of the Tth of March, Van Dorn, who was assisted by 
Generals Price, McCulloch, Mcintosh, and Pike, having accomplished a flank 
movement, in which a part of his force had a sharp contest with some troops 
under Sigel, proceeded to attack Curtis's main body in the rear. The latter 
promptly changed front to meet liim, and took the initiative of battle. The 
struggle that ensued was very severe, and resulted in the loss to the Confede- 
rates of Generals McCulloch and Mcintosh, who were mortally wounded, and 
many brave soldiers on both sides. The battle was renewed the next morning, 
when the Confederates were soon routed, and Van Dorn's army was so suddenly 
broken into fragments, and so scattered in its flight, that Curtis was jnizzledto 
know which way to pursue. The victory for the Nationals wa^ comj)leto, but 
the spoils were few." Curtis held the battle-field. Van Dorn retired behind 
the mountains, and disappeared on the borders of the Indian countiy. ^\t 
length the victor, perceiving no formidable foe in that region, mo%ed leisurely 
toward the Mississippi River, in the direction of Helena. 

' Pike was a native of Boston, but long a resident in the Slave-labor States. He was com- 
missioned by Governor Rector to organize the most savage of the Indian tribes (Choetaws and 
Chickasaws) on the borders of Arkansas. He raised two regiments, was commissioned a briga- 
dier, and with them he joined tlie army of the conspirators. He dressed himself in gaiidr cos- 
tume, and wore a large pUnne on liis head to please the Indians; aud before the battle at Pea 
Ridge, it is said, he maddened them with liquor, that they might allow the savage nature of their 
race to have unchecked devclnpiuent. In their fury tliey respected none of the usages of civi- 
.llzed warfare, but scalped the helpless wounded, and committed atrocities too horriljle to men- 
tion. After the war this man was among the earliest of the most conspicuous rebels, who was 
" pardoned " (as relief from amenability to law was called) without trial by President Johnston. 

'•' Curtis lost l,S5l killed, wounded, and missing. Van Dorn never reported his loss officially, 
but estimated it at about 600. The brunt of the "strife fell tipon tlie division of Colonel Carr, 
composed chiefly, of Iowa and Missouri troops. Ho lost 701 men. 



18G2.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION, 



593 



While these events were occurring in Missouri and Arkansas, Hunter was 
busily engaged in sujjpressing rebellion on the borders of Kansas, and war was 
kindling in Canby's Department of Texas.' We have seen how Twiggs 
betrayed liis army in the latter State ;' now the instruments of the conspira- 
tors attempted similar measures for attaching New Mexico to the Confederacj'. 
Colonel Loring, a North Carolinian, had been sent there for the purpose, in 
1860, by Floyd, the traitorous Secretary of War.^ He was made commander 
of the Department of New Mexico, and he employed Colonel George B. Crit- 
tenden, an unworthy son of Senator Crittenden, of Kentucky,'' to corrupt the 
troops in that region. He failed, and Loring and Crittenden were compelled 
to flee from the country to avoid the wrath of the loyal soldiery. The fugi- 
tive officers found those of a garrison on the frontiers of Texas ready to aid 
them in their treasonable designs. By these the troops were led out from the 
fort and betrayed into the hands of Texas insurgents, when it was believed 
New Mexico would fall an easjf^ prey to the Confederate power. Otero, the 
delegate of that Territory in Congress, was in practical complicity with the 
conspirators, and all seemed working well for their cause, when Canby' arrived 
and changed the aspect of affliirs. The loyal people gathered around him. 
His regular troops. New Mexican levies, and volunteers, soon made a respecta- 
ble force, and these were speedily called to action, for Major H. H. Sibley, a 
Louisianian, who had abandoned his flag, invaded the Territory at the middle 
of February with 2, .300 Texans, most of them rough " Rangers," when Canby 
was at Fort Craig, on the Rio Grande. Near 
that post (at Valverde), on the 21st of Febru- 
ary [1862], Canby and Sibley had a battle. 
The former, defeated, fled to Fort Craig, but 
the latter, alarmed at Canby's developed 
strength, instead of following, hurried toward 
Santa Fe, the capital of the Territory. Can- 
by followed. Sibley captured but could not 
hold Santa Fe, and he was soon driven over 
the mountains into Texas. The area of the 
active rebellion now extended from Maryland 
to New Mexico, and was everywhere marked 
by vigor and terrible malevolence. ^■ 

Let us now see what was further done to- 
ward the execution of Fremont's plan for 
crushing the rebellion in the Mississippi Valley.' 

We have observed how the Confederates obtained a foothold in Southern 
and Western Kentucky.' Under the shadow of military power there, a con- 
vention of secessionists was held [November 18, 1861], at which, with ludicrous 
gravity, a declaration of independence and an ordinance of secession were 
adopted, a provisional government was organized, and delegates were chosen 




TEXAS RANGER. 



' Page 591. 
' Page 591. 



Note 3, page 551. ' Page 549. 

" Page 576. 



* Note 1, page 549. 
' Pages 5'i5 and 576. 



594 tylfj nation. [1862. 

to the "Congress" of conspirators' at Richmond [Nov. 20, 1861]. Bowline 
Green, where Buckner had made his head-quarters," and where Albert Sidney 
Johnston, an able officer, who had abandoned his flag, was now in chief com- 
mand, was made the capital of the new State. Meanwhile Johnston was con- 
centrating troops there, and General Hardee was called from Soutliwestern 
Missouri to supersede Buckner. The position of Polk, at Columbus,^ was 
strengthened. Zollicoffer* was firmly planted at the important Pass of Cum- 
berland Gap — ^a passage-way between Kentucky and East Tennessee — and for- 
tified posts were established between the extremes of the army, the most 
important of which were Fort Donelson, on the Cumberland Kiver, and Fort 
Henry, on the Tennessee River. 

In the mean time General Buell had organized a large force at Louisville.' 
These were thrown forward along the line of railway toward Bowling Green, 
40,000 strong, under General A. McD. McCook, and pushed the Confederate 
outposts beyond the Green River. In the mean time stirring events had 
occurred in Eastern Kentucky, where, near Prestonburg, on the Big Sandy, 
General Gai-field fought [January 7, 1862] insurgents under Humphrey Mar- 
shall, and scattering them put an end to the military career of the latter leader. 
Farther westward a severe battle was fought [January 19], near Mill Spring, 
on the Cumberland River, between the Nationals, under General George H. 
Thomas, and Confederates led by Generals Zollieofier and Crittenden.* In this 
engagement Thomas was victorious. Zollicoffer was killed,' and the Confede- 
rates fled into Northeastern Tennessee through a country almost barren of sub- 
sistence. The battle was fought desperately by both parties, for victory was 
specially desirable to both. It proved to be a great advantage to the winner, 
and disastrous to the cause of the loser, for it broke the Confederate line in 
Kentucky,' opened a door of deliverance for the East Tennesseeans, and pre- 
pared the way for a series of successful operations by which, very soon after- 
ward, the invaders were driven from both States. By order of the President, 
the Secretary of War said, in a public thanksgiving to the officers, " In the 
prompt and spirited movements and daring at Mill Spring, the nation will 
realize its hopes." 

' George W. Johnson was chosen provisional governor, with a legislative council of ten, a 
treasurer, and an auditor. The farce of representing Kentucky in the Confederate Congress, now 
commenced, was kept up during the entire war. .The people had no voice in their appointment, 
and of such usurpers a greater portion of the so-called '' Confederate Congress " was continually 
composed. 

" Page 576. = Page 515. * Page 577. 

' General Buell had under his command, early in January, 1862, abput 114,000 men, chiefly 
citizens of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, and loyalists of 
Kentucky and Tennessee, with about 126 pieces of artillery. Tliis force was arranged in four 
grand divisions, commanded respectively by Brigadier-Generals Alexander McDowell McCook, 
Orrasby M. Mitchel, George II. Thomas, and Thoma.s L. Crittenden, acting as m.ijor-generals, 
aided by twenty brigade commanders. These divisions occupied an irregular line across the State, 
nearly parallel to that held by the Confederates. 

° This was the Crittenden employed to corrupt the army in New Mexico. See page 593. 

' Thomas lost 247 men killed and wounded. The Confederate loss was 349, of whom 89 
were prisoners. The spoils of victory for Thomas were considerable, including twelve pieces of 
artillery, many small arms, and more than a thousand horses and mules. 

" Page 577. 



]8C2.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



595 




H. TV. HALLECK. 



It was now determined to concentrate the forces of Halleck and Buell in a 
grand forward movement against the main bodies and fortifications of the Con- 
federates. Thomas's victorj at Mill 
Spring had so paralyzed that line east- 
ward of Bowling Green, that it was 
practically shortened at least one-half, 
and the bulk of the Confederates and 
their chief fortifications were between 
Nashville and Bowling Green, and the 
Mississippi River. During the autumn 
and early winter a naval armament, pro- 
jected by Fremont for service on that 
river, had been in preparation at St. 
Louis and Cairo, for co-operation with 
the western armies, and at the close 
of January [1862] it consisted of twelve 
gun-boats, carrying one hundred and 
twenty-six heavy cannon, and some lighter guns, the whole commanded by 
flag-officer A. H. Foote, of the National navy. Seven of these were covered 
with plates of iron, and were built wide, so that, on the still waters of the 
rivers, when attacking fortifications, their guns might have almost the steadi- 
ness of those in land batteries. 

Some movements preliminary to the grand advance puzzled the Confede- 
rates and perjilexed loyal spectators. There were reconnoissances down both 
sides of the Mississippi River from Cairo, and Thomas feigned a march in force 
into East Tennessee. Meanwhile an expedition against Forts Henry and Don- 
elson' had been arranged. Halleck's troops, destined for the enterjmse, were 
placed iinder the chief command of General U. S. Grant. Foote was sum- 
moned to the Tennessee River with his flotilla of gun-boats, and at dawn on 
the 3d of February, 1862, he was up that stream a few miles below Fort 
Henry, and Grant's army was landing from transports near. At noon on the 
6th the flotilla opened its guns on the fort. The army was then in motion to 
co-operate, but before it could reach the scene of action the post was in pos- 
session of Foote, by surrender. The Confederate troops outside of the fort, 
panic-stricken, fled without firing a gun. The Commander (General Tilghman), 
and less than one hundred artillerists, had made a gallant defense, but were 
compelled to yield. This, and Fort Hieman, on the opposite side of the river, 
with all their armament, became spoils of victory- — a victory most important 
in its immediate and more remote efiiects. It not only gave a formidable post 
into the possession of the Nationals, but it proved the efliciency of gun-boats 
on the narrow rivers of the West. The National troops were now firmly 
planted in the rear of Columbus, and there was nothing left to obstruct the 



' Page 594. 

' The National loss was 2 killed and 33 wounded. Of the latter, 20 of them were wounded 
and scalded on board the gun-boat £«e.c. Captain W. D. Porter, whose boiler was exploded hj a 
shot that entered it. The Confederate loss was five killed and ten wounded. 



696 



THE NATION. 



[1862. 



passage of gun-boats up the Tennessee to the fertile regions of Northern Ala- 
bama, and carrying the flag of the Republic far toward the heart of the Con- 
federacy. 

The fall of Fort Henry was followed by immediate preparations for an 
attack on Fort Donelson, a formidable work among the hills near the village 
of Dover, the capital of Stewart County, on the Cumberland River. The object 
was to reduce that stronghold, and then sweep over Tennessee with a large 
force into Northern Alabama. Foote had hurried back to Cairo to bring up 
his mortar-boats for the new enterprise, and Grant was equally active in pre- 




view AT FORT DO!JELSON.' 



paring soldiers for the work. He reorganized his army into three divisions, 
commanded respectively by Generals John A. McClernand, C. F. Smith, and 
Lewis Wallace, and on the evening of the 12th [February, 1862] the divisions 
of thfe first two, which had moved from Fort Henry that morning, invested 
Fort Donelson, which was then in command of ex-Secretary Floyd,' assisted 
by Generals Pillow' and Buckner.'' Early the next morning picket-skirmishing 
speedily developed into a general battle between the investing troops and the 



' This is a view sketched by the author in May, 1866, from the river-bank within the fort, 
overlooking the mounds of the water-batteries below, and down the river to the place where 
Foote's gun-boats lav, here indicated by the little steamboat in the distance. 

' Pages 649 and"574. ' Page 666. ' Page 565. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



597 



garrison,' in which the former were beaten and fell back,' determined to wait 
for the arrival of Foote's flotilla, with which was coming a portion of Wallace's 
division. Wallace (who had been left at Fort Henry) was summoned to Fort 
Donelson by Grant, and at noon the ne.xt day he reported his whole division as 
on the field and ready for action. Meanwhile Foote's flotilla had arrived, but 
without the mortar-boats, and during the afternoon of the 14th it fought the 
water-batteries and guns from others bearing on the river with great gallantry, 
until the vessels were so much injured that they were withdrawn.' 

The night of the 14th was one of anxiety in both camps. Foote hastened 
back to Cairo to have damages repaired and to bring up his mortar-boats, and 
Grant determined to wait for his return. The Confederates in the fort held a 
council of war, and resolved to make a sortie the next morning to rout or 
destroy the investing army, or to cut through it and escape to the open coun- 
try in the direction of Nashville. The troops selected for this desperate 
measure, about ten thousand in number, were placed under Pillow and Buckner. 
Those led by the former were to strike McClernand on the right of the Na- 
tional line, while Buckner should fall upon Wallace's division in the center. 
The movement was attempted. McClernand, sore 
pressed, called upon Wallace for aid. It was 
promptly given, and, after a desperate and gallant 
fight by all, the Confederates were driven back to 
their trenches. " I speak advisedly," wrote Hill- 
yer, Grant's aid-de-camp, to Wallace, the next 
day, with a pencil on a slip of paper, " God bless 

you ! You did save the day on the right." .^^S^^/' J^^^ ^ 

Meanwhile, Smith had been vigorously and sue- '^^■Hi^^^^^^m,'^ 
cessfuUy striking the right of the Confederates, 
and when darkness fell at evening the National 
troops were victorious, the vanquished garrison 
were imurisoned within the lines, and their leaders 

^ ' _ LEWIS WALLACE. 

were busied with endeavors to solve the important 

question, How shall we escape ? In a midnight conference, when it was found 
that they must surrender, Floyd and Pillow exhibited the greatest cowardice. 
Only Buckner acted like a man. The other two fled from the fort,* and left 
the latter to surrender it the next morning [February 16, 1862]. 

' The Caronddet, Captain Walke, of Foote's flotilla, had gallantly contended with the water- 
batteries of the Fort. 

^ There had been a great change in the weather, and the troops, not prepared for it, sufTered 
terribly from intense cold, and a lack of clothing and tents. A tittle snow had fallen, and insuf- 
ficient food and shelter made their sufi'erings most severe. 

^ Never was a little squadron exposed to a more severe fire. Twenty heavy guns were 
trained upon it, those from the hillsides, on which the mam works of the fort lay, hurling plung- 
ing shot with awful precision and effect, when only twelve guns could reply. The four armored 
vessels in the fight {St. Louis, the flag-ship, Carondelet, Pittsburg, and Louisville) received in the 
aggregate no less than 141 wounds from the Confederate shot and shell, and lost 54 men killed 
and maimed. 

* The council of war was held at Pillow's head-quarters, in Dover. Between Floyd and Pillow 
there were criminations and recriminations, and each, fearing to fall into the hands of the Na- 
tionals, seemed to think of little else than his personal safety. When it was decided that they 




598 THE NATION. [1862. 

That was a happy -Sabbath for the Union troops. They had won a most 
important victory for the National cause.' Intelligence of it filled the con- 
spirators with despair, and from that time no European court entertained 
serious thoughts of acknowledging the independence of the Confederate States, 
or recognizing them as a nation.' The victory produced great joy among the 
loyal people of the Republic. They and the government were satisfied that a 
withering blow had been given to the rebellion, and that henceforth its propor- 
tions wovild be less, and its malignity not so dangerous to the life of the 
Republic." "When Fort Donelson fell, Kentucky and Missouri, and all of 
Northern and Middle Tennessee, were lost to the Confederates, and the more 
southern States, whose inhabitants expected to have the battles for their 
defense fought in the border Slave-labor States, were exposed to the inroads 
of the National armies. 

Johnston now clearly perceived that Bowling Green* and Columbus' were 
both untenable, and that the salvation of the Confederate troops at those 
places required their immediate evacuation. He issued orders accordingly. 
The troops at Bowling Green marched in haste to Nashville, followed by 
Buell, and at the same time National gun-boats moved up the Cumberland to 
Clarksville, to co-operate with the land troops from Fort Donelson, under 



would be compelled to surrender, Floyd quickly said ; " Gentlemen, I c.innot surrender ; you 
know my position with the Federals [his treasonable acts while in Buchanan's cabinet] : it 
wouldn't do, it wouldn't do." Pillow, whose vanity made him over-estimate his importance, took 
a similar stand, and when Floyd offered to resign the command to him, he quickly replied: "I 
will not accept it — I will never surrender myself or my command." While speaking, he turned 
toward Buckner, who said: "I will accept, and share the fate of my command." Floyd and 
Pillow both stole away from the fort during the night, and saved themselves; and an epigram- 
matist of the day wrote concerning the former's infamous desertion of his troops, saying : — 

"The thief is a coward by Nature's law; 

Who betrays the State, to no one is true ; ^ 

And ihe brave (ne at Fort Donelson saw 
Their light-fingered Floyd was light-footed too." 

' Buckner sent a flag of truce to ask upon what terms Grant would accept the surrender of 
the troops and post. Regarding them simply as rebels. Grant replied: "No terms other than an 
unconditional surrender can be accepted. I propose to move immediately upon }'our works." 
Buckner made a foolish reply, saying that he should feel impelled, notwithstanding "the brilliant 
success of the Confederate arms" the day before, "to accept the ungenerous and unchivalrous 
terms" proposed. This was followed by the speedy surrender of the fort, with 13,500 men 
(including the sick and wounded) as prisoners of war, with H,000 horses, 48 field pieces, 17 heavy 
guns, 20,000 muskets, and a great quantity of military stores. The National loss was estimated 
at 446 killed, 1,745 wounded, and 150 prisoners. 

' The ehief conspirators at Richmond received the intelligence with emotions of mingled 
dismay and anger. Following so close upon tlie fall of Roanoke Island (page 590), it greatly 
perplexed them. Notwithstanding Johnston tried to excuse the cowardice and perfidy of 
Pillow and Floyd, Davis ordered tliem to bo suspended from command. 

° At Fort Donelson was successfully begun that system of army mail service devised by Colonel 
(afterward General) A. II. Ifarkland, which was one of the wonders and among the most salutary 
measures of the war. "Within one hour after the troops began to march into Fort Donelson," 
General Grant wrote to the author, in July, 1866, "the mail was being distributed to them from 
the mail-wagons." Under the direction of Colonel JIarkland, tins service was continued through- 
out the war, linking the army with home, and keeping off that terrible home-sickness which so 
often prostrates the volunteer soldier, physically and morally. For months an average of two 
himdred and fifty thousand military letters were received at and sent from the post-office at tlie 
National capital, daily. 

* Page 5V6. ' Page 575. 



18G2.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



599 



General Smith, in movements against Nashville. Meanwhile, the panic in the 
latter place became fearful. The terrified Governor (Harris) fled, Johnston's 
army passed farther southward, and on the 26th of February Nashville was 
formally surrendered by the civil authorities and the National troops took 
possession.' Provision was at once made at Washington City for civil gov- 
ernment in Tennessee, and Andrew Johnson was appointed Provisional 
Governor, with the military rank of Brigadier-General. He entered upon the 
duties of his office on the 4th of March, 1862, with the avowal that he should 
see to it that "intelligent and conscious treason in high places" should be 
punished. 

Another bloodless victory soon followed the evacuation of Nashville. It 
was the taking possession by National troops, without opposition, of Colum- 
bus. Beauregard was then in command of the Department of Mississippi, and 
out-ranked Polk. The former, obedient to instructions from Richmond, 
ordered the latter to transfer his command, and as much of the munitions of 
war as possible, from Columbus to a safer place, when Polk went to New 
Madrid, Madrid Bend, and Island Number Ten, there to prepare for defense. 




ISL.tND NUMBER TEN. 



Meanwhile Foote had moved down the Mississippi with a flotilla of gun-boats 
and transports, the latter bearing about two thousand men under General 
W. T. Sherman, and when they approached Columbus [March 4, 1862] they 
saw the National flag waving over its fortifications, having been planted there 
the evening before by a scouting party of Illinois troops, from Paducah. A 
garrison was left to hold the post, and Foote returned to Cairo to prepare for 
a siege of the new position of the Confederates, which the latter hoped to 
make impregnable. 

New Madrid, at a great bend in the river, with Island Number Ten, a few 

' Floyd and Pillow, who fled from Fort Donelson, were in command nt Nashville, the order 
for their suspension not having yet reached head-quarters. As the Nationals approached they 
were again overcome with terror, when they fired the bridges over the Cumberland at Nashville, 
in defiance of the protests of the citizens, and scampered away southward by the light of the 
conflagration, leaving the more courageous Forrest with his cavalry to cover their inglorious 
flight Floyd died miserably not long afterward, and Pillow sunk into merited obscurity. 



600 ts:e natiox. [1862. 

miles above, was a thousand miles, by the current, from New Orleans, yet it 
was now regarded as the key to tlie Lower Mississijipi. Its importance was per- 
ceived by both parties. General McCown was placed in command there, and 
General Beauregard commanded in person at first on Island Number Ten.' 
They were there just in time to ]jrevent the occupation of these places by the 
Nationals, for while Johnston was flying southward from Bowling Green, Gene- 
ral Pope, dispatched from St. Louis [February 22] by General Halleck, was press- 
ing toward New Madrid with Ohio and Illinois troops. He appeared before that 
post on the 3d of March, and found it occupied by McCown, supported by a 
Confederate flotilla of gun-boats under Captain Hollins.'' He sent to Bird's 
Point^for siege-guns, and on the 13th [March, 1862] he opened a heavy fire on the 
Confederate works and Hollins's gun-boats. That night, during a violent 
thunder-storm, the Confederates evacuated Ne-w Madrid and retired to Island 
Number Ten, with a loss unknown. Pope lost fifty-one killed and wounded. 

Island Number Ten now became the chief objective of attack and defense. 
Beauregard had thoroughly fortified it. Pope desired to cross the Mississippi 
at New Madrid with his troops, and to march over Madrid Bend and attack 
the post, while Foote should ai5sail it from the river. He begged the latter to 
allow gun-boats to run by and come to his aid, but Foote thought it too peri- 
lous to do so, and while the navy was pounding away at the defenses of the 
Island,^ Pope was chafing with impatience to do something to help the 
besiegers. At length he caused the execution of a plan suggested by General 
Schuyler Hamilton for flanking the Island. This -sVas the cutting of a canal 
through a swamp, from the river above the Island to a baj-ou that flows into 
the Mississippi at New Madrid, below the Island.' Through this trans])orts 
and gun-boats might pass. Perceiving this, and the peril threatened by it, 
the Confederates sunk steamers in the river to prevent the passage of vessels, 
and endeavored to flee from the Island. They w'ere intercepted and captured 
by Pope's troops imder Stanly, Hamilton, and Paine ; and Island Number Ten, 
with its batteries and supports, and over 7,000 prisoners, became the spoils of 
victory for Pope and Foote." This was another severe blow to the Confede- 

' At about this time Beauregard sent out a proclamation to the planters of the JIis.si.ssippi 
Valley, calling upon them to consecrate to the use of the Confederacy their church, plantation, 
and other bells, to be converted into cannon. There was a liberal response to the appeal, and the 
contributions were all sent to New Orleans. There they were found by General Butler, who 
sent them to Boston, where they were sold by auction and devoted to peaceful uses. 

" Page 082. ' Page 560. 

* Foote. began the siege on Sunday morning, the 16th of March, and opened upon tlie Confede- 
rate worl<s heavy shells from rifled guns and tliirteen-inch mortars. " Island Number Ten," 
wrote Foote to the Secretary of the Navy on the 19th of March, " is harder to conquer than Colum- 
bus, as the island shores are lined with forts, each fort commanding the one about it." 

' This canal was twelve miles in length, and was cut in the space of nineteen days, half the 
distance through a growth of heavy timber. The width of the canal through this timber was 
fifty feet, and in some places tlie trees were sawed off four feet under water. It was a wonderful 
monument to tlie engineering sl<ill and indomitable perseverance of the Americans. On the night 
before its completion [April 3], Pope's wishes concerning the aid of gun-boats were partially 
gratifled. The gaUant Commander Walke performed the perilous feat of running by the batteries 
with the Oarnnddet, at midnight, during a heavy thunder-storm. This, with steamers that came 
through the canal, enabled Pope to operate on the river below New Madrid, in connection witli 
Foote. 

" The number of prisoners taken by Foote and Pope together was 7, 273, including three 



1862.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION 



601 



rates, from which they never recovered. They ahnost despaired. It seemed 
probable that Memphis, one of their strongholds on the Mississippi, where 
they had immense workshops and armoi-ies, would soon share the fate of Co- 
lumbus, and tliat the great river would be patroled by National gun-boats 
from Cairo to New Orleans, and the rich trans-Mississijipi country be separated 
from the rest of the Confederacy. Panic prevailed all the way down to the 
Gulf, for already, as we have seen, Curtis had broken the power of the Con- 
federates in Arkansas,' and a heavy force was making its way up the Tennes- 
see River, in the direction of Alabama. 

Grant newly organized his forces after the capture of Fort Donelson, and 
made vigorous preparations for ascending the Tennessee from Fort Henry, 
where General Wallace was in command, and where head-quarters were tem- 
porarily established. Immediately 
after the fall of Fort Henry' Grant 
. had sent three gun-boats up the Ten- 
nessee, under Lieutienant-Commander 
Phelps, who penetrated the country 
as far as Floi-ence, in Alabama. 
Phelps reported the existence of much 
loyal feeling in that region, and this 
made the Unionists anxious to push 
on and occupy the country. That 
movement was now attempted. 
Corinth, on the Memphis and Charles- 
ton railway, was the grand objective, 
the possession of which, with the rail- 
ways running east and west, and 
north and south, and intersecting 

there, would give immense power to the army. Troops in large number were 
sent up the Tennessee in transports to Savannah and its vicinity, and some, 
under General Sherman, went much farther up the river. Finally, at the 
beginning of Ajml [1862], the main body of Grant's army was encamped 
between Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh Meeting-House, eighteen or twenty 
miles from Corinth. At the latter place Beauregard had been for some time 
gathering an opposing force, and at the period in question General A. S. John- 
ston was there, and in chief command. 

While this movement ujj the Tennessee was occurring. General Buell's army 
was slowly making preparations to march southward, overland, and join Grant's 
at Savannah. He left Nashville late in March, leaving General Negley in com- 
mand there. A part of his force, under the energetic General Mitcbel, pushed 
rapidly southward, captured Huntsville [April 11], on the Memphis and 
Charleston railway, and secured control of that road for a hundred miles. 




generals and 273 field and company officers. The spoils of victory were nearly 20 batteries, with 
123 cannon and mortars, the former ranging from 32 to 100-pounders; 7,000 small arms; many 
hnndred horses and mules; an immense amount of ammunition, and four steamers afloat. 
' Page 592. " Page 593. 



(J02 '^^^ NATION [1862. 

between Tuscumbia on the west and Stevenson on the east. Mitchel had thus 
placed his little army midway between Corinth and Nashville, opened commu- 
nication with Buell, and controlled the navigation of the Tennessee for more 
than one hundred miles. His swift marches and his conquests had been accom- 
plished without the loss of a single life.' 

Meanwhile very important events had occurred on the Tennessee River. The 
bulk of the National army, under Grant, was encamped, as we have observed, 
between Pittsburg Landing and Shiloh Meeting-House.'' The division of Gen- 
eral Lewis Wallace was stationed at Crump's Landing, below, to watch the 
movements of the Confederates west of the Tennessee in that region. On 
the memorable Sunday morning, the 6th of April [1862], the main army, lying 
near the river, stretched across the roads leading from Corinth to Pittsburg 
and Hamburg Landings, from the Snake Creek to the Lick Creek. It was com- 
manded by Generals Sherman, McClernand, Prentiss, W. H. L. "Wallace, and 
Hurlbut. At that time the Confederate forces under General A. S. Johnston, 
led by Generals Beauregard, Polk, Bragg, ILardee, and Breckenridge, as prin- 
cipal commanders, had advanced from Corinth to a point within four miles of 
the National camp, without being discovered. Almost the first intimation 
given of their near approach was their vigorous attack, early on that beautiful 
spring morning, first upon Sherman, and then upon Prentiss, on his left. The 
columns of the latter were broken up, and the general and a larger jsortion of 
his men were captured. All day long the battle raged. Grant had come 
upon the field early from his head-quarters below, and directed the storm of 
conflict on the part of the Nationals as well as he could, but night found his 
army terribly smitten and pushed back to the verge of the Tennessee Hiver, 
then full to the brim with a spring flood, and Beauregard, who had succeeded 
Johnston, slain on the field that day, telegraphing a shout of victory to 
his employers at Richmond.^ One more blow, vigorously given, might have 
driven the Nationals into the turbulent waters, or caused their captivity. A 
blow was given, but so feebly, on accoimt of prompt and effective responses by 
two gun-boats (Tyler and Lexington), and some heavy guns hastily placed in 
battery, that the Nationals stood firm.'' 

' In a stirring address to his troops, Mitcliel said: "You have struck blow after blow with 
a rapidity unparalleled. Stevenson fell, sixty miles to the east of Huntsville. Decatur and Tus- 
cumbia have been in like manner seized, and are now occupied. In three daj'S you have extended 
your front of operations more than one hundred miles, and j'our morning guns at Tuscumbia may 
now be heard by your comrades on the battle-field made glorious by their victory before Corinth." 
This address was on the 16th of April, when the battle of Shiloh. recorded in the text on the 
next page, had been fought and won by the Nationals. 

'' Page 601. 

' The following is a copy of the dispatch, dated "Battle-field of Shiloh, April G, 1862: We 
have this morning attacked the enemy in a strong position in front of Pittsburg, and after a severe 
battle of ten hours, thanks to Almighty God, gained a complete %ictory, driving the enemy from 
every position. The loss on both sides is heavy, including our commander-ic-chief, General 
Albert Sidney Johnston, who fell gallantly leading his troops into the thickest of the fight." 

' During a lull in the battle, toward evening, three light earthworks were thrown up, in 
semicircular form, half a mile back from the river-liluff, and twenty-two heavy guns were 'mounted 
on them. The gun-boats had been brought up to the mouth of a little creek that traverses a 
ravine at Pittsburg Landing, and up that hollow they hurled 7-inch shells and 64-pound shot in 
curves that caused thera to drop into the midst of the Confederates. At nine o'clock in the 
evening the battle ceased. 



1862.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



603 



Biiell had been slowly advancing to join Grant. His vanguard appeared 
on the opposite side of the Tennessee toward the evening of the day of battle. 
These crossed ; and all night long other battalions of BuelFs army were com- 
ing up the river. At midnight General Lewis Wallace, who had been ordered 
up from Crump's Landing, arrived with his division. Grant's army was now 
safe. The fruits of victory were snatched from Beauregard. Before sunrise next 
morning Wallace opened the contest anew on the Confederate left, where Beau- 
regard commanded in person. Others speedily co-operated, and again the bat- 
tle became general along the whole line. The Confederates were steadily 
pressed back by a superior force, all the while fighting most gallantly. They 
were pushed through and beyond the National camps seized by them on Sun- 
day morning. Perceiving that all was lost, they fl^l, in the midst of a cold 
storm of rain and sleet, to the heights of Monterey, in the direction of Corinth, 
covered by a strong rear-guard under Breckenridge,' and there encamped. 
They had lost over 10,000 
men in battle, and full 
300 of the wounded died 
during that terrible re- 
treat of nine miles.' Fif- 
teen thousand of the 
Nationals were killed, 
wounded, and prisoners, 
and the hospital steamers 
that went down the Ten- 
nessee were crowded with 
the sick and maimed. 
The slain troops were 
speedily buried, the dead 
horses were burned, and 
every sanitary precaution was observed. The Confederates were not pursued 
far in their flight ; and both parties, one on the battle-field and the other at 
Corinth, prepared for a renewal of the struggle. 

Beauregard's army was so shattered, that he sent an imploring cr}' from 
Corinth to Richmond for help.^ The way seemed opened for his immediate 
destruction, and Grant was anxious to walk vigorously in it. But his superior, 
General Halleck, who now came from St. Louis [April 12] and took command 




BURKING HORSES ON SUILOH BATTLE-GROUND. 



' His force -was about 12,000 men. Beaureg.ird said to him, "This retreat must not be a 
rout. You must holcHhe enemy back, if it requires the loss of your last man." 

' An eye-witness wrote: — "I passed long wagon-trains tilled with wounded and dying sol- 
diers, without even a blanket to shield them from the driving sleet and hail." Beauregard 
reported his loss at 1,728 killed, 8,012 wounded, and 957 missing — total, 10,G97 Grant reported 
his loss 1,735 killed, 7,882 wounded, and 3,956 prisoners — total, 13,573. Subsequent statements 
show that the loss on each side was about 15,000. 

' He said he could not tlien muster more than 35,000 effective men, but that Earl Tan Dorn 
[see page 592] might join him in a few days with 15,000. He asked for re-enforcements, and 
said. — "If defeated here we lose the Mississippi Valley, and probably our cause." This des- 
patch, written in cipher, General Mitchel intercepted at HuntsviUe, when he seized the telegraph 
oflSce there. 



QQ^ THE NATION. [1S62. 

of the victorious army, thought otherwise, and the imjjatient troops loitered 
near Corinth until their foe had fully prepared for another contest. Twenty 
days after the battle, the Grand Army of Tennessee, cis it was now called, 
moved [April 21] nine miles, and a week later [May 3d] it moved near to 
Corinth, making vigorous use all the while of pick-ax and spade. On that 
day troops under Generals Paine and Palmer pushed on to Farmington, east 
of Corinth, and fought and conquered Confederates at an out-post there, but 
they in turn were driven back to their lines. For twenty-seven days longer 
the Nationals kept digging and piling the earth, in a siege of the Confederates, 
who were every day growing stronger, and continually annoying the besiegers 
by sorties. Finally, on the 29th of May, the Confederates were expelled from 
their advanced batteries, and Halleck prepared for a sanguinary battle the 
next morning. All that night the vigilant ears of his sentinels heard the con- 
tinuous roar of moving cars at Corinth, and their lij)s reported to their chief 

At dawn [May 30] skirmishers were sent 
out, but no foe confronted them. Then 
the earth was shaken by a series of ex- 
plosions, and dense smoke arose from the 
bosom of Corinth. " I cannot explain 
it," said Ilalleck to an inquiry made by 
Sherman, when told to " advance and 
feel the enemy." There was no enemy 
there to feel. Beauregard had evacuated 
Corinth during the night, burned and 
blew up what he could not carry away, 
and after an exciting flight before pur- 
suers for a short distance, the ridiculous 
boaster' gathered his scattered troops at 
p. G. T. BEAUREGARD. Tupclo, many miles southward of 

Corinth, and there left them (as he sup- 
posed temporarily) in charge of Bragg, while he retired to Bladen Springs, in 
Alabama, to find repose and health.'- Ilalleck took possession of Corinth, and 
shortly afterward he was called to Washington City, to perform the duties of 
General-in-Chief of all the armies of the Republic. 

Meanwhile there had been stirring events on the shores of the Mississippi. 
Soon after the capture of New Madrid' and Island Number Ten,^ Commodore 
Foote went down the river with his flotilla, and General Pope's army on 

' On the 8th of May Beauregaril issued a pompous address to liis army, tlien composed of liis 
own and the forces of Van Dorn. '-Shall we not drive back to Tennessee," he said, "the pre- 
sumptuous mercenaries collected for our subjugation ? One more manly effort, and, trusting in 
God and the justness of our cause, we shall recover more tlian we lately lost. Let the sound of 
our victorious guns be re-echoed by those of Virginia on the historic battle-field at YorktoT>ni.'' 
On that day the Confederates fled from Yorktown before McClellan's troops. 

^ Jefferson Davis, whose will was now law, took this occasion to get rid of Beauregard, and 
put Bragg in permanent command of the army. He "passionately declared," said the Confede- 
rate General Jordan, that Beauregard should not be reinstated, " though all the world should urge 
him to the measure." 

' Page 599. 




1862.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



605 




A MORTAR-BOAT. 



transports, to attempt the capture of Memphis. At Fort Pillow, on the first 
Chickasaw bluffs, eighty miles above Memphis by tlie river, the expedition 
was confronted by a Confederate flotilla under Plollins,' and three thou- 
sand troops under M. Jeff. Thompson.' The post was besieged by Foote 
on the 14tli of April, with gun-boats and mortar-boats, while Pope's troops 
obeyed Ilalleck's call to Shiloh. The 
navy was left to do the work; but tliere 
was no serious fighting until the lOtli of 
May, when HoUins attacked tlie flotilla. A 
sharp fight ensued between the armored 
vessels, while the heavy guns of the fort 
assisted HoUins, but he was repulsed ; 
and for more tlian a fortnight afterwari 
the two flotillas lay watching each other. 
Then a " ram" squadron under Colonel 
Charles Ellet, Jr.^ joined the National 
flotilla, and preparations were made for 
another battle, when, on the night of the 
4th of June, the Confederates, having 
heard of the retreat of Beauregard from Corinth, fled from Fort Pillow, fleet 
and army, as fast as steam could carry them, and took position for the defense 
of Memphis. Commodore Davis (Foote's successor') followed, and in a very 
severe engagement with the Confederate flotilla in front of Memphis [June 6, 
1802] was victorious. Thompson and his ti-oops fled, and the National stand- 
ard was soon seen floating in the air over the attrighted town. This event 
was soon followed by the entrance and occupation of the city by troops under 
General Wallace, fresh from the successful siege of Corinth. 

All Kentucky, Western Tennessee, and Northern Mississippi and Alabama, 
were now in the possession of the National authorities, and it was confidently 
e.xpected that East Tennessee would almost immediately be in the same posi- 
tion. When Buell joined Mitchel, after the close of the siege of Corinth, the 
latter ui'ged his superior to march directly into and occupy that region. But 
Buell would not consent, and various efforts which Mitchel had made, pre- 
paratory to such an expedition, were rendered almost fruitless. His com- 
manders had been keeping danger from his rear and making the foe on his 
front exceedingly circumspect. Negley, Turchin, Lytle, and others had been 
operating in the region of the railway between Decatur and Columbia ; and the 
first-named had climbed over the mountains northeast of Stevenscn, drove the 



' Page 600. " Page 513. 

' This squadron had been suggested by Colonel EUet, who was tlie eminent civil engineer 
who constructed the Niagara Suspension Bridge, and under his superintendence the rams 
had been built. They were river boats, some with stern wheels and some with side 
wheels, whose bows were strengthened by additions of heavy timber, and covered with plates 
of iron. 

^ At the siege of Fort Donelson Commodore Foote's ankle had received a severe contusion 
from a piece of falling timber. It became so painful, that on the 9th of May he was compelled to 
withdraw from active service. On retiring, lie left the command of the flotilla with Captain C. H. 
Davis. • 



.606 



THE NATION. 



[1862. 



Confederates before him near Jasper, and on the lih of June [1862] appeared 
on the Tennessee River, opposite Chattanooga. With a little help, that key 
to East Tennessee and Northern Georgia might have been captured and held, 
but it was refused ; and ten days afterward, when the Confederates, without a 
■ struggle, evacuated Cumberland Gap, the " Gibraltar of the Mountains," and 
allowed General George AV. Morgan, with a few Ohio and Kentucky troops, 
to occupy it, Buell refused to march in at the open door, to the relief of East 
Tennessee, and the persecuted inhabitants of that loyal region were compelled 
to wait much longer for deliverance. The cautious Buell and the fiery Mitchel' 

did not work well together, and the 
latter was transferred to another field 
of duty. For a short time now there 
was a lull in the storm of war westward 
of the Alleghanies, but it was only the 
calm before a more furious tempest. 

Let us now turn to a consideration 
of events on the coast of North Caro- 
lina, where we left Burnside and the 
accompanying naval force,- ])reparing 
for more conquests. That expedition 
a]ipeared in the Neuse River, below 
New Berne, on the evening of the 1 2th 
of March [1862], and early the next 
morning about fifteen thousand land 
troops went ashore, and marched toward 
the defenses of that city, which were in charge of a force under General 
Branch. At daylight on the 14th the Nationals moved to the attack in three 
columns, commanded respectively by Generals Foster, Reno, and Parke, the 
gun-boats in the river, under Commodore Rowan, co-operating. A ^ery severe 
battle ensued, in which the Nationals were conquerors. Pressed on all sides 
by a superior force, the Confederates fled from the field across the Trent, 
burning the bridges behind them, and escaped, with the exception of the killed 
and wounded and two hundred made prisoners.^ The Nationals took posses- 




ORMSBY M. MITCHEL. 



' '^itli tlic sanction of General Buell, Mitchel sent out an important expedition toward the 
middle of April. It was composed of twenty-two picked men, led by J. J. Andrews, and their 
duty was to destroy the railway between Chattanooga and Atlanta. They went in detach- 
ments to Marietta, in Georgia, where they joined, .nnd at a station a few miles northward of that 
towTi they seized the train in which they were traveling, while the conductor and passengers 
were at breakfast, and started for Chattanooga, doing what damage tliey could to the road. They 
were pursued, and were finally so closely pressed that they abandoned the train and fled to the 
woods. Some escaped, some were captured, and nine of them, including Andrews, the leader, 
were hung. 

' Page 500. 

' The National loss was about one hundred killed and four hundred wounded. The loss of 
the Confederates, in killed and wounded, was less. The spoils of victory were important, con- 
sisting of the town and harbor of New Berne; eight batteries, mounting forty-six heavy guns; 
three batteries of light artillery, of six guns each ; a number of sailing vessels ; wagons, horses, 
and mules; a large quantity of ammunition and army supplies; the entire camp equipage of the 
Confederates, and much turpentine, resin, and cotton. Most of the white inhabitants fled to 
Goldsboro', on the Weldon Kailway. 



1862.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 607 

sion of the city of New Berne, and then proceeded to attempt the capture of 
Fort Macon, at the entrance to the harbor of Beaufort. The expedition was 
intrusted to the command of General Foster, who eifected a lodgment on 
Bogue Island, a long sand-spit on which Fort Macon stands, and from bat- 
teries which he planted there he began a bombardment of the fort on the 
morning of the 25th of April. Some gun-boats, imder Commander Lockwood, 
participated in the attack. At four o'clock in the afternoon the garrison gave 
tokens of submission, and early the ne.xt day the fort and its occupants were 
surrendered to the Nationals.- At the same time troops under General Reno 
were quietly taking possession of important places along the waters of Albe- 
marle Sound and threatening Norfolk in the rear. At a place called South 
Mills, near Camden Court House, Reno's troops encountered the Confederates 
in a sharp engagement, and defeated them. Winton, at the head of the 
Chowan ; Plymouth, at the mouth of the Roanoke, and Washington, at the 
head of the Pamlico River, were all seized and occupied by the National 
troops. Burnside now held almost undisputed sway over the coast region, from 
the Dismal Swamjj nearly to the Cape Fear River, initil called to the Virginia 
Peninsula, in July, to assist McClellan. 

While Burnside and Rowan were operating on the coast of North Carolina, 
Sherman and Dupont^ were engaged in important movements on the coasts of 
South Carolina and Georgia, having for their first object the capture of Fort 
Pulaski, on Cockspvir Island, near the mouth of the Savannah River. Bat- 
teries were planted on Big Tybee Island, under the skillful direction of General 
Q. A. Gillmore, so as to command the fort;^ and on the 10th of April [1862] 

' Burnside made his head-quarters at the fine old Stanley mansion in the suburbs of New 
Berne. Almost before the smoke of battle was dissipated, the Christian spirit of the friends of 

the government was made conspicuous in acts of _ 

benevolence. Vincent Colyer, a citizen of New ^^^^ 

York, and originator of the Christian Commission ^^ '^^^^m-^ 
of the army, was with the expedition on an errand v^=JS^KL- 

of mercy. Under the sanction of Burnside, he dis- '/<', - 

tributed to the sick and wounded the generous 
contributions of the loyal citizens of tlie North, and 
assumed a fostering care of the poor and ignorant 
colored people, from whose limbs the hand of tlie 
victor had just unloosed the shackles of hopeless 
slavery. He opened evening schools, and had over 
eight luuidred eager pupils, when Edward Stanley, a 
North Carolinian, who had been appointed Military 
Governor of the State, making use of one of tho 
barbarous slave-laws of that commonwealth, which 
made it '" a criminal oflense to teach the blacks to 
read," closed them. Stanley also made zealous ef- 
forts to return fugitive slaves to their masters; and 
the hopes of that down-trodden race in that region, COLTEB's head-QUAetees. 

which were so delightfully given in promises, were 
suddenly extinguished. Stanley's administration was happily a short one. 

' The fruits of the victory were the fort and five hundred prisoners, the command of the 
important harbor of Beaufort, twenty thousand pounds of gunpowder, and a large amount of other 
ordnance stores. 

= Page 582. 

' The planting of these batteries, all tilings considered, was a wonderful feat of engineering 
skill. The island is a marsh, and the armament had to be carried over it on causeways built with 
great labor. "No one," said Gillmore, in his report, "can form any but a faint conception of tha 




608 



THE NATION. 



[1862 



General Hunter, then in command of the Department, summoned the garri- 
son to surrender. It was refused, and thirty-six heavy rifled cannon and 
_ nioitars, constituting 

i-Q ^ _^ clc\ en batteries, opened 

fire upon it. The bom- 
bai hnent continued un- 
til late the next day, 
^\llc^ the fort was so 
shattered and its maga- 
zines so exposed to fiery 
mi« ;iles, that it was un- 
tenable.' On the morn- 
ing of the 12th, the 
f It, with its gamson 
( three hundred men 
and considerable spoil, 
w IS surrendered to the 
Is itionals. The battle 
Ind been a hard-fought 
but almost blpodless 
one.' The victory was 
important, for it enabled the Nationals to close the port of Savannah against 
blockade-runners.^ 

While Gillmore and Viele were besieging Fort Pulaski, Commodore Dupont 
and General Wright were making easy conquests on the coast of Florida. 
They captured Fort Clinch, on the northern end of Amelia Island, early in 
February [1862], and this was the first of the old National fortifications 
" repossessed" by the government. Tlie Confederates fled from the fort, and 
from the town of Fernandina near. They abandoned other forts along the 
coast in the same way, and the Nationals took possession of them. A flotilla 
of gun-boats and transports, with troops, under Lieutenant Tlionias Holdup 
Stevens, was sent up the St. Johrt's River to capture Jacksonsville (March 11), 
and was successful. At about the same time Commander C. R. P. Rogers 




FORT PULASKI BREACHED. 



herculean laljor liy which mortars of eight and a half tons weight, and columbiads but a trifle 
lighter, were moved in the dead of night over a narrow causeway bordered by swamps on each 
side, and liable at any moment to be overturned and buried in the mud beyond reach."' The 
ca\iseways were built of poles and planks, and the guns were placed in battery on heavy planjc 
platforms. 

' Ten of the guns of the fort were dismounted; and so destructive of masonry had been the 
Parrott projectiles, that there was imminent danger of their penetrating tlie magazine. Some of 
these projectiles went through six or seven feet of solid brick wall I 

^ The assailing troops were under the immediate command of General Tiele. He had but one 
man killed. The spoils were, the fort, forty-seven heavy guns, forty thousand pounds of gun- 
powder, and a large supply of fixed ammunition and commissary stores. 

^ We have seen [page 5G1] how the British government proclaimed its neutrality at the 
beginning. British subjects at once entered into the dishonorable business of violating the 
blockade, not onlv declared [page 5G0], but well sustained by force, and supplying the insurgents 
with arms, ammunition, and necessaries of every kind. Fast-sailing steamers were built for the dur- 
pose, and painted a gray color, so as not to be distinguished in even a light fog. They frequently 
eluded the blockaders, and rendered great service to the enemies of our government. 



1802.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



G09 



took possession of St. Augustine ; and the Confederates abandoned Pensacola 
and the fortifications on the main oppo.site Fort Pickens. Dupont returned to 
Port Royal at the close of March, antl found Sherman in possession of Edisto 
Island, well up toward Charleston. And so it was, that before the first anni- 
versary of the fall of Fort Sumter, the whole Atlantic coast, from Cape Ilat- 
tcras to Perdido Bay, excepting the harbor of Charleston and its immediate 
surroundings, had been abandoned by the insurgents. 

Turning again to Hampton Roads, we sec General Butler there at the head 
of another expedition.'! He had completed his recruiting in Xew England,- 
audi on the 23d of February [18G2] he received orders, as commander of the 
Department of the Gulf, to co-operate with the navy, first in the capture of 
New Orleans and its approaches,! and then in the reduction of Mobile, Galves- 
ton, and Baton Rouge, with the ultimate design of occupying Texas.j On the 
25th of February he sailed from Hampton Roads with nearly 14,000 men; 
and thirty days later he re-embarked on Ship Island, off the coast of Missis- 
sippi, in the Gulf of Mexico. It was already in possession of National troops, 
under General Phelps, and a naval force was there under Commodores Farragut 
and Bailej-. With these officers Butler arranged a plan of operations against 

New Orleans. A fleet of bomb-vessels 

under Commander Uavid D. Porter had 
been jjrepared to co-operate with the 
forces which rendezvoused at Ship 
Island, and early in iVpril an extensive 
armament was in the Mississippi River,^ 
prepared to attack Forts Jackson and 
St. Philip, on the banks of that stream, 
at a sharp bend, seventy-five miles above 
the passes of the river into the Gulf 

Genei-al Mansfield Lovell, formerly a 
Xew York politician, was in command 
at Xew Orleans and of its defenses, 
among which were the forts just named.'' 
He and the people of that region sup- ^ ^ porteb 

posed these defenses to be impregnable,' 

and they rested in fancied security until late in April, when startling events 
undeceived them. 

All things were in readiness for an assault on the forts on the IVth [April, 
1862], and a battle with these fortifications began ou the morning of the 18th, 




• Page 519. ' Page 580. 

' Tlie fleets of Farragut and Porter comprised forty-seve^ armed vessels, eight of which v/ere 
large and powerful steam sloops of war. Butler's troops, composed of Massachusetts. Connecti- 
cut, Indiana, Wisconsin, and Michigan men. were borne on five transports. 

' Fort Jackson was built by the government. Fort St. Philip was on old Spanish work, 
which figured soraewliat in the war of 1812. They were near each other, on opposite sides of 
the river. The general command of these, and other river defenses below New Orleans, was 
intrusted to General J. R. Duncan, formerly an office-holder in the city of New York. 

' A leading newspaper said: — ''Our only fear is that the Northern invaders may not appear. 
We have made such extensive preparations to receive them, that it were vexatious if their invin- 

39 



glQ THE NATION. [1?62. 

Farragut commanding the squadron of gun-boats, and Porter the mortar fleet, 
the former being the chief oflicer. Soon perceiving but little chance for redu- 
cing the forts, Farragut made arrangements to run by them with his gun-boats. 
This was attempted on the night of the 23d, the mortar-boats keeping their 
position and covering the advance with their flre. It was a most perilous 
undertaking. Obstructions below the fort were first removed, and then, xuider 
the heavy fire of the Confederates, the squadron moved up the swift current 
(the Mississippi was full to the brim), and soon encountered a formidable fleet 
of rams and gun-boats lying just above the forts. One of the most terrific 
naval fights on record ensued,' in which Farragut and commanders Bailey and 
Boggs were most conspicuous. It resulted in victory for the Nationals. 
Within the space of an hour and a half after the National vessels left their 
anchorage, the forts were passed, the struggle had occurred, and eleven of the 
Confederate vessels, or nearly the whole of their fleet, were destroyed.- The 
National loss was thirty men killed, and not more than one hundred and 
twenty-five wounded. All of Farragut's vessels which had passed the forts, 
thirteen in number, rendezvoused at the Quarantine, which was the first gov- 1 
ernment property in Louisiana " repossessed " by the National forces. 

While this desperate battle was raging, the land troops under Butler 
were preparing to perform their part in the drama. They were landed in 
the rear of Fort St. Philip, and in small boats they made their way to the 
Quarantine on the Mississippi [xVpril 27] through nan-ow and shallow bayous. 
Their appearance alarmed the Confederates, and a mutiny in the garrison of 
Fort Jackson, caused by their menace, compelled the surrender of the forts.^ 
Meanwhile Farragut had gone up to New Oi'leans with his fleet. He had been 
preceded by intelligence of disasters below, and there was a fearful jianic in 
the city. Four millions of specie was sent away by. the banks, and a vast 
amount of private property, with many citizens, was soon on the wing. 

cible armada escapes the fate we have in store for it." In and around New Orleans was a force 
of about 10.000 armed men. In order to deceive the people, it was given out by tlie autliorities 
that there were more than 30,000 troops ready for the defense of the city; and the redoubtable 
Hollins was spoken of is "a NcKou in his way I" 

' " Combme, ' said il ij r Lill of Eutler's staff, who was present, "all that yon have ever 

heard of thunder, and add to it all yoii 
_ have ever seen of lightning, and you 

^^ have, perhaps, a conception of the 

scene." And all this noise and destruc- 
tive energy — blazing fire-rafts sent 
down upon tlie current to destroy the 
National vessels ; the floating volcanoes 
sending forth fire, and smoke, and bolts 
of death, and the thundering forts and 
ponderous rams — were all crowded, in 
the gloom of night, within the space nl' 
a narrow river. 

'•' Among the vessels destroyed was 
the ram Manassas, which was set- on 
fire, and went roaring down the stream. 
Finally, like a huge amphibious mon- 
ster, it gave a plunge, and disappeared in the turbulent w-aters. 

' The number of prisoners, inchiding some taken at the Quarantine, was about 1,000. The 
entire loss of the Nationals, from the beginning of this contest until the capture of New Orleans, 
was 40 killed and 177 wounded. 




E.\M "MANASSAS ON ITRE. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



611 




THE LEVEE AT NEW ORLEANS. 



Women were seen in the streets cnying, "Bum the city! burn the city!" 
Vehicles were everywhere observed carrying cotton to the levee to be 
destroyed; and when, on the 25th, Farragut, with nine vessels, approached 

the town, a sheet 

of flame and pall ^S===_ 

of smoke, caused 

by the burning of 

cotton, sugar, and 

other property, 

was seen along the 

levee a distance of 

five miles.' The 

city was utterly 

defenseless. The 

troops had mostly 

fled, and Farragut 

held the rebellious 

citizens in cheek by the fear of his shells,' until the arrival of General Butler 

with his troops on the first of May; Tlicse were landed. The General made 

his head-quarters at the St. Charles Hotel, and there, in conference with the 

city authorities and some leading citizens, he foreshadowed a policy that proved 

effectual in maintaining order. By the most vigorous action the rebellious 

spirit of leading politicians was subdued, the refractory were punished, the 

poor were relieved, and the peaceful were protected.' The capture of New 

' More than a dozen large ships, some of them laden with cotton, and as many magnificent 
steam-boats, with unfinished gun-boats and other vessels, were seen in flames. In this confla- 
gration no less than 15,000 bales of cotton, valued at $1,500,000, were consumed. 

' Captain Bailey was sent ashore with a flag to demand the surrender of the city, and the 
taking down of the Confederate flag from the government custom-house and mint. This was 
refused, when a force landed, and unfurled the National Aug over the mint. As soon as the force 
retired, some young men, led by a notorious gambler named Mumford, pulled it down and dragged 
it in derision through the streets. When Butler, who arrived soon afterward and took command, 
heard of this, he wrote to the Secretary of War, saying; — "This outrage will be punished in 
such manner as in my judgment will caution both the perpetrators and abettors of the act, so 
that they shall fear the stripes if they do not reverence the stars of our banner." Mumford was 
afterward active in inciting a mob to violence, when he was arrested, tried for and convicted of 
treason by a court-martial, and hung. 

^ The Mayor of the city, John T. Monroe, one of the most unworthy men of our time, was 
very refractory for a while, but, with all others like him, he was soon compelled to be quiet. 
Butler discovered a list of subscribers, composed of bankers, merchants, and other wealthy citi- 
zens, to a fund for carrying on the rebellion. These he assessed for the benefit of the poor, to 
the amount of twenty-five per cent, on their subscription. Foolish women, of the wealthy and 
rebellio\is class, defied the military authorit.y; and one of these, with the low manners of the 
degraded of her se.x, deliberately spat in the faces of .two officers in tlie street. Forbearance was 
no longer a virtue, and Butler issued an order which effectually cured the growing evil. It pub- 
licly directed the treatment of women, so acting, to be such as would be given to the abandoned 
of their se.x.* This order, which was perverted and misrepresented, produced the most intense 

* The fnllowins is a copy of the document called the " Woman Order," dated New Orleans, May 15, 1862: — 
" General Order No. 2S: 

•' As the officers and soldiers of the United Stites have been subject to repeated insults from the women (call- 
inix themselves ladies) of New Orleans, in return for the most scru|mlons non-interference j^nd courtesy on our 
part, it is ordered that hereafter, when any female shall, bv word, gesture, or movement, insult or show contempt 
for any officer or soldier of the United States, she shall be regarded and held liable to be treated ai a worn n of 
the towti plying her avocation. 

'■ Bv command of 

Major-General DcTLitE. 

" George C. Strong, Assistant Actjutunt-Generitl, Chief of Stuff." 



G12 



THE NATION. 



[1S62. 




Orleans was the lieavicst blow the CMifederacy had yet received, and for 
awhile it staggered under its infliction.' \/ 

Let us now return to a consideration of the Army of the Potomac, which 
we left in a quiet condition after the little flurry at Drainsville. 

At the beginning of 1862, when the Grand Army numbered full 200,000 
men, the prospect of its advance seemed more re7note than ever, for the fine 

autumn weather had been succeeded by 
storms and frost, and the roads were 
becoming wretched in Virginia. The 
people were impatient and the Presi- 
dent was dissatisfied. He could get no 
satisfaction from the General-in-Chief 
(McClellan) when he inquired why that 
army did not move. He therefore 
summoned [Januarv 10, 1862] Generals 
McDowell and Franklin to a conference 
with himself and cabinet, for he had 
resolved that something must be done 
by the Army of the Potomac, either 
with or without the General-in-Chief. 
GEO. B. M'CLELLAN. ^thcr confcrenccs were held, in which 

McClellan participated ; and in a gene- 
ral order on the 27th of January, the President directed a simultaneous for- 
ward movement of all the " land and naval forces of the United States against 
the insurgent forces." This order sent a thrill of joy through every loyal 
heart. It was heightened by another order, directing JlcClellan to form all 
of the disposable forces of the army, after providing for the safely of Wash- 
ington, into an expedition for operating against the Confederates at Manassas. 
But the General-in-Chief had other plans, and, instead of obeying, he remon- 
strated. He proposed to take his army to Richmond, by way of the Chesa- 
peake Bay and the peninsula between the York and James Rivers, instead of 
fiilling upon the Confederates at Manassas. Discussion followed. A council 
of officers decided in favor of McClellan's plan. The President dissented from 
their views, but acquiesced in their decision. Orders were issued for the move- 
ment. Still there was delaj-, and finally, on the 8th of March, the Executive 
issued an order for the army to advance by the Chesapeake as early as the ISth 
of that month. 

At that moment e\cnts were occurring which caused a material modifica- 
tion of the plans of the General-in-Chief. The Confederates suddenly evacuated 
Manassas [March 8 and 9] and hastened toward Richmond. The Army of the 



excitement tliroughout the Confederacy, and Davis issued a proclamation of outlawry against 
Butler. 

' " It annihilated \is in Louisiana," said a Confederate historian of the war, " diminished our 
resources and supplies by the loss of one of the greatest grain and cattle countries within the 
limits of the Confederacy, gave to the enemy the Mississippi River, with all its means of naviga- 
tion, for a base of operations, and finally led, by plain and irresistible conclusion, to our virtual 
abandonment of the great and fruitful Valley-of the Mississippi." 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



613 



Potomac followed as far as the deserted post, and some cavalry a little lieyond ; 
and the loyal people rejoiced because the march on Richmond had begun. 
They were instantly disappointed. The whole Grand Army of the Potomac 
was ordered back, and the few Confederates who had been keeping it in check 
for months' were allowed to make their way peacefully to Richmond, and there 
prepare to hold that grand aiTny in check for many months at another point. 
The government was now satisfied that the burden of care which had been 
laid upon the General-in-Chief was greater than he was able to bear, and the 
President kindly relieved him [March 11, 1862] of much of it, by dividing the 
great labor of command, and k'a\ ing in McClellan's charge only the Army of 
the Potomac' 

The evacuation of Manassas was simultaneous with the sudden appearance 
of a new na^•al power in Hampton Roads, the operations of which formed 
one of the causes for a modification of McClellan's plans for moving against 
Richmond. It was the notable iron gun-boat called the Monitor, constructed 
on a novel plan for offensive and defensive war.' It was then known that 
the Merrimack, sunk at Norfolk,'' had been raised and converted into a 
formidable iron-clad warrior. Its speedy appearance in Hampton Roads 
was expected, and dreaded, because it would greatly imperil the wooden 
vessels of the government there. On the 8th of March it suddenly made its 
appearance. It moved directly upon the sailing frigates Congress and Cuni- 
heiiand, at the mouth of the James River, and destroyed them. It also 
attacked other armed vessels, and then seemed to take a little rest for the task 
of utterly destroying the warriors and transports in Hampton Roads on the 
following morning. The intervening night was consequently passed in great 
anxiety by the National commanders on land and water in that region. There 
seemed to be no competent human agenc}^ to avert the threatened disasters, 

' Johnston, informed of the strens^th of the Army of the Potomac, was satisfied that lie could 
not withstand its advance, and had been preparinp; for the evacuation for several weeks, but with 
such skill that McClellan was not aware of it. This was necessary, for his troops were so few 
that he could not form a respectable rear-guard to cover liis retreat, with his supplies. Wooden 
guns took the place of some of his heavy ones at Manassas, when lii.s ordnance was sent away. 
So well had Johnston managed to deceive McClellan as to liis force, that on the day when he 
evacuated Manassas, the chief of McClellan's secret seivice corps reported 08,(100 Confede- 
rate soldiers "within twenty miles of Manassas," and a total of 115,000 in Virginia, with 300 
field-pieces, and twenty-six to thirty siege-guns 'before Washington." At the same time Gen- 
eral Wool, at Fortress Monroe, and General AVadsworth, back of Arlington Heights, gave the 
government (what were subsequently proven to be truthful) statements, from reliable information, 
that not over 50,000 troops were then in front of the Army of the Potomac. The actual number 
seems to have been but 40,000. 

" By the President's order, dated March 11, 1862, General McClellan was relieved of the com- 
mand of other military departments. To General Halleck was given the command of the troops 
in the Valley of the Mississippi and westward of the longitude of Kno.xville, in Tennessee ; and a 
Mountain Department, consisting of the region between Halleck and McClellan, was created, and 
placed in charge of General Fremont. The commanders of departments were ordered to report 
directly to the Secretary of War. 

^ This vessel presented the appearance on the water of a simple platform, sharp at each end, 
lying just above the surfoce, on which was a round revolving iron Martello tower, twenty feet in 
diameter and ten feet in height above the deck, and pierced for two guns. This turret, or tower, 
was made to revolve, so that the guns could be brought to bear independent of the position of 
the hull of the vessel. Tlie hull and turret were of heavy iron, and impervious to shot and 
shell. This vessel was the invention of Captain John Ericsson, a scientific Swede, who had then 
been a resident of this country full twentv years. 

' Page 558. 



614 THE NATION. [1862. 

when, at a little past midnight [March 9, 1802], a mysterious thing came in 
from the sea between the capes of Virginia, lighted on its way by the blazing 
Congress? It was the Monitor on its trial trip, commanded by Lieutenant 
John L. Worden." That gallant officer was soon made acquainted with the 
situation, and prepared to meet the devouring monster in the morning. Before 
sunrise, on that beautiful Sabbath day, it came sweeping down the Elizabeth 
River. The Monitor, like a little David, hastened to meet the Confederate 
Goliath. As it drew near, its invulnerable citadel began to move, and from 
it were hurled ponderous shot in quick succession. These were answered by 
broadsides from the Merrimack. The combat A^as terrible. From the turret 




COMBAT BETWEEN THE MONITOR AND MERRIMACK. 

and deck of the Monitor heavy round shot and conical bolts glanced off as 
pebbles would fly from contact with solid granite. The Mei'riniack was finally 
disabled by its mysterious antagonist, and fled up to Norfolk.^ The safe navi- 
gation of Hampton Koads, and, to some extent, that of the James River, was 
secured to the National vessels. The event produced joy in every loyal heart, 
and Ericsson, the inventor, and Worden, the commander, shared in the public 
gratitude.* -i 

Impressed with the belief that the navigation of the James River was now 

' The Cumberland was sunk and the Congress was set on fire by the Merrimack. The maga- 
zine of the latter exploded, and destroyed what was left of lier by the flames. Nearly one-half 
of the officers and crews of botli vessels were killed or wounded. Of the 4.'!4 men of the Congress, 
only one-half responded to their names the next morning at Newport-Newee. The dead were 
buried at that place, and their remains are among those of scores of Union soldiers. On a board, 
in the form of a cross, at tlie head of one of the latter, whose name and history are nnkuown, 
might liave been read in 180G one of the most touching and poetical epitaphs ever inscribed. It 
read : '■ A Soldier of the Union mustered out." 

' Note 1, page 5S1. 

' Franklin Buchanan, a veteran officer of the National navy, who liad abandoned his flag, was 
the commander of the Merrimack (which the Confederates named Virginia), and was so badly 
wounded in the engagement that he was unfitted for service for some time. 

* Worden was severely mjiired during the engagement. In the turret of the Monitor was a 
small peep-hole, out of which the commander might see how to direct the turning of it. so as to bring 
the guns properly to bear. AVhile Worden was looking through this, a heavy shot struck squarely 
•in- front of the peep-hole, shivering some cement there and casting it violently into the face and 



1862.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. gl5 

free for the National gun-boats, McClellan, in accordance with the decision of 
a council of officers [March 13], proceeded to transfer the Army of the Potomac 
to Fortress Monroe, from which, as a base, it might march on Richmond. It 
was important for the security of "VTashington City, at the same time, to hold 
the Confederates in check in the Shenandoah Valley. Already the dashing 
General Lander, by a successful attack on " Stonewall Jackson '"' at Blooming 
Gap [February 14, 1862], had made that leader circumspect. Now General 
N. P. Banks was in command in the Valley. When Johnston evacuated 
Manassas, Jackson, who had taken post at Winchester, moved farther up the 
Valley, followed by some of Banks's troops. The latter fell back, and a con- 
siderable force under General Shields took post at Winchester. Jackson 
returned, and at Kernstown, near Winchester, he and Shields had a severe 
engagement on the 22d of March," at the close of which the defeated Confede- 
rates went in swift retreat up the Valley, followed far by Banks, who remained 
in that region to watch the foe, while McClellan should move on Richmond 
by way of the Virginia Peninsula. 

At the beginning of April McClellan was at Fortress Monroe, and began 
his march [April 5] up the Peninsula, with fifty thousand men, in two columns, 
led respectively by Generals Heintzelman' and Keyes, one in the direction of 
Yorktown and the other toward Warwick Court House, nearer the James 
River. The Confederates, under Magrudcr,'' about eleven thousand strong, 
were stretched across McClellan's path, from the York to the James, and by a 
skillful and deceptive display of strength in numbers, kept the Army of the 
Potomac before them (which speedily numbered one hundred thousand men) 
at bay for a month,' its leader calling earnestly for re-enforcements to enable 
him to move forward. He closely besieged his foes at Yorktown, and when 
the latter perceived that it was no longer prudent to remain, they fled up the 
Peninsula [Jlay 3, 1862] and made a stand behind a strong line of works in 
front of Williamsburg. The bulk of the National army pursued, under the 
directions of General Sumner, while McClellan remained at Yorktown, to 
superintend the forwarding of an expedition up the York River, under General 
Franklin, to flank the Confederates. 

eyes of the commander. The shock was so great that tlie persons in the turret were prostrated. 
Cinly 'Worden was seriously hurt. For several days afterward his life was in great peril. He 
recovered, and did gallant service afterward on the Southern coast. 

' Thomas J. Jackson, who became one of the most renowned of the Confederate leaders, was 
in command of a brigade at the battle of Bull's Rim, where his men gallantly witlustood all 
assaults. "Seel" exclaimed another leader (General Bee), when trying to rally panic-striekeu 
troops, "there stands Jackson like a stone wall!" The latter was ever afterward called "Stone- 
wall Jackson," and his troops the "Stonewall Brigade." 

" Shields reported his loss at nearly 600 men, of whom 103 were killed. Jackson's loss was 
over 1,000. It was estimated at 1,500 by Shields. 

' In Heintzelman's column were the divisions of Fitz-John Porter, Hamilton, and Sedgwick; 
and with Keyes were the divisions of Generals Couch and "W. F. Smith. 

* Page 562. 

' The tedious operations of a regular siege, by casting up intrenchments, were under the 
direction of General Porter. Frequent skirmishes occurred during the siege, but only one that 
had the semblance of a battle. That was on the 16th of April, when General Smith attacked the 
Confederates on the Warwick River, between the mills of Lee and AVinn. He was repulsed, with 
the loss of one hundred men on his part and of seventy-five on the part of his foe. McClel- 
lan's army suflered much from sickness during the month's detention in that swampy region. 



616 



THE N ATI OK. 



[IS(J2. 




The works in front of Williamsburg were strong, extending across that 
narrowest part of the Peninsula from estuaries of the York and James Rivers. 
There the Confederate leader left a strong rear-guard to check the pursuers, 
while the main body (a greater portion of which had not been below Williams- 
burg), then under the command of General Joseph E. Johnston, who had come 

down from Richmond, should retreat up 
tlie Peninsula. Johnston's intention was 
to concentrate all his troops near Rich- 
mond, and then give battle. The pur- 
suing force, after their advance under 
General Stoneman had been checked in 
front of the Confederate works, pushed 
boldly up to attack them under such 
leaders as Hooker, Kearney, and Han- 
cock, who were conspicuous on that occa- 
sion. Hooker began the assault early on 
the morning of the 6th [Jlay, 1862], and 
bore the brunt of battle almost nine 
consecutive hours, when Kearney came 
to his assistance, and Hancock turned the 
left of the Confederates. The latter, overpowered, retreated, and such was 
their haste, that they left nearly eight hundred of their wounded behind.' 
McClellan came upon the battle-field toward the close of the engagement, and 
the next morning he sent tidings of the victory to the government from the 
ancient capital of Virginia. Johnston was then pressing on toward the Cliick- 
ahomiuy, with fearfid anticipation of disaster if again struck in his retreat by 
the Nationals ; but the pursuit there ended, and McClellan's army, during the 
succeeding ten or fifteen days, made its way leisurely to the Chiekahominy, 
behind which Johnston was then safely encamjjed.' In the mean time Frank- 
lin's expedition, too long held at Yorktown by the Commander-in-Chief to win 
the advantages of a flank movement, had secured a strong footing near the 
head of the York River, and there, on the bank of the Pamunkey River, Gene- 
ral McClellan established his base of supplies for the Army of the Potomac. 

On the 20th of May [1862], McClellan's army was on the borders of the 
Chiekahominy River, and a portion of it, under General Casey, occupied the 
heights on the Richmond side of the stream, on the New Kent road. In the 
mean time important events had occurred in the roar of the i^rmy of the Poto- 



JOSEPH E. JOBKSTON. 



' So vigorous wns the assault of Hooker, tliat Johnston sent back a greater part of his force 
to the assistance of his rear-guard. The final retreat was made under the lead of General Long- 
street, one of the best of the Confederate generals. 

" On the evening after the battle, McClellan telegraphed to the Secretary of War that the Con- 
federates were before him in force probnblj' greater than his own, and strongly intrenched, and 
assured the Secretary that lie should "run the risk of holding them in check there." At 
that time Johnston's 30,000 men were fleeing as rapidly as possible toward the Chiekahominy 
before McClellan's victorious 100,000 men. Experts on both sides declared that had the pursuit 
been continued, in the morning after the battle at Williamsburg, the National army might liave 
crushed that of the Confederates, or followed them directly into Richmond. 



18G3.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



61^ 



mac. General Wool,' in command at Fortress Monroe, had long desired to 
attempt the capture of Norfolk. Permis.sion was at length given liim by tlic 
President and Secretary of War.' With a few regiments he landed [May 10, 
1862] in the rear of the Confederate works below Norfolk, and marched tri- 
umphantly toward the city. The Confederate forces there, under General 
Iliiger, destroyed the Merrimaclc^ and fled toward Petersburg and Rieliinond. 
Norfolk was surrendered to Wool by tlie civil authorities. The Confederate 
vessels of war in the James River fled up toward Riclimond, and were followed 
by National gun-boats, under Commodore Rogers, to Drewry's Blutt', eight 
miles below the capital of the Confederates, where thov were cliecked [May 
15] by a strong fort. 

Important events had also been occurring in tlie Shenandoah Valley and 
the adjacent region. At about the time of tlie siege of Vorktown, General 
Fremont was at Franklin, among the mountains of Western Virgini'a. Gene- 
ral Banks was at Strasbnrg, in the Shenandoah Valley, and General McDowell 
was at Fredericksburg, on tlie Rappahannock, for tlie double purpose of cover- 
ing Washington and co-operating with MeClellan. Jackson had been joined 
by tlie skillful Ewell, in the vicinity of Harrisonburg. Other troops were near, 
and he was watching Banks closelj'. At McDowell [May 8], west of Staunton, 
lie sti-uck one of Fremont's brigades, under General Milroy, a severe blow, 
while Ewell pressed Banks back to Strasburg. Jackson and Ewell soon after- 
ward captured and dispersed [jMay 23] a National force under Colonel Kenly, 
at Front Royal, and sent Banks flying down the Shenandoah Valley from 
Strasburg, hotly pursued to Winchester. There Ewell attacked him [May 25], 
and after a severe contest he continued his 
flight to the banks of the Potomac, near Wil- 
liamsport. The National capital was now in 
peril, and McDowell was ordered to send a 
large force over the Blue Ridge, to irtterccjH 
the Confederates, if they should retreat, wliile 
Fremont should march on Strasburg from the 
\\est, for the same purpose. Jackson perceived 
his peril, and his whole force fled up the valley 
in time to elude the troops on their flank. 
Fremont pursued them up the main valley, and 
Shields, with a considerable force, marched 
rapidly up the parallel Luray Valley. At a 
place called Cross Keys, near Harrisonburg, ^ j jackson. 

Fremont overtook Ewell, when a severe but 

undecisive battle ensued [June 7]. Jackson was then at Port Republic, a few 
miles distant, sorely pressed by Generals Carroll and Tyler. He called Ewell 
to his aid. The latter moved off in the nit;ht. Fremont followed : but Ewell 




' Page 413, and note 5, page 579. 

' Wool's command was not under the direction of McClellan. 
one BO long as that veteran was at the head of that department. 
* Page (il4. 



It remained au independent 



61g THE NATIOX. [1862. 

managed to cross the Shenandoah and burn the bridge behind him before Fre- 
mont could reach that stream. Meanwhile Jackson's assailants had been 
repulsed, and on the 9th of June the whole National army on the Shenandoah 
retraced their steps. So ended the second great race of the National and Con- 
federate troops in the Shenandoah Valley. 

When Rogers went up to Drewry's Bluff,' the James and York Rivers 
were both opened as highways for supplies for the Army of the Potomac. 
McClellan" determined to continue his base at the head of York, until he 
should form a junction with McDowell. That event was postponed by others 
in the Shenandoah Valley, just recorded, and the two great armies stood face 
to fiice near Richmond toward the close of May, with little expectation of aid 
from their respective comrades in that Valley. Their first collision was on 
the 23d, near Mechanicsville, when the Confederates were driven, and the army 
and loyal people were thrilled by a general order issued by McClellan the next 
day, which indicated an immediate advance upon Richmond. Every thine 
was in readiness for the movement, and the Confederates were trembling in 
anticipation of it.^ McClellan hesitated, and the golden moments of opportu- 
nity were spent in flank movements, which resulted in se\'ere struggles, that 
were fruitless of good to the National army.' 

The skillful and vigilant Johnston, soon perceiving the perilous position of 
the National forces, divided by the fickle Chickahominy,^ and the timidity of 
their chief, marched boldly out from his strong intrenehments before Rich-- 
mond to attack them. On the afternoon of the 31st [May, 1862], a heavy 
force of the Confederates fell furiously upon the most advanced National 
troops, under General Casey, and a sanguinary battle ensued. Casey fought . 
his foe most gallantly, until one-third of his division was disabled, and he was 

1 Page Gn. 

' The appearance of Rogers's flotilla before Drewry's Bluff simultaneously with McClellan's 
advance toward the Chiekahominy produced the greatest consternation in Kiclunond, especially 
among the conspirators. Davis, their chief, almost despaired, and the general expectation 
that the National forces would speedily march into Richmond, caused the chief leaders to make 
preparations for flight. The "archives of the government," so called, were sent to Columbia, 
South Carolina, and to Lynchburg. The railway tracks over the bridges at Richmond were 
covered with planks, so as to facilitate the passage of artillery, and everj' man who was active in 
the rebellion trembled with fear. The Legislature of Virginia, then in session, disgusted with 
the cowardice .ind perfidy of Davis and his chief associates in crime, passed resolutions calling 
upon them to act with manliness and honor, and to stay and pcotect at all hazards the people they 
had betrayed. This action, it is believed, was inspired by the manly .Tohnston, then at the head 
of the army, whose virtues were a standing rebuke to the cold selfishness of the chief con- 
spirator. 

^ The troops engaged were regular cavalry under General Emory ; Benson's horse-battery ; 
Morrell's division, composed of the brigades of Martindale, Butterfield, and McQuade, and Ber- 
dan's sharp-shooters; three batteries under Captain GrifiBn, and a "provisional brigade," under 
Colonel G. K. Warren, in support. Their first encounter was near Hanover Court Hoiise [May 
27], when a charge by Butterlield's brigade dispersed the Confederates. At the same time Gen- 
eral Martindale was contending with fresh troops that came up from Richmond, and attacked him 
while moving between Peake's Station and Hanover Court House. Porter sent assistance to 
Martindale, when the Confederates, outnumbered, fell back, with a loss of 200 men dead on the 
field, and 700 made prisoners. The National loss was 350. 

' The Chiekahominy River is a narrow stream, and liable to a sudden and great, increase of 
volume and overflow of its banks by rains. For this reason it might, in a few hours, become an 
impassable barrier between bodies of troops where bridges did not e.\ist. In this instance the 
Confederates had destroyed the bridges. 



1862.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. QIQ 

driven back by an overwhelming force. Troops sent to his aid by Keyes 
could not withstand the pressure, and all were driven back to Fair Oaks Sta- 
tion, on the Richmond and York River Railway, where the struggle continued. 
Heintzelman and Kearney pressed forward with re-enforcements, but fresh 
Confederates were there to meet them, and it seemed at one time as if the 
whole of the National forces on the Richmond side of the Chickahominy were 
doomed to destruction. At that critical moment the veteran General Sumner 
appeared, with the divisions of Sedgwick and Richardson, and checked the 
Confederate advance by a storm of canister-shot from twenty-four guns. But 
they soon pressed forward again and fouglit gallantly, notwithstanding John- 
ston, their chief, who was directing the battle, was severely wounded and 
borne away. Finally, at eight o'clock in the evening, a bayonet charge by 
five regiments broke the Confederate line into dire confusion. The contest 
was renewed in the morning [June 1], and after a struggle for several hours, 
in which Hooker's command also was engaged, the Confederates withdrew, 
and retired to Richmond that night. So ended the battle of Fair Oaks, or 
Seven Pines. 

For nearly a month after this the Army of the Potomac lay along the 
Chickahominy, a few miles from Richmond, in a very unhealthful situation, 
quietly besieging the Confederate capital. Robert E. Lee' succeeded John- 
ston, and he was joined by Jackson and Ewell, with a force so considerable 
that he prepared to strike McClellan a deadly blow. Fifteen hundred of his 
cavalry, under J. E. B. Stewart,^ made a complete circuit of the Army of the 
Potomac at the middle of June, threatening its su])plies at the White Ilouse,^ 
near the head of York River, and gaining valuable information. Meantime 
the public expectation was kept on the alert by frequent assurances that the 
decisive battle would be fought " to-morrow." For that pui-pose re-enforce- 
ments were called for, and sent ; yet the cautious commander hesitated until 
Lee made a movement which compelled him to take a defensive position, and 
prepare to abandon the siege and retreat to the James River. That movement 
w-as made on the 26th of June. Jackson, with a considerable force, mai'ched 
from Hanover Court House to turn JlcClellan's right, and fall upon his com- 
munications with his supplies at the White House ; and at the same time a 
heavier force, under Generals Longstreet and D. H. and A. P. Hill, crossed the 
Cliickahominy near Mechanicsville, and assailed the National right wing, com- 
manded by (jreneral Fitz John Porter. A terrific battle ensued near Ellison's 

' Page 564. " Page 585. 

° The White Home was the name of an estate on the Pamiinkey River, that belonged to the 
Custis family by inheritance from Mrs. Washington, whose lirst husband owned it. Her great- 
grand-daughter was the wife of Robert E. Lee, and this property was in the possession of the 
latter's eldest son when the Civil War broke out. The name was derived from the color of the 
mansion on the estate at the time Washington was married to Mrs. Custis. It was white, and 
thus distinguished from others. That mansion was tleniolished between thirty and forty years 
ago, and near its site was another, of modest form and dimensions, which was called the "White 
House." This was held sacred, for some time, by the Union troops, in consequence of a false 
impression given by the family that it was the original " White House." When MeClellan 
clianged his base to the James River, and his stores were fired, the modern " White House " 
was consumed. 



620 



THE NATION. 



[1862. 



Mill, which resulted in tlic defeat of tlie Confederates, wlio suffered a fearful 
loss." 

Notwithstanding this victory, McClellan decided that the time had come 
for him to fly toward the James River, if he would save his army. He was 
r ~ , left to choose between 

a concentration- of his 
whole ibrce on the left 
bank of the Chick- 
ahominy, and give 
general battle to Lee's 
army ; to concentrate 
it on the right bank, 
and march directly on 
IJichmond, or to trans- 
fer his right wing to 
that side of the stream, 
and with his supplies 
retreat to the James 
River. He chose the 
latter course, and made 
preparations accord- 
ingly." He ordered 
the stores at the White 
House to be destroyed if they could not be removed, and held Porter's 
corps in a strong position near Gaines's Mills, a short distance from 
Ellison's Mill, to give protection as far as possible to the supplies, and 
to the remainder of the troops in the removal of the siege-guns, their pas- 
sage of the river, and their march toward the James. There, between Cool 
Arbor' and the Chickahominy, in line of battle on the arc of a circle. Porter 
stood when attacked by the Hills and Longstreet,'' on the afternoon of the 
7th of June. Yery severe was the battle that ensued. Porter, hard pressed, 
sent to McClellan, then on the opposite side of the Chickahominy, for aid, but 
the commander, believing Magruder's 25,000 men at Richmond to be 60,000 
in number, could spare only Sloeum's division of Franklin's corps. Later, the 
brigades of Richardson and Meagher were sent, and these arrived just in time 
to save Porter from annihilation, for his shattered and disheartened ai-my was 




VIEW ON THE CinCKAIIOMINY XEAR MECIIASICSVILLE. 



' It was between 3,000 and 4.000 men. The National loss was about 400. The latter were 
well posted on an eminence ; the former were much exposed in approaching over lower and open 
ground. 

■■' According to oflBcial and other statements by the Confederates. Richmond was at that time 
entirely at the mercy of the Army of the Potomac, it being defended by only 25.000 men under 
Magruder. who in his report declared tliat if McClellan had massed his force and moved on Rich- 
mond while Lee was beyond the Chickahominy, he might easily have captured it. "His failure 
to do so," said Magruder in his report, 'Ms the best evidence that our wise commander fully 
understood the character of his opponent."' 

" The place of an ancient tavern and summer resort for the inhabitants of Richmond two 
generations before. 

* Page 619. 



1862] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. Q0| 

falling back to the river in disorder, closely pressed by the foe. The appear- 
ance and cheers of the fresh troops encouraged the fugitives, who re-formed, 
checked the alarmed pursuers, and drove them back to the field they had won. 
So ended the battle of Gaines's Mills.' During that night Porter's corps with- 
drew to the right bank of the Chickahominy, destroying the bridges behind 
them. 

McClellan now turned his back upon Richmond, with his face toward the 
James, and gave orders for liis army to move through the White Oak Swamp 
in the direction of Turkey Bend, on that river. Keyes led the way [June 28]. 
Porter followed ; and after these moved a train of 5,000 wagons, laden with 
ammunition, provisions, and baggage, and a drove of 2,500 beef cattle.' So 
well was this movement masked from Lee, that lie had no suspicion of it until 
more than twenty-four hours after it began.' He had observed, in the morning, 
some singular movements of the divisions which remained behind, and some 
skirmishes had taken place, but he supposed ^AlcClellan might be preparing to 
move his forces and give battle in defense of his stores at the White House, 
or, if he retreated, would take the route on the left bank of the Chickahominy, 
by which Johnston came up from Williamsburg.^ But on the night of the 28th 
the amazing fact was disclosed to Lee that a greater portion of the Army of 
the Potomac had departed, not to give battle on the north side of the Chicka- 
hominy, nor to retreat down the Peninsula, but to take a new position on the 
James Piver. Scouts had already informed him that a large portion of the 
supplies at the White House had been removed, and that the remainder, and 
the mansion itself, were then in flames. 

McClellan had full twenty-four hours the start of Lee, yet he found himself 
compelled to struggle for life in that retreat. His rear-guard, under Sumner, 
was struck at Savage's Station, where a severe battle was fought [June 29]. It 
continued until late in the evening, when the Confederates recoiled j and 
before morning [July 1], the whole of McClellan's army was well on its way 
toward the James. Franklin, with a rear-guard, had been left to hold the 
main bridge over White Oak Swamp Creek, and so to cover the withdrawal 
of the army to the high open country of the Malvern Hills ; and at that point 
and at Glendale,' a short distance to the right, severe engagements ensued. 
The battle at the latter place was very sanguinary, in which the Pennsyl- 
vanians xmder McCall suffered much. That leader was captured, and General 
Meade was severely wounded. By the timely arrival of fresh troops under 

' The National loss was about 8,000 men, of whom about 6,000 were killed and wounded. 
The Confederate loss was about 5,000. Porter lost twenty-two siege-guns. 

^ Tlie sick and wounded men, wlio co\ikl not march, were left behind, with surgeons, rations, 
and medical stores. These fell into the hands of tlie Confederate.^, and the men suffered terribly. 
The reason given for this abandonment of the helpless, and the sending away of the ambulances 
empty, was, that so large a number (about 2,500) of wounded and sick men would embarrass 
the army in its flight, .ind its e.=capo might be impossible. 

' All day long Magruder and linger had reported to Lee that the National fortifications on their 
front were as fully manned as usual, and Lee supposed his foe was preparing for an oHensivo 
movement. 

' Page 616. 

' The name f^f an estate. The battle occurred on the property of sevcr.il owners. It i.s some- 
times called the Battle of Frazier's. Farm. 



622 



THE NATION. 



[1862 



Hooker, Meagher, and Taylor, victory was given to the Nationals ; and early 
the next day the Army of the Potomac, united for the tirst time since the 
Chickahominy first divided it,' was in a strong position on Malvern Hills,'' in 
sight of the James River. It was not considered a safe place for the army to 
halt, for it was too far separated from its supplies ; so, on the morning of the 
1st [July, 1862], McClellan went on board the gun-boat Galena, and pro- 
ceeded down the river to " select the final location for the army and its depots." 
This was fixed at Harrison's Bar, a short distance from Malvern Hills. 

Preparations were made on Malvern Hills for a battle. Lee concentrated 
his troops at Glendale for that purpose on the morning of the 1st [July, 1862], 
and resolved, with a heavy line under Jackson, Ewell, Whiting, the Hills, 
Longstreet, Magruder, and Huger, to carry the intrenched camp of the Nationals 
by storm, and " drive the invaders," he said, " into the James." This was 
attempted. A furious battle ensued, in which Porter, Couch, and Kearney 
were the chief leaders of fighting troops on the part of the Nationals, and these 
were assisted by gun-boats in the river. The stiniggle was intense and destruc- 
tive, and did not cease until almost nine o'clock in the evening, when the Con- 
federates were driven to the shelter of the ravines and swamps, utterly broken 
and despairing. The victory for the Nationals was decisive, and the Union 
leaders expected to follow it up, pursue Lee's shattered columns, and enter 
Richmond within twenty-four hours, when they were overwhelmed with 
disappointment by an order from the Commander-in-Chief (who had been 
on the Galena most of the day) for the victorious army to "fall back 

still farther " to Harrison's Landing.' 
This seemed like snatching the palm of 
victory from the hand just opened to 
receive it, but it was obeyed, and on the 
evening of the 3d of July the Array of 
the Potomac, broken and disheartened, 
was resting on the James River, and on 
the 8th what was left of Lee's Army of 
Northern Virginia was behind the de- 
fenses of Richmond.^ 

Very grievous was the disap]ioint- 
ment of the loj'al people when they heard 
of this disastrous result of the campaign 




THE IIAiailSUX MANSION. 



against Richmond, and most astounding to the government was the assurance of 



1 Page 61 G. 

" These form a high rolling plnteaii, sloping toward Riehniond from bold banks toward the 
river, and botmdod by deep ravines, making an excellent defensive position. 

' McClellan's order prodnced consternation and great dissatisfaction among the officers and men. 
The veteran General Kearney was very indignant, and in tlie presence of several officers said: 
"I, Philip Kearney, an old soldier, enter my solemn protest against this order for a retreat. We 
ought, instead of retreating, to follow up the enemy and take Richmond ; and, in full view of all 
the responsibilities of such a declaration, I say to you all, such an order can only be prompted by 
cowardice or treason." 

* The aggregate loss of the National army during the seven da.ys' contest before Richmond, or 
from the battle near Mechanicsville [May 23] until the posting of lihe army at Harrison's Bar, was 



1862.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. g23 

the commander of the Army of the Potomac, three days after the battle on 
Malvern Hills, that he had not " over 50,000 men left, with their colors l" 
Within the space of .a hundred days 160,000 men had gone to the Peninsula. 
What had become of the vast remainder? The anxious President hastened to 
the head-quarters of McClellan for an answer to that question, for the latter 
was now calling for more troops, to enable him to " cajiture Richmond and put 
an end to the Rebellion." The President found nearly 40,000 more men there 
than the general had reported, and yet 75,000 were missing. He could get no 
satisfactory statement from McClellan,' and he found that several of the corps 
commanders had lost confidence in the chief In view of this fxct, the con- 
centration of Confederate troops in the direction of Washington, and the 
assurance of McClellan that his army was not strong enough to capture Rich- 
mond by " one hundred thousand men, more rather than less," it was thought 
advisable by the President to withdraw that army from the Peninsula and 
concentrate it in front of the Xational capital. Orders were given accord- 
ingly. McClellan was opposed to the measure, and at once took steps to 
defeat it. 

Here we will leave the Army of the Potomac for a little while, and observe 
events nearer the National capital, with which its movements were intimately 
connected. To give more efficiency to the troops covering Washington, they 
were formed into an organization called the Army of Virginia, and placed 
under the command of Major-General John Pope, who . was called from the 
West" for that purpose. The new array was arranged in three corps, com- 
manded respectively by Major-Generals McDowell, Banks, and' SigeL^ In 
addition to these, a force under General S. D. Sturgis was in process of forma- 
tion at Alexandria; and the troops in and around Washington were placed 
under Pope's command. He also had about five thousand cavalry. His army 
for field-service, at the close of June, numbered between forty and fifty 
thousand effective meii. He wrote to McClellan, cordiallj" oflfering his co-opera- 
tion with him, and asking for suggestions. The cold and vague answer 
assured Pope that he need not expect any useful co-working with the com- 
mander of the Army of the Potomac. 

Immediately after the retreat of McClellan to Harrison's Landing,^ the con- 
spirators formed plans for the cajature of Washington City ; and when, at the 
close of July, Ilallock' ordered the Army of the Potomac to prepare to move 

reported by McClellan at 1,582 killed, 7,709 wounded, and 5.598 missing, making a, total of 15,249. 
Lee's loss was never reported. He declared that he captured 10,000 prisoners, and took 52 pieces 
of cannon and 35.000 small arms. 

• After his return to Washington, the President wrote to McClellan [.luly 13], asking him for 
an account of the missing numbers. He reported 88,665 "present aijd fit for duty;" absent by 
authority, 34,472; absent without authority, 3,778; sick, 16,665, making a total of 143,580. The 
government was much disturbed by one item in this report, namely, that over 34,000 men, or 
more than three-fifths of the entire number of the army which he had reported on the 3d, were 
absent on furloughs granted by permission of the commanding general, when he was continually 
calling for re-enforcements and holding the government responsible for the weakness of his army. 
The President said to liim : " If you had these men with you. 3'ou could go uito Richmond in the 
next three days." 

» Page 600. ' Page 572. • ' Page 622. 

' Halleck was now acting General-in-Chief. See page 604. 



624 THE NATION. [1862. 

to the front of the National capital, and join Pope in its defense, Lee moved 
with energy to execute the orders of liis masters, before the junction of the 
two Union armies could be effected. Satisfied that no furtlier movements 
against Richmond were then contemplated, he was left free to act in full force. 
In the plan of the conspirators was the e.xpulsion of the National troops from 
the soil of Slave-labor States, the invasion and plunder of Ohio and Pennsyl- 
vania, and the dictation of terms of peace at Cincinnati and Philadelphia ; and 
the people of the " Confederate States " were made to expect a speedy vision 
of Davis in the chair of Dictatorship at Washington City. Those dreams 
were almost realized before the heats of summer had departed. 

Pope moved vigorously toward the advancing Confederates, in the direc- 
tion of Richinond, at the middle of July, and some of his cavalry destroyed 
railway-tracks and bridges within thirty-five miles of the Confederate cajjital. 
Meanwhile a lieavy force under " Stonewall " Jackson had gathered at Gor- 
<lonsville, and Pope's main army was near Culpepper Court-House, between 
the Rappahannock and Rajsid Anna' Rivers. They each advanced in force, 
and at the foot of Cedar, or Slaughter ]Mountain, a few miles west of Culpep- 
per Court-House, they had a severe battle on the 9th of August. . The Nation- 
als were under the general command of Banks, ably assisted by Generals 
Crawford, Geary, Auger, and others. They were finally pressed back by 
overwhelming numbers and pursued, when the Confederates were checked by 
the timely arrival of Ricketts' division of McDowell's corps. The strife had 
been one of the most desperate of the war, a part of it hand to hand in the 
darkness, and under a pall of smoke that obscured the moon." Two days 
afterward Jackson retreated precipitately to Gordonsville, leaving some of his 
dead unburied. He was chased, but a sudden rise of the Rapid Anna placed a 
barrier between the p\irsuers and the pursued. Both parties claimed the palm 
of victory in the battle of Cedar Mountain. 

Soon after this conflict Pope and Jackson were both re-enforced. The 
former was joined by troops under Burnside, from North Carolina,' and others 
under Stevens, from the coast of South Carolina ; and the latter was strengtli- 
ened by divisions under Longstreet, some troops under Hood, and Stuart's 
cavalry. Pope moved to the Rapid Anna, with the intention of holding that 
position until the arri\'al of the Army of the Potomac in his rear ; but before 
that event occurred, he was compelled to fall back by the advance of Lee i:i 
crushing force. He i-etired behind the forks of the Rappahannock, closely pu:- 

' The name of this river lias generally been spelled Rapidan. It is one of tliree rivers iti tluit 
portion of Virginia bearing the name of Anna — namely, tlie Rapid Anna, Nortli Anna, and .South 
Anna. The lirst is the eliief tributary of the Rappahannock, and tlie two latter form tlie Pannm- 
key River. 

" General Crawford's brigade came out of that terrible figlit a mere remnant. Some regiments 
lost half their number. General Geary, with Pennsylvania and Ohio troops, made desperate 
charges, and was severely wounded. General Auger was also wonnded. and General Price was 
made prisoner. Tlie National loss was about two thousand in killed and wounded, and that of 
tlie Confederates about the same. 

" Page 590. These had first gone to the Peninsula to aid McClcUan. and were the first of the 
troops tiicre who promptly obeyed the summons of tlio Army of the Potomac to the defense of 
Washington Citv. 



18C2.J 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



625 



sued by Lee's cavalry, and along the line of that river, above Fredericksburg, 
there was an artillery duel for two days [August 20 and 21, 1862]. Lee found 
that he could not force a passage of that stream, so he moved toward the 
mountains, for the purpose of flanking the Xationals. Pope made skillful and 
energetic efforts to thwart the design of his enemy, but the danger became 
greater every hour. Pope's force had been greatly weakened by fighting and 
marching, and the Armj' of the Potomac was coming to his relief so tardily, 
that he almost despaired of its arrival in time to be useful.' 

The National capital was now, late in August, in great peril. Pope, 
encouraged by the belief that McClellan's fresh troops, which had been resting 
for a month, would almost immediately re-enforce him, massed his army near 
Rappahannock Station [Aug. 2;3, 1 862], for the purpose of foiling upon a heavy 
flanking force. Movements to this end were made. Franklin, of the Army of 
the Potomac, had lately arrived with troo])s, and Ileintzelman and Porter, of 
the same army, were also near, so that, on the 25th, Pope's army, and its re-en- 
forcements at hand, with their backs on Washington and their faces to the foe, 
were about si.xty thousand strong, but still somewhat scattered. On that day 
" Stonewall Jackson," leading the great flank movement, crossed the Rappa- 
hannock, and with his ac- 
customed celerity made 
his way over the Bull's 
Run ^Mountains at Tho- 
roughfare Gap. At twi- 
light on the 26th he was 
on the railway in Pojie's 
rear, and between hi^^ 
army and Washington 
City. The Confederate 
cavalry swept ovep tht 
country in the direction 
of Washington, as far a> 
Fairfax Court-IIouse and 
Centreville, and Jackson, 
taking possession in strong force of Manassas Junction, '^ awaite<l the arrival of 
an approaching heavy column xnider Longstreet. 

Both armies were now in a critical situation. Pope took vigorous measures 




THOROUGHFARE GAP. 



' At the close of July, Halleek ordered preparations for the removal of the Army of the Poto- 
mac from the Peninsula, and on the Hd of August he issued a positive order for it to move at once. 
McClellan protested. He told his government that the force under Pope was " not necessary to 
maintain a strict defensive in front of Washington and Harper's Ferry ;" instructed his 
superiors that the " true defense of Washington was on the banks of the James, where the fate 
of the Union was to be decided;" and then awaited further orders. Halleek repeated his com- 
mand, and urged McClellan to use all possible diligence in effecting the departure of hi.s troops. 
After the battle of Cedar Mountain he told him there '• must be no further delay " in his move- 
ments, for Washington was m danger. It was twenty days after McClellan received orders to 
transfer his army to Aquia Creek, on the Potomac, before they were executed, and that array 
failed to give Pope timely and sufRcieut aid. 

^ Pages 567 and 572. 

4.0 



g26 THE NATION. [18C2. 

for capturing Jackson, or at the least preventing the junction of his and Long- 
street's forces. His plans, experts say, were well chosen, and, had they been 
as well executed by all of his subordinates, success must have crowned his 
efforts. But they were not, and disaster was the consequence. Longstreet, 
with the van of Lee's army, joined Jackson [August 29] near Groveton, not 
far from the Bull's Run battle-ground, and there the combined forces fought 
the whole of Pope's army, excepting Banks's command, then at Bristow's Sta- 
tion. The battle was very severe, but not decisive. The loss was about seven 




MONUMENT AND BATTLE-GROUNI) NEAR GKOTETON.' 

thousand on each side. Prudence counseled a retreat for Pope, but, still 
expecting immediate re-enforcements, he prepared for a renewal of the strug- 
gle in the morning. When morning came he was assured of no further aid 
from McClellan,' and he had then no alternative. He must fight. He prepared 
for battle. A movement of the enemy deceived him, and supposing Lee to be 
retreating, he ordered a pursuit. On a portion of the Bull's Run battle-ground, 
near Groveton, his advance was assailed [August 30] by a heavy force in 
ambush. A sanguinary conflict ensued, in which the Nationals were defeated 
and driven across Bull's Run by way of the Stone Bridge.' At Centreville 
they were joined by the corps of Franklin and Sumner. Lee was not disposed 
to attack them there, so he sent Jackson [August 31], with his own and Ewell's 
divisions, to make another flank movement. This brought on another battle on 



' After the war, Union soldiers, stationed near this battle-ground, erected a monument of the 
eand-stone of the vicinitj', on the field of strife, to the memory of their comrades. The above 
picture shows the monument and the battle-field, looking toward Manassas Junction. 

" Pope had received no re-enforcements or supplies since tlie 2Gth. He confidently expected 
rations and forage from McClellan, who was at Alexandria, and had been ordered to supply them, 
but on the morning of the 30th, when it was too late to retreat and perilous to stand still, Pope 
received information tliat supplies would be "loaded into available wagons and cars," so soon as 
he should send a cavalry escort for the train ! — a thing utterly impossible. Meanwhile the cor|is 
of Sumner and Franklin, of McClellan's command, which might on tliat day have secured victory 
for the Nationals, were not permitted to go witliin supporting distance of the struggling army 
until tlie next dav, when Pope, for want of support, had lost every advantage. 
' Page 569. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



62^ 




the 1st of September, at Chantilly, not far from Fairfax Court-House, in which 
Generals Kearney and Stevens were shot dead, and many gallant officers and men 
were mortally wounded.' The Nationals 
held the field that night, and on the fol- 
lowing day [Sept. 2] fell back within the 
fortifications around Washington City.' 
Thus eijded Pope's campaign in Virginia, 
and also his military career in the East. 
He had labored hard under many difficul- 
ties, and he bitterly complained of a lack 
of co-operation with him, in his later 
struggles, by McClellan and some of his 
subordinates.' 

The Republic now seemed to be in 
great danger, and the loyal people were 
very anxious. Already the President, 
by a call on the 1 st of June, had drawn 
forty thousand men for three months 
from New England. Already the loyal 

governors of eighteen States, acting under the conviction of a large portion of 
their constituents, who were evidently losing confidence in the leader of the 
Army of the Potomac, had requested the President to call for three hundred 
thousand volunteers "for the war,'" and he had complied [July 1] ; and when 
Pope ^vas struggling with Jackson near the Rapid Anna, he called [August 
9th] for three hundred thousand men for nine months, with the understanding 
that an equal number of men would be drafted from the great body of the 
citizens who were over eighteen and less than forty-five years of age, if they 
did not appear as volunteers. These calls met with hearty responses, for the 
loyal people had determined to save the Republic. Thousands of volunteers 
were now flocking to the standard of their country. The conspirators were 
alarmed, and Lee was instructed to take advantage of the reverses to the 
National arms, and act boldly, vigorously, and even desperately, if necessary, 
in an attempt to capture Washington City. He was re-enforced by the divi- 



PHIMP KEARyETT. 



' The National loss in Pope's campaign in Virginia, from the battle of Cedar Mountain to that 
of Chantilly, was never offtciaUy reported in fnll. Careful estimates make it (including an 
immense number of stragglers who wore returned to their regiments) 30,000. Lee's loss was 
probably about 15,000. 

' See map on page 572. 

' During the last few days in which the Army of Virginia was struggling for life, the authori- 
ties at Washington, by commands and assistance, made every effort to induce McClellan to aid 
Pope, but in vain. And when, on the 29th of August, Halleck telegraphed to McClellan, saying, 
"I want Franklin's corps to go far enough to find out something about the enemy," the latter 
telegraphed to the President, saying: — "I am clear that one of two courses should be adopted: 
First, to concentrate all our available forces to open communication with Pope. Second, to leave 
Pope to get out of hvi scrape, and at once use all our means to make the capital safe." 

' Clamors began to arise on every side. Men of influence, whose faith in the " young Napo- 
leon," as McClellan was fondly called, had been unbounded, now shook their heads doubtingly. 
They clearly perceived that if 150,000 to 200.000 men could not make more headway in the work 
of crushing the rebellion than they had done under his leadership, during full ten months, more 
men must be called to the field at once, and put under a more efficient leader, or all would be lost. 



628 



THE NATION. 



[1862 



sion of D. II. Hill, and tlicii, operating upon the original plan of General Jolin- 
ston, of pushing into Maryland and getting in the rear of Washington,' lie 
crossed tlio Potomac with almost Iiis entire force by the 7th of September, with 
the belief that thousands of the citizens of Maryland would join his standard." 
The Army of Virginia had now disappeared as a separate organization, and, 
became a part of the Army of the Potomac, with McClellan still at its head. 
When the latter was informed of Lee's movement into Maryland, he left Gene- 
ral Banks in command in Washington City, and with a greater part of his 
army, nearly 90,000 in number, he went in pursuit. He moved very cautiously, 
but was soon advised that Lee's plan was to take possession of Harj^er's Ferry, 
and open communication with Richmond by way of the Shenaiuloali Valley ; 
and meanwhile to draw McClellan far toward the Susquehanna, and, turning 
suddenly upon him, defeat hini and march upon Washington.^ McClellan fol- 
lowed him through Frederick and over South Mountain into tlie Antietam 
Valley. At Turner's Gap, on the South Mountain, a portion of the National 
army, led byBumside, had a severe light [September 14] with a part of Lee's, 
and at the same time another portion, under FranMin, was striving to force its 

way over the same 
range of hills at Cramp- 
ton's Gap, nearer Har- 
per's Ferry. In the 
battle on South 3Ioun- 
tain, the gallant Gene- 
ral Reno was killed.'' 
The strife ceased at 
evening, and the Na- 
tionals were preparcil 
to renew it in the morn- 
ing. During the night 
the Confederates with- 
drew from the emi- 
nence, and Lee concen- 
trated his forces nearthe 
Antietam Creek, in the 
vicinity of Sharpsburg. 




BATTLE-FIELU ON SOUTH MOUNTAIN.' 



1 Page 584. 

' Lee issued a proclamation [Sept. 8], and raised the standard of revolt. He called npon the 
Marylanders to join his invading liost, assnring tliem that lie had come to assist tliem in tlirow- 
ing off "the foreign yoke" they were compelled to bear, and to "restore the independence and 
sovereignty of tlieir State." He discoursed as fluently of the "outrages" inflicted by their gen- 
erous government, as Jefferson Davis, his coadjutor in the monstrous crime, ever did, but he soou 
found, to liis shame and confusion, that the few disloyal Marylanders who had joined his army in 
Virginia did not represent tlie great mass of tho people of that State. He lost more by desertion 
than he gained by recruits in Maryland. 

° McClellan's advance, on entering Frederick, found a copy of Lee's general order, issued on 
the 9th, which revealed his plan. 

' McClellan reported his loss in this engagement at 1,568, of whom 312 were killed. The 
Confederates lost about the same nmnber in killed and wounded, and 1.500 prisoners. 

' This shows the part of the battle-field where General Reno was killed. The stone near the 



ISG2.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. g29 

All eyes were now turned toward Harper's Ftiiy, then in command of 
Colonel D. H. Miles, a Marylander. Franklin fought his way over the moun- 
tain at Crampton's Pass into Pleasant Valley, and on the evening of the 1-lth 
of September he was within six miles of Harper's Feny, then strongly invested 
by troops under " Stonewall Jackson." They had possession of Maryland and 
Loudon Heights, which completely commanded that post. Its salvation from 
capture depended iipon the ability of the garrison to hold out until relief 
should come. But Miles, either incompetent or disloyal, sent off his cavalry, 
two thousand strong, on the night of the 1-ttli, and surrendered to Jackson 
the next morning, before the victorious Franklin could make his way thither.' 

McClellan followed the Confederates in their flight from South Mountain on 
the morning of the 15th [Sept., 1SG2], but was so impressed with the idea that 
they were on his front in overwhelming numbers, that he deferred an attack 
until the next day. Tlie Confederates were posted along tlie right bank of the 
Antietam, and the Nationals on its left; and on the morning of the 16th the 
former opened artillery upon the latter. It was past noon before IMcClellan 
was read}-, there being a lack of ammunition and rations, for whicli he waited. 
Finally, Hooker crossed the Antietam on the extreme left of the Confederates, 
and other troops were sent over during the night. Hooker's force liad a sh.'.rp 
and successful fight, and rested on tlieir arms that niglit ; and both armies pre- 
pared for a decisive struggle in the morning. Hooker opened it at dawn on 
the Confederate left, and with varying fortunes the battle raged on that wing 
and along the center until late in the afternoon. Meanwhile the National left, 
under Burnside, had been contending with the Confederate right under Long- 
street, with varied success ; and when darkness fell upon tlie scene that night, 
both armies, sorely smitten, rested where for twelve or fourteen hours tliey 
had contended, the advantage being with the Nationals." 

The Confederates were now in a perilous position. Leo could not easily 
call re-cnforcements to his aid, his supplies were nearly exhausted, and his 
army was terribly shattered and disorganized. McClellan, on the contrary, 
had fourteen thousand fresh troops near, and these joined him the next morn- 
ing. It would have been an easy matter, it seems, to have captured the whole 
of Lee's army by a vigorous movement. Prudential considerations restrained 
McClellan,' and when he was ready to move on his foe, thirty-six hours after 
the battle [Sept. 1 8], Lee, with his shattered legions, were behind strong bat- 
teries on the Virginia side of the Potomac, whither they had fled under the 

figure with a cane marks tlio spot where he fell. The chestnut tree was scarred bj' bullets when 
the writer visited the field, in tlie autumn of 186G. 

' The number of men surrendered was 11,583, most of them new levies. The spoils were 73 
cannon, 13,000 small arms, 200 wagons, and a large quantity of supplies. 

" In this battle McClellan's efifective force was ST.OOd, and Lee's G0,000. McClellan reported 
his entire loss at 12.409 men, of whom 2.010 were killed. Among the latter was General J. K. 
F. Mansfield, and General Richardson was mortally wounded. Lee's loss was probably somewhat 
larger. Six thousand of his men were made prisoners, and the spoils were 15,000 small arms, 13 
cannon, and 39 battle-flags. 

' In his report he said : — " Virginia was lost, AVashington menaced, Maryland invaded — the 
National cause could afford no risks of defeat." He therefbre hesitated, and in opposition to the 
advice of Franklin and others, deferred a renewal of the battle until Lee had placed the Poto- 
mac between the two armies. 



630 



THE NATION. 



[1862. 



cover of darkness the night before. A feeble attempt to follow was made, and 
quickly abandoned [Sept. 19], when Lee moved leisurely up the Shenandoah 
Valley, and JMcClellan took possession of Harper's Ferry. He now called for 
re-enforcements and supplies, and ten days after the battle, the government 
and the loyal people, who hourly expected the announcement that the Army 
of the Potomac was in swift pursuit of Lee's broken columns, were sadly dis- 
appointed by McClellan's declaration that he intended to hold his army where 
it was, and " attack the enemy should he attempt to recross into Maryland." 
The President hastened to McClellan's head-quarters [Oct. 1], and there became 




VIEW OF THE AKTIETAM EATTLE-GEOUXD. ' 



so well satisfied that the army was competent to move at once in pursuit of 
Lee, that he instructed its leader to cross the Potomac immediately for that 
purpose. Twenty days were spent in correspondence between the commander 
of the Army of the Potomac and the National authorities before that order 
was obeyed, during which time the beautiful October weather, when the roads 
were good in Virginia, had passed by, and Lee's army had become thoroughly 
recruited, strengthened, and supplied, and his communication with Richmond 
was re-established. On the 2d of November McClellan announced that his 



' Tliis was the appearance of tliat portion of the battle-ground where the stnigrgle was most 
severe, on the Confederate left, as it appeared when the author sketched it, early in October, 
186';. 'The five birds seen it^ the distance are over the spot where Mansfield was killed. The 
Antietnm Treok is seen in the foreground. The view is from near the house of Mr. Pry, where 
McClellan had his head-quarters. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



631 



whole army was once more in Virginia, prepared to move southward, on the 
east side of the Bhie Ridge, instead of pursuing Lee up the Shenandoah Val- 
ley, on the western side. The faith of the government and of the loyal people 
in McClellan's ability or disposition to achieve a victory by such movement 
was now e.\hausted, and on the 5th of November he was relieved of command, 
and General Burnside was put in his place. Thus ended McClellan's unsuccess- 
ful military career. 

Burnside now reorganized the Army of the Potomac (then numbering about 
one hundred and twenty thousand men) and changed the plan of operations, 
by which the capture of Richmond, rather than the immediate destruction of 
Lee's army, was the objective. He made Aquia Creek, on the Potomac, his 
base of supplies, and took jiosition at Fi-edericksburg, from which he intended 
to advance. Before he had accomplished that movement and was prepared to 
cross the Rappahannock, Lee had occupied the heights in rear of Fredericks- 
burg, in full force, full eighty thousand strong. The bridges were destroyed, 
and Burnside could pass the river only on pontoons or floating bridges. These 
were constructed, and under cover of a heavy fire of artillery from Stafford 
Heights, the National columns crossed over. A sanguinary battle ensued on the 
13th of December. Ter- 
rible was the roar of 
three hundred Confede- 
rate cannon and half 
that number of Na- 
tional guns. The city 
was battered and fired. 
The Nationals were re- 
pulsed.' Two days 
more [December 14- 
15] they remained on 
the city side of the 
river, and then with- 
drew under cover of 
the darkness, and Lee 
took possession of Fred- 
ericksburg. Burnside 
was soon afterward 
superseded in com- 
mand [January 26, 1863] by General Joseph Hooker. Here we will leave the 
Army of the Potomac, in winter quarters on the Rappahannock, and consider 
the stirring events in the great Valley of the Mississippi. 

"We left the Lower Mississippi, from its mouth to New Orleans, in posses- 




SCENE IN FREDEHICKSBURG ON THE MORNING OF THE 12TH. 



' The National loss was about 15,000 men. A large number of the wounded (seventy per 
cent.) soon rejoined the army, their hurts being slight. Tliere -svere 3,234 of the total loss 
reported "missing," many of whom soon returned, so that the absohite loss to the army, other 
than temporary, was not very large. The Confederate loss was probably about 7,000. 



G32 



THE NATION'. 



[1S62. 



sioii of the National forces under Butler and Farragut' at the beginning of the 
summer of 1862, and at the same time the river was held by the same power 
from Memphis to St. Louis. Southern Tennessee and Northern Alabama and 
Mississippi were also held by the Nationals, and the Confederate army, driven 
from Corinth, was at Tujaelo.' At about this time a Kentuckian, named John 
H. Jlorgan, and a notorious leader of a guerrilla band who had penetrated his 
native State from East Tennessee, was raiding tlirough that commonwealth, 
prejjaratory to the advent, under E. Kirby Smith, of an invading force of 
Confederates, the advance of an army under General Bragg. Another bold 
leader of Confederate liorscmen was N. B. Forrest, who swept through Ten- 
nessee in various directions, and finally, at the middle of July, threatened 




FORTIFICATIONS OP THE STATE-HOtlSE AT NASHVILLE/ 

Nashville, tlien in command of General Negley, who had caused fortifications 
to be built at points around the city, and breastworks to be thrown up around 
the State capitol in its midst. In the mean time Bragg was moving through 
the State eastward of Nashville, toward Kentucky, while General Buell was 
moving in the same direction, on a nearly j)arallel line, to foil his intentions. 

General E. Kirby Sinitli, with a considerable force, entered Kentucky from 
East Tennessee, and pushed on in the direction of Frankfort, the capital of the 



' Page 611. ' Page 604. 

' This is a view of the breastworks at one of the fronts of the capitol, seen near the three 
smaller figures, with a portion of tlie city, tlie Cumberland River, and the country around, as they 
appeared when sketched by the writer in May, 1S(;6. 



1362.] 



L I X C L X ' S A D M I X I S T R A T 1 X. 



C33 



State. He fought a severe battle [August 30, 1862] with Union troops under 
General M. D. Manson, near Richmond, where General Nelson' took command. 
The Nationals were routed and scattered, and Smith passed on to Lexington. 
The aflVighted Legislature of Kentucky, then in session at Frankfort, fled to 
Louisville. The secessionists of that region warmly welcomed the invader, 
and the conqueror pushed vigorously toward the Ohio, with the intention of 
capturing and plundering Cincinnati. He was unexpectedly confronted there 
by strong fortifications constructed and a large force collected on the southern 
side of the Ohio, under the direction of the energetic General Lewis Wallace. 
By these the career of the invader was checked, the city was saved, and Wal- 
lace received the thanks of the authorities of Cincinnati and of the Legislature 
of Oliio, for " the promptness, energy, and skill exhibited by him in organizing 
the forces and planning the defenses " which saved the soil of that State from 
invasion.'' Foiled in this atteni]>t. Smith turnec^ his face toward Louisville. 
He captured Frankfort,' and tliere awaited the arrival of Bragg, who for almost 
three weeks had been moving northward from Chattanooga, with over forty 
regiments of all arms and forty cannon. His destination was Louisville. 

Bragg crossed the Cumberland River at Cai'thage, and entered Kentucky 
on'the 5th of September, his advance, eight thousand strong, pushing toward 
the railway between Nashville and Louisville. At Mumfordsville, on that 
railway, a National force under Colo- 
nel T. J. Wilder fought [September 14] 
some of the troops of the traitor Buck- 
ner for five hours, and repulsed them. 
Two days afterward, a strong Confede- 
rate force under General Polk ajjpeared, 
and, after another severe battle [Sep- 
tember 16], Wilder was compelled to 
surrender. Bragg was elated by this 
event. Buell, then at Bowling Green, 
had sent no relief to Wilder, and he 
seemed to be so exceedingly tardy, that 
the Confederate leader had no doubt of 
an easy march upon Louisville. On the 
1st of October he formed a junction 
with Kirby Smith's troops at Frank- 
fort, and his marauding bands were out plundering the people in all ilirec- 
tions.* Then .Buell, who had kept abreast of Bragg, turned upon the latter. 




DOX CARLOS BUELL. 



' Page 577. 

' AYallace was satisfied that nothing but tlie most vigorous measures would save the city. 
He declared martial law, and ordered the citizens, imder the direction of the Mayor, to assemble 
an liour afterward, in convenient public places, to be organized for work on intrenchments on the 
south side of the river. "The willing," he said, "shaU be properly credited, the unwUlmg 
promptly visited. The principle adopted is : citizens for labor — soldiers for the battle." 

' There Bragg performed the farce of making a weak citizen, named Hawes, "Provisional 
Governor of Kentucky." 

* On the 1 5th of September Bragg issued a proclamation to the inhabitants of Kentucky, assu- 
ring them that he came as their " liberaior from the tyranny of a despotic ruler." He toH, them 



(534 THE NATION. [1862. 

and iioar Perryville they had a severe battle on the 8th [October, 1862], 
in -which the Confederates were so roughly handled that they fled during 
the night, and made their way as rapidly as possible toward East Tennessee.' 
Bragg pretended that he expected a general uprising in Kentucky in favor 
of the Confederate cause on his arrival, and was greatly disappointed. His 
invasion proved a disaster rather than a benefit. It might have proved utterly 
ruinous had the invaders been vigorously pursued in their retreat, but General 
Buell, like General MeClellan, was too cautious to secure all of the advantages 
of a victory. The government perceived this, and at the close of October 
relieved him of his command, and gave it to General Rosecrans.-* Then the 
title of his large force, called the Army of the Ohio, Avas changed to that of 
the Army of the Cumberland. 

Simultaneously with the movement of Bragg toward Kentucky, was an 
advance of Generals Tan Durn and Price (who had been left in Mississippi) 
toward Tennessee ; and strong bands of Confederates, mider different leaders, 
were raiding through the western portion of that State, all working in aid of 
Bragg's movement. Rosecrans was then at the head of the Army of the 
Mississippi, whose duty was to hold the region in Northern Mississippi and 
Alabama which the capture of Corinth' and the operations of Mitchel^ Iwd 
secured to the Nationals. He was at Tuscumbia when word came from Grant 
that danger was gathering west of him. He moved his main force toward 
Corinth, when Price advanced to luka Sjjrings,' and captured a large amount 
of National property there. 

General Grant, in chief command in tliat region, had watched these move- 
ments very vigilantly, and now he sent a force under General Ord to co- 
operate with Rosecrans against Price. Before Ord's arrival, Rosecrans, 
with a greatly infei-ior force, attacked Price [September 1 9], and, in a severe 
battle near the village of luka Springs, the Confederates were beaten.* 

he must have supplies for his army, but that tliey should be fairly paid for. He had neither 
means nor intention to do so. He plundered the people, without inquiring whether they 
were his friends or foes ; and he started to flee from the State with a wagon train of stolen sup- 
plies forty miles in length, but so fearful was he of capture that he left a large portion of his 
plunder beliind. In truth, the invasion of Kentucky by Kirby Smith and Braxton Bragg was 
nothing but a great plimdering raid, and the wealth of that State and of Southern Indiana and 
Ohio was tiie ciiief object of their march from the Tennessee toward the Ohio River. 

' Buell's entire army numbered at this time about 100,000 men. Bragg's force in Kentucky 
was about 65,000. Only portions of each army were in the battle near Pcrry\'ille. Buell reported 
that his force which advanced on Bragg was 58,000 strong, of whom 22,000 were raw troops. 
He reported his loss in the battle at 4,348, of whom 91 B were killed. Among the slain were 
Generals Jackson and Terrell. The Confederate loss is supposed to have been nearly the same. 
Bragg claimed to have captured Ij guns and 400 prisoners. 

■■'' Page 563. * Page GO-t. * Page 601. 

' This is a celebrated summer resort for the people in the Gulf region. It is on the Memphis 
and Charleston railway, a few miles east of Corinth. 

° Tlie disparity of numbers in this engagement was very great. "I say boldly," reported 
General Hamilton, on tlie 23d of September, "that a force of not more than 2.800 met and con- 
fronted a rebel force of 11,000, on a field chosen by Price, and a position naturally very strong." 
Only a small portion of Rosecrans's force was engaged, and these won the victory, but with fearful 
loss to the few National regiments in the flght. The men of the 11th Ohio Battery suffered 
dreddfuUy. Seventy-two were slain or wounded, and all the horses were killed before the guns 
were abandoned. The appearance of their burial-place on the battle-field, when the writer visited 
the spot, in the spring of 1806, is seen in the engraving on the next page. Rosecrans reported his. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



635 



They fled southward, pursued some distance by the victors, and at Ripley, in 
Mississippi, the forces of Van Dorn and Price were united. Then they moved 
upon Corinth, now occu- ^_ _^ 

pied by Rosecrans, and 
there, on the 3d and 4th 
of October [1862], a san- 
guinary battle was fought, 
in which both parties dis- 
played the greatest valor. 
The Nationals were be- 
hind the fortifications, 
and had some advantage 
in that respect.' The 
struggle was fearful, and 
ended in the repulse of 
the assailants, who fled 
southward, vigorously 
pursued as far as Ripley." 

The repulse of the Confederates at Corinth was followed by brief repose 
in the department over which General Grant had chief command. But there 
were stirring scenes lower down the Mississippi River. The hills about the 
city of Vicksburg had been covered with fortifications, and the capture of this 
point, and the works at Port Hudson below, which constituted the only for- 
midable obstructions to a free navigation of the river, was now an object 
toward which military movements in the Southwest were tending. Curtis, 
whom we left, after the battle of Pea Ridge, marching eastward,' was making 
liis way toward Helena for that purpose, and the forces under Butler and 
Farragut were at work for the same end. So early as the 7th of May 
[1862], Baton Rouge, the capital of Louisiana, bad been captured, and Far- 




GRAVES OF THE ELEVENTH OHIO BATTERY-MEN. 



loss in this battle at 7 82, of -whom 1 44 were killed. He estimated the Confederate loss at 1,438. He 
captured from them 1.629 small arms and 13.000 rounds of ammunition and other war materials. 
' The fortifications thrown «p aroimd Corintli b_v the Confederates had been strengthened by 
the Nationals and new batteries constructed. At one of these, called Fort 
Robinet, the struggle was very severe. In four lines Te.xans and Missis- 
sippians approached to assail it, in the face of a terrible storm of grape and 
canister shot. They reached the ditch, paused for a moment, and then, with 
a brave leader (Colonel Rogers) bearing the new Confederate flag* in his 
hand, they attempted to scale the parapet, when the concealed Nationals 
behind suddenly arose, and poured murderous volleys of bullets upon them 
that swept them down by scores. 

'^ In this retreat troops under General Ord had a severe battle at Davis's 
Bridge, on the Hatehee River, with a part of Van Dorn's column, in which 
the Union general was severely wounded. Rosecrans reported his loss in 
the battle at Corinth and in the pursuit at 2,350, of whom 315 were killed. 
, J, J He estimated the Confederate loss, including 2,248 prisoners, at a little more 

!p than 9,000. Among the trophies were fourteen flags, two guns, and 3,363 

small arms. Rosecrans reported that, according to Confederate authority, 
they had 38,000 men in the battle, and that his own force was less than 20,000. 
= Page 592. 




CONFEDEEATK FLAG.' 



* By a recent Act of the Confederate " Con? 
had been Bupertseded by a white flag, the stars oi 



S9," the "Stars anil Bars" of the first Confederate flag [page 555] 
I blue field arranged in the form of a cross. 



636 



THE NATION. 



[1SU2. 




DAVID G. FARRAGUT. 



ragut's vessels Avent up to Yicksburg and exchanged greetings with others 
that came down from Memphis. Vicksburg was attacked on the 26th of 

June, and Farragut, with his flag-ship 
(Hartford) and other vessels, ran by 
and abo\e it. He besieged Yicksburg, 
and attempted to cut a canal across the 
peninsula in front of it, so as to avoid 
the city and its fortifications altogether. 
But these operatimis failed, and the 
fleet went down the river. Not long 
afterward the Kational troops at Baton 
Rouge, under General Williams, were 
assailed [August 5, 1SG2] by Confede- 
rates under Breckinridge. Williams 
was killed, but the Confederates were 
repulsed,' and this result was followed 
by the destruction of the formidable 
Confederate ram Arkansas'' [August 6] 
by the Essex, Captain Porter, and two other gun-boats. Then Porter went 
up the river to rconnoiter, and on the 7th of September lie had a sharp fight 
M'ith the growing batteries at Port Hudson. 

At the begiiniing of September General Butler was satisfied that the Con- 
federates had abandoned all idea of attempting to retake New Orleans, so he 
sent out some aggressive expeditions. The most importartt of these was for 
the purpose of " repossessing " the rich La Fourche district of Louisiana. The 
command of it was intrusted to General Godfrey Weitzel. He soon accom- 
plished "the task, after a sharp engagement [October 2'('] near Labadieville, in 
which he lost eighteen killed and seventy-four wounded, and captured two 
hundred and sixty-eight prisoners. A large portion of Louisiana, bordering on 
the western shore of the Mississippi, was lirought under the National control 
before the close of the year,' when General Butler was relieved of the command 
of the Department of the Gulf, and General Banks became [December 16] his 
successor. 

In the mean time there had been active militar}- movements in Missouri 
and Arkansas. Since the autumn of 1861, General J. M. Schofield had been in 
command in the former State, and with twenty or thirty thousand men, scat- 
tered over the commonwealth, he made successful warfare on the Confederate 



' Tlie National loss was 311, of whom 82 were killed. The Confederate loss is unknown. 
One hundred of the latter were made prisoners. 

" This ram was built in the Yazoo River, in the rear of Ticksbiirp;, and wag intended to 
sweep the National gnu-boats from tlie Mississippi. She came down to assi.st Breckinridge in the 
assault on Baton Rouge. Five miles above that place she was attacked, driven ashore, set on 
fire by her commander, and by the explosion of her magazine was blown into fragments. 

' The rebellion had paralyzed the industrial operations in that region, and General Butler 
thought it expedient, as a State poliej', and for the sake of humanity, to confiscate the entire 
property of La Fourche district. He appointed a commission to take charge of it, who employed 
the negroes and saved. tlic crops. Two Congressional districts were "repossessed," and in De- 
cember the loyal citizens of New Orleans elected two members of Congress. 



1SG2.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



637 



guerrilla bands late in the summer of 1862. From April until September of 
that year, about one hundred battles and skirmishes occurred in Missouri. 
Troops from Arkansas, who came thither to aid their insurgent brethren, were 
driven back. These formed a nucleus for a force which, late in September, 
Avas gathered in Arkansas, full forty thousand strong, under T. C. Ilindman a 
former member of Congress. Against these Schofield marched with -what was 
called the Army of the Frontier. Joining General J. G.J31unt, in the southern 
part of JMissouri, the combined forces, ten thousand strong, sought the insur- 
gents. The latter were shy, and hovered cautiously among the Ozark Hills. 
A portion of them were attacked near Maysville [October 22] by Blunt, and 
driven in disorder into the Indian country. Six days afterward, another por- 
tion, mostly cavalry, were struck by General Francis J. Ilerron, and driven to 
the mountains. Soon after this ill health compelled Schofield to leave the 
field, and the command devolved on General Blunt. 

Ilindman now determined to strike a decisive blow for the recovery of his 
State. Toward the close of November he had collected an army about twenty 
thousand strong on its western border. Ilis advance was attacked by Blunt 
on the Boston Mountains on the 26th of that month, and were driven toward 
Van Buren, when Blunt took position at Cave Hill. Ilindman, with about 
eleven thousand men, marched from Van Buren to crush him. •■ Blunt sent for 
Herron, then in Missouri, to come and help him. lie did so, and at a little 
settlement called Prairie Grove, on Illinois Creek, they utterly defeated Hind- 
man in a severe battle, and drove his shattered army over the mountains. In 
the mean time there was bloody strife in Texas, where Confederate rule was 
supreme, and the Unionists there suffered the rigors of a reign of terror 
unparalleled in atrocitj'. Some attempts had been made to " repossess" impor- 
tant jioints of that State, especially the 
city of Galveston. So early as May, 
1862, a demand for the surrender of 
that city had been made by the com- 
mander of a little squadron and refused, 
and so matters remained until the 8th 
of October, when the civil authorities 
of Galveston surrendered it to Com- 
mander Renshaw, of the National navy. 

Let ns now see what was occurring 
eastward of the Mississippi, bearing 
upon the capture of Yicksburg, at the 
close of 1862. Grant had then moved 
the bulk of his army to the region of 
Holly Springs, in Mississippi, where he 
■Has confronted by Van Dorn ; and 
Itosecrans, who succeeded Buell,' was moving southward from Nashville. 

Rosecrans found the Army of the Ohio (now the Army of the Cumberland) 




WILLIAM S. ROSECRANS. 



Page 634. 



638 



THE NATION. 



[1862. 



in a sad condition — wasted in substance by marcbes and conflicts, and de- 
moralized by lack of success — " its spirit broken, its confidence destroyed, 
its discipline relaxed, its courage weakened, and its hopes shattered.'" Its 
effective force was only si.xty-five thousand, and its cavalry was weak in 
number and equipment, while the rough-riders of Forrest and Mol-gan were 
very strong and bold. That army was in the vicinity of Bowling Green and 
Glasgow when Rosecrans took command of it, and Bragg had concentrated 
his forces at Murfreesboro', below Nashville, from which went out expeditions 
that seriously threatened the latter city. Perceiving its peril, Rosecrans moved 
in that direction at the beginning of November, and vei^ severe encounters 
between his forces and Bragg's warned the latter that he had now a loyal, 
earnest, and energetic leader to deal with, and he became circumspect. 

Rosecrans prepai-ed to move upon Bragg, and on the morning of the 26th 
of December, the bulk of his army, about fortj'-five thousand in number, went 
forward, and, after various preliminary operations, it appeared before the Con- 
federate post at Murfreesboro' on the 29th of December. Both armies made 
vigorous preparations for battle. Rosecrans had among his subordinate leaders 
Generals McCook,Thomas, Crittenden, Rousseau, Harker, Palmer, Sheridan, J. C. 
Davis, Wood, Van Cleve, Hazen, Negley, Mathews, and others ; and Bragg had 
Polk, Breckinridge, Hardee, Kirby Smith, Cheatham, Withers, Cleborne, and 
Wharton. The armies lay upon each side of Stone's River, within cannon-shot 
distance of Murfreesboro'. There a most sanguinary battle was begun on the 
morning of the 31st [Dec, 1862], and raged until evening with varied success, 

when the Nationals 
had lost very heavily 
in men and guns, but 
were not disheartened.' 
The gallant Rosecrans 
had been seen at every 
post of danger during 
the battle, and his men 
liad perfect confidence 
in him. 

Bragg that night 
felt sure of victory, and 
expected to find his foe 
in full retreat before 
morning. He was mis- 
taken. There was Rose- 
crans ready for battle. 
The astonished Bragg 
moved cautiously, and 




MONXJMENT ERECTED Bl HAZEN b BRIGADE. 



' Annak of the Army of the Cumberland, by Jolin Fitch. 

'' To tlie brigade of Acting Brigadier-General W. B. Hazen was freely given ths honor of 
saving tlie day for the Nationals. Upon his gallant band the brunt of battle fell at a critical 
moment, when liis tliirteen hundred men, skillfully handled, kept thousands at bay, and stayed 



1862] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 639 

the sum of that day's [Jan. 1, 1863] operations was some heavy skirmishing. 
On the following morning [Jan. 2] the conflict was renewed. The struggle 
was terrific. Both sides massed their batteries and plied them with destruc- 
ti\e effect. For a time it seemed as if mutual annihilation would be the result. 
Finally, a charge by seven National regiments' decided the day. The Con- 
federates were scattered by it, and in the space of twenty minutes they lost 
two thousand men. So ended, in complete victory for the Nationals, the battle 
of Stone's River or Murfreesboro'.' Bragg retreated to Tullahoma, in the direc- 
tion of Chattanooga, and Rosecrans occupied Murfreesboro'. Such continued 
to be the relative position of the two armies for several months afterward. 

While for more than a year and a half the National armies had been striv- 
ing to crush the gigantic rebellion, the loyal people and the government had 
been contemplating the j^ropriety of striking a withering blow at the unrigh- 
teous Labor System, for the spread and perpetuation of which the war was 
waged by the conspirators and their friends. The subject of slavery, and its 
abolition, as a war measure, occupied much of the attention of Congress dui-- 
ing its session in the winter of 1861-62. The public mind had been for a 
long time excited by the conduct of several military commanders who had 
returned fugitive slaves to their masters. This was forbidden by law ; and 
the Republican party^ in Congress pressed with earnestness measures looking 
to the emancipation of the ^laves as a necessary means for suppressing the 
rebellion. The President, kind and forbearing, proposed to Congress to co-ope- 
rate with any State government whose inhabitants might adopt measures for 
emancipation, by giving pecuniary aid ; but the slave-holders everywhere 
refused to listen to any propositions tending to such result. So Congress 
abolished slavery in the District of Columbia, over which it had control ; and 
finally that body gave tlie Chief Magistrate discretionary power to declare the 
emancipation of all slaves in States where rebellion existed, under certain con- 
ditions, and to employ them in the armies of the Republic. Accordingly, on 
the 22d of September, 1862, the Chief Magistrate declared it to be his purpose 
to issue a proclamation on the first of January, 1 863, pronouncing forever free 
the slaves within any State or designated parts of a State, the people whereof 
should then be in rebellion. At this the conspirators sneered and their friends 
raved, comparing tlie proclamation to " the Pope's bull against a comet," and 
on the designated day the rebellion was more rampant than ever. The Presi- 
dent, who had hoped that kindness might affect the rebellious people, saw that 

the tide of victory for the Confederates, which had been rolling steadily forward for hours. On 
the spot where the struggle occurred Hazen's men erected a monument to the memory of their 
slain comrades. 

' The 19th Illinois, 18th, 21st, and 74th Ohio, T8th Pennsylvania, 11th Michigan, and 37th 
Indiana. 

* Rosecrans officially reported hts loss at nearly 12,000 men, while Bragg estimated ii. at 24,000. 
Rosecrans had 1,533 killed. Bragg admitted a loss of 10,000 on his part, of whom 9,000 were 
killed and wounded. Among the killed were Generals Rains and Hanson. 

While the movements of the two armies were tending toward the decisive battle, Bragg's 
superior cavalry were raiding over Western Tennessee, to prevent communication between Grant 
and Rosecrans, and to strike the communications of the latter with Nashville. At about the same 
time a successful counter-raid into East Tennessee was made by General S. P. Carter. 

' Page 529. 



(340 THE NATION. [1S63. 

every concession was spumed with scorn, and on the designated day [January 
1, 1863], lie issued the threatened Proclamation of Emancipation.' Then the 
shackles fell from the limbs of three millions of slaves; and from that hour 
when the nation, by its chosen head, proclaimed that act of justice, the power 
of the rebeHion began to wane. Tlie conspirators were struck with dismay, 
for they well knew that it was a blow fatal to their hopes. It touched with 
mighty power a chord of sympathy among the aspirants for genuine freedom 
in the elder world ; and from that hour the prayers of true men in all civilized 

' The following is a copy of that proclamalion : 

'Whereas, On the 22d day of September, in tlie year of our Lord one tliousand eiglit hnndred 
and sixty-two, a proclamation was issued by the President of tlie United States, containing, 
among other things, the following, to wit : 

" That on the 1st day of January, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and 
sixty-three', all persons held as slaves within any State or designated part of a State, the people 
whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States, shall be then, thenceforward, and for- 
ever free ; and the Kxecutive Government of the United States, including the military and naval 
authority thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of such persons, and will do no act or 
acts to repress such persons, or any of them, in any efforts, they may make for their actual 
freedom. 

" That the Executive will, on the first day of January aforesaid, by proclamation, designate 
the States and parts of States, if any, in which the people tliereof, respectively, shall tlien be in 
rebellion against tlie United States ; and the fact that any State, or the people thereof, shall on 
that day be in good faith represented in the Congress of the United States, by members chosen 
thereto at elections wherein a majority of the qualified voters of such State shall have jiartieipated, 
shall, in the absence of strong countervailing testimony, be deemed conclusive evidence that such 
State, and the people thereof, are not then in rebellion against the United States." 

Now, therefore, I, Abraham Lincoln, President of tlic United States, by virtue of the power 
in me vested as Commander-in-Chief of the Army and Xavy of the United States in time of 
actual armed rebellion against the authority and Government of the United States, and as a fit 
and necessary war measure for suppressing said rebellion, -do, on this first first day of January, 
in the year of Our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and in accordance with my 
purpose so to do, publicly proclaimed for the full period of one hundred days from the day first 
above mentioned, order and designate, as the States and parts of States wherein the people 
thereof, respectively, are this day in rebellion against the United States, the following, to wit: 

Arkansas, Texas. Louisiana (except the parishes of St. Bernard, Plaquemines, Jefferson, St. 
John, St. Charles, St. James, Ascension, Assumption, Terre Bonne, Lafourche, Ste. Marie, St. 
Martin, and Orleans, including the city of New Orleans), Mississippi, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, 
South Carolina, North Carolina, and Virginia (except the forty-eight counties designated as West 
Virginia, and also the counties of Berkley, Accomac, Northampton, Elizabetli City, York, Princess 
Anne, and Norfolk, including the cities of Norfolk and Portsmouth), and which excepted parts 
are, for the present, left precisely as if this proclamation were not issued. 

And by virtue of the power and for the purpose aforesaid, I do order and declare that all per- 
sons held as slaves within said designated States and parts of States are, and henceforward shall 
be free; and that the ilxecutive Government of the United States, including the military and 
naval authorities thereof, will recognize and maintain the freedom of said persons. 

And I hereby enjoin upon the people so declared to bo free to abstain from all violence, unless 
in necessary self-defense ; and I recommend to them tliat, in all cases when allowed, they labor 
faithfully for reasonable wages. 

And I further declare and make known that such person.s, of suitable condition, will be 
received into the armed service of the United States, to garrison forts, positions, stations, and 
other places, and to man vessels of all sorts in said service. 

And upon this act, sincerelv believed to be an act of justice, warranted by the Constitution, 
upon military necessity, I invoke tlie considerate judgment of mankind, and the gracious favor of 
Almighty God. 

In testimony whereof I have hereunto set my name, and caused the seal of the LTnited States 
to be affixed. 

Done at the City of Washington, this first day of January, in the year of our Lord 
[l. s.] one thousand eight hundred and si.xty-three, and of the Independence of the United 
States the eighty-seventh. 

ABRAHAM LINCOLN. 

By tlie President. 

William II. Sew.\rd, Stcrelary of State. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



641 



lands went up to the throne of God in supplication for the success of the 
armies of the Republic against its enemies.' 

While the National government was thus working for the good of man- 
kind, the Confederate " government," so called, at Richmond, was putting 
forth amazing energies in the prosecution of schemes for an opposite result. 
Their " Provisional Constitution "- had been succeeded by a " Permanent 
Constitution," and Jefi'erson Davis had been elected [Feb. 2.'d, 1862] "Perma- 
nent President " of the Confederacy for six years.' In the " Congress " at 
Riclimond were delegates from all the Slave-labor States excepting Maryland 
and Delaware, and resolutions were adopted and measures were devised for 
prosecuting the war with the greatest vigor, declaring that they would never, 
" on any terms, politically affiliate with a people who were guilty of an inva- 
sion of their soil and the butchery of their citizens." AVith this spirit they 
prosecuted the war on land, and by the aid of some of the British aristocracy, 
merchants, and ship-builders, they kept afloat piratical craft on the ocean, that 
for a time drove most of the carrying trade between the United States and 
Europe to British ships. One of the most noted of these piratical vessels was 
the Alabama, built, equipped, armed, pro- 
visioned, coaled, and manned by the British,'' 
and commanded by Raphael Semmes. She 
roamed the ocean a simple sea-robber f and 
during the last ninety days of 1862, she 
destroyed by fire no less than twenty-eight 
helpless American merchant vessels. While 
her incendiarism was thus illuminating the 
sea, the George Grisicold, laden with ]>ro- 
visions, furnished by the citizens of New 
York who had suffered most by the piracies, 
was out upon the ocean, bearing a gift of 
food from them, valued at one hundred thou- 
sand dollars, to the starving English i)pera- 
tives in Lancashire, who had been deprived of 
work by the rebellion. And that ship of mercy wascon\oyed by an American 




RAPHAEL SEMilES. 



' The first re<riment of colored troops raised by the autlioritj' of an act of Congress was 
organized in Beaufort District, Sontli Carolina; and on the day when tliis proclamation was 
issued, a native of that district (Dr. Brisbane), who liad been driven away many years before 
because he emancipated his slaves, announced to these troops and other freed people the great 
fact tliat they were no longer in bonds. 

^ Page 547 

'■' His immediate advisers, to whom he gave the titles of the cabinet ministers of liis govern- 
ment at Washington, were Judah P. Benjamin, -'Secretary of State;" George W. Ramiolph, 
'■Secretary of War;" S. R. Mallory, "Secretary of the Navy ;" C. G. Memminger, ''Secretary of 
the Treasury;" Thomas H. Watts, "Attorney -General;" and John H. Reagan, "Postmaster- 
General." 

* While these vessels were a-building in England, and their destination was known, the 
American minister in London called the attention of the British government to the fact. Ho 
failed to elicit any action that might prevent their going to sea, fully manned and armed. It was 
painfully evident that the government was willing they shonld go to sea in aid of the rebellion. 

' Immediately after the attack on Fort Sumter [page 55H]. Jefferson Davis recommended, and 
his fellow-conspirators in "Congress" authorized, the employment of armed vessels to destroy 

41 



642 THE NATION. [1863. 

ship of war to protect her from the torch of a pirate lighted by British hands. 
The subsequent career of the Alabama will be considered hereafter. 
Let us now turn again to a consideration of military events. 
At the close of 1 862, the Civil War was in full career. Up to that time 
the loyal people had furnished for the contest, wholly by volunteering, more 
than one million two hundred thousand soldiers, of whom, at the beginning of 
1863, about seven hundred thousand were in the service. The theater of strife 
was almost co-extensive with the Slave-labor States, but the most important 
movements were those connected with preparations for a siege of Vicksburg, 
and the capture of Port Hudson, twenty-five miles above Baton Ivouge. 
Between these places only, the Mississippi was free from the patrol of National 
war-vessels, and it was determined to break that link between the Confederates 
east and west of the river. For that purpose Grant concentrated his troops 
near the Tallahatchee, where the Confederates were strongly posted. Troops 
under Ilovey and Washburne came over from Arkansas to co-operate with liini, 
and early in December his main army was at Oxford, and an immense amount 

of his supplies were at Holly Springs. 
The latter, through the carelessness or 
treachery of the commander of theii- 
guard, were captured by Van Dorn on 
the 20th. This loss compelled Grant 
to fall back and allow a considerable 
Confederate force, under General J. C. 
Pemberton, to concentrate at Vicks- 
burg. 

Meanwhile, in accordance with 
\ Grant's instructions. General W. T. 



/ 




Sherman mo\ed down the Mississippi 



from Memphis, with a strong force, and 

siege-guns, to beleaguer Vicksburg. 

JOHN c. PEMBERTON. Troops from Helena joined him at 

Friar's Point [Dec. 20], and there he 

was met by Admiral D. D. Porter, whose naval force was at the mouth of the 

Yazoo River, just above Vicksburg. The two commanders arranged a plan 

for attacking Vicksburg in the rear, by passing up the Yazoo a few miles and 



American shipping on the liigh seas. Tliese, according to the laws of nations and the proper 
definition of the word, were pirates. A pirate is defined as ''a robber on the higli seas," and 
pirac}-, as "taking property from others by open violence, and withont antliority, on the sea." 
These vessels, and their otiicers and crews, answered tliis definition, for Davis and Toombs, wlio 
signed tlieir commissions, were not " autliorized " to do so by any real government on the face of 
the earth. The conspirators lliey represented had no more "authority" than Jack Cade, Daniel 
Shays, Xat Turner, or Jolin Brown. Hence these Confederate marauders were not '•privateers." 
but "pirates." Semmes's vessel had neither register nor record, and no ship captured by licr 
was ever sent into any port for adjudication. She had no acknowledged flag or recognized 
nationality. All the regulations of public justice which discriminate the legalized naval vess.l 
from the pirate were disregarded. She had no accessible port into which to send her captive^-. 
nor any legal tribunal to adjudge her captures. She was an outlaw roving the seas, an eneni}- 
to mankind, and her commander was a pirate m the worst sense of that term. 



1863.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. g43 

reducing batteries along a line of bluffs, by which approaches to it were 
defended. This was undertaken, but after a severe battle on the Chickasaw 
Bayou [Dec. 28, 1862], in which Sherman lost about 2,000 men, and his foe 
only 207, the Nationals were compelled to abandon the enterprise. At that 
moment [January 2, 186.3] General McClernand' arrived, and, ranking Sher- 
man, took the chief command. 

Toward the middle of January the army and navy in the vicinity of Vicks- 
burg went up the Arkansas River and captured Fort Hindman, at Arkansas 
Post [January 11, 1863], a very important position. The fort and much valu- 
able property was destroyed.' Meanwhile Grant had come down the river 
from Memphis, and arrangements were at once made for a vigorous prosecu- 
tion of the siege of Vicksburg. He organized his army into four corps,' and 
encouraged the enlistment of colored men. He weighed well all proposed 
plans for the siege, and being satisfied that the post was too well fortified to 
warrant an attack on its ri\er front, he detci-mined to get in its rear. First 
the canal begun by Farragut* received his attention. It was a failure, and that 
project was abandoned. Other passages among the neigliboring bayous were 
sought, and finall)' a strong land and naval force made its way into the Yazoo, 
with the intention of descending that stream, carrying the works at Haines's 
Bhiff,' and so gaining the rear of Vicksburg. The expedition was repulsed at 
Fort Pemberton, near Greenwood, late in March, and the enterprise was aban- 
doned. Porter, with amazing energy and perseverance, tried other channels, 
but failed. A record in detail of the operations of. the army and navy in that 
region, during the winter and spring of 1863, would fill a volume. 

In the mean time there were stirring scenes on the bosom of the Missis- 
sippi. Some of the war-vessels passed by the batteries at Vicksburg [Feb., 
1863], for the purpose of destroying Confederate gim-boats below, but were 
themselves captured.' Later, when Grant had sent a strong force down the 
west side of the river, under McClernand and McPherson, toward New Car- 
thage, Porter determined to run by Vicksburg with nearly his whole fleet, and 
the transports and barges. This was successfully done on the night of the 
16th of April. Six more transports performed the same perilous feat on the 
night of the 22d, and Grant prepared for vigorous operations against Vicks- 
burg on the line of the Big Black River, on its flank and rear. 

Let us now turn for a moment, and see what was occurring in the Depart- 
ment of the Gulf under General Banks, the successor of General Butler, who 

' Page 517. 

' The National loss was 980 men. The Confederates, to the number of 5,000, were made 
prisoners, and the spoils were 17 cannon, 3,000 small arms, and a large quantity of stores. 

" These were commanded respectively by Generals McClernand, Sherman, Hurlbut, and 
McPherson. 

' Page G36. 

' This was at the end of the range of bluffs extending from Vicksburg to the Tazoo. 

'^ One of them was the powerful iron-clad Indianola,. 8he was attacked, injured, and captured. 
Wliile the Confederates were repairing her. Porter, one evening, sent down the river an old flat- 
boat, .arranged so as to imitate a gun-boat or ram. It seemed very formidable, and drew the tire 
of the Vicksburg batteries as it passed sullenly by them. Word was sent to warn Confederate 
vessels below, and the Mdianola was blown into fragments to prevent her being captured by this 
supposed ram. 



GU 



THE NATION. 



[1863. 



was co-opei-ating with Grant against Vicksburg, and was also charged with the 
task of gaining possession of Louisiana and Texas. Galveston, as we have 
seen, was in possession of a National naval force.' Banks sent troops to its 
support, and on the morning of the first of January, 1863, the Confederates, 
luider General Magruder," attacked the troops and the war-vessels. A severe 
struggle ensued, which resulted in the defeat of the Nationals. Galveston was 
repossessed by the Confederates, but on account of a vigorous blockade, at 
once established by Farragut, the victory was almost a barren one. 

Banks now turned his attention to the recovery of Louisiana west of the 
Mississippi, and along its shores. Already a force under General Grover occu- 
pied Baton Rouge; and early in January [1863] a land and naval force under 
General Weitzel and Commodore Buchanan was sent into the Teche region, a 
J country composed of fertile 

])lintations, extensive forests, 
slu^-gish lagoons and bayous, 
xnd almost impassable swamps. 
The expedition was successful. 
Bmks now concentratrid his 
foices, about 12,000 s'./ong, at 
Bxton Bonge, for tho purpose 
of co-operating with Admiral 
Fiiragut in an attenipt to pass 
the now formidable batteries 
at Port Hudson. This was 
attempted on the night of the 
1 3th of IMarch, when a terrible 
contest occurred in the gloom 
between the vessels and the 
1 ind batteries. Only the flag- 
ship {Hartford) and com- 
panion (Albatross) passed by. 
Then Banks again sent a large 
poition of liis available force 
into the interior of Louisiana, 
where General Richard Taylor was in command of the Confederates. The 
troops were concentrated at Brashcar City early in April, and moved trium- 
phantly through the country to the Red River, accompanied by the Depart- 
ment commander. At the close of the first week in May they were at 
Alexandria, on the Red River, where Banks announced that the power of the 
Confederates iu Central and Northern Louisiana was broken. With this 
impression he led his troops to and across the Mississippi, and late in May 
invested Port Hudson. 

AVe left Grant, late in April, below Vicksburg, prepared for new operations 
against that post.' By a most wonderful raid, performed b}' cavalry under 




A LOblSIANA SWAMP, 



Page 562. 



Page 643. 



1863] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATJOX. 



645 



Colonel Griersoiij in the licart of Mississippi,' he was satisfied that the bulk of 
the Confederate soldiers of that region were near Vicksburg, under Peirfber- 
ton. So he prepared to act with ^igor. Porter attacked and ran by [April 
29] the batteries at Grand Gulf, and Grant's army crossed the river at Bruins- 
burg, a little below, pushed on, and near Port Gibson gained a decisive vic- 
tory [May 1] over the Confederates." Meanwhile Sherman, who had been left 
to operate in the Yazoo region, and had made another unsuccessful attempt to 
capture Haines's Bluff,' was ordered to marcli down the west side of the Mis- 
sissippi and join the main army. This junction was effected on the 8th of 
May, near the Big Black River, and the whole army pressed on toward Jack- 
son, the capital of Mississippi, where General Joseph E. Johnston was in com- 
mand. In a severe battle at Ra)-mond [May 12], on the way, the Confederates 
were defeated.'' Such, also, was the result of a battle at Jackson [May 1 4], 
when the Confederates were driven northward, the city was seized, and a large 
amount of public property" was destroyed. Then the victors turned toward 
Vicksburg, and fought [May IG] a severe battle with the Confederates under 
Pemberton at Champion Hills, and were victorious.' Grant pressed forward, 
and after a battle at the passage of the Big Black River [^tay ^ 7], the Confede- 
rates were again driven. Grant crossed that stream, and on the 19th of May 
his army, which for a fortnight had subsisted off the co\nitry, invested Vicks- 
burg, and received sup- 

plies from a base on the 
Yazoo established by 
Admiral Porter. 

Grant made an un- 
successful assault upon 
Vicksburg on the day 
of his arrival. Another, 
with disastrous effect on 
the Xationals, was made 
three days later [5Iay 
22], when Porter with 
his fleet co-operated, and 
then Grant commenced 
a regular siege, wliich 
continued until the first 




CAVE-LIFE IN VICKSBURG. 



' Grieraon loft Laprran^e, Tennessee, on the 17tli of April, with a body of cavalrj-, and swept 
through the country southward, between the two railways running parallel with the Mississippi 
River, striking them hero and tliere, smiting Confederate outposts, and destroying public property. 
At times his troops were scattered on detached service, and often rode fifty and sixty miles a da_r, 
over an exceedingly difficult country to travel in. They killed and wounded about ] 00 of the foe ; 
captured "and paroled full 500 ; destroyed 3,000 stand of arms, and inflicted a loss on the Confed- 
erates of property valued at about SdoOO.OOO. Grierson's loss was 27 men, and a number of 
horses. 

■■' The National loss was 840 men. They captured 3 gun.s, 4 flags, and 580 prisoners. 

' Page G43. 

* The National loss was 442 men, and that of the Confederates 82.".. 

' The National loss was 2,457. The loss of the Confederates in the battle was about the 
same, besides 2,000 prisoners. 



640 ^HE NATION. [1863. 

week in July, and produced the greatest distress in the city, and in the belea- 
gured camps. Shot and sliell were hurled upon it daily from land and water, and 
the inhabitants were compelled to live in caves' cut in the clay hills on which 
Vicksburg is built, as the only safe place for their persons. At length one of the 
principal forts was blown up by a mine made under it by the Nationals, and 
other mines were ready for their infernal work. Famine was stalkin"- through 
the city and the camps. Fourteen ounces of food had become the allowance 
for each person for forty-eight hours, and the flesh of mules had been pro- 
nounced a savory dish." Pemberton now lost all hope of aid from Johnston, 
in Grant's rear (who had been watching for an opportunity to strike the 
besiegers), or the salvation of his army, and on the 3d of July he offered to 
surrender. That event took place on the morning of the 4th, when 27,000 
men became prisoners of war, and the stronghold of "S'icksburg passed into 
the possession of the National power.' 

This victory, won simultaneously with another at Gettysburg, in Pennsyl- 
vania, produced unbounded joy in all loyal hearts. It was followed a few days 
later by the surrender of Port Hudson, which had been besieged by General 
Banks for forty days, liis gallant troops at times performing great achievements 
of valor and fortitude. He had been ably supported by Farragut and his squad- 
ron. The missiles sent by the army and navy had caused great destruction witliin 
the fortifications. The ammunition and provisions of the garrison were nearly 
exhausted, and when news came of the fall of Vicksburg, Genei'al Gardner, 
the commander of Port Hudson, despairing of succor, surrendered the post, 
and its occupants and spoils, on the 9th of July. Then, for the first time in 

' The streets of Vicksburg are cut through the liills, and houses are often seen far above the 
street passengers. In the perpendicular banlis formed by these cuttings, and composed of clay, 
caves were dug at tlie beginning of the siege, some of them sutBciently large to accommodate 
whole families, and in some instances communicating with each other by corridors. Such was the 
character of some made on Main Street, opposite the house of Colonel Lyman .J. Strong, for the 
use of his family and others, and of which the writer made the sketch on page 645, in April, 1866. 
These caves were then in a partially ruined state, as were most of Ihem in and around Vicksburg, 
for rains had washed the banks away, or had caused the filling of the entrances. In this picture 
the appearance of the caves in their best estate is delineated, with furniture in accordance with 
descriptions given to the writer by the inhabitants. 

" "This day," wrote a citizen of Vicksburg in his diary, under date of June 30, "we heard of' 
the first mule meat being eaten. Some of the officers, disgusted with the salt junk, proposed to 
slaugliter some of the fat mules as an experiment; as, if the siege lasted, we must soon come to 
that diet. The soup from it was quite rich in taste and appearance. Some of the ladies ate of it 
without knowing the difference." 

' Grant and Pemberton met under a live-oak tree, on a slope of the hill on which the fort that 
was blown up was situated, and there agreed upon terms of surrender. That tree was soon 
afterward cut down and converted into canes and other forms, as mementoes of the event. A 
marble monument, with suitable inscriptions, was afterward placed on the spot. It soon became 
mutilated, and in its place a 1 00-pounder iron cannon was erected, and suitably inscribed. 

General Grant tlins stated the result of the operations of his army from Port Gibson to 
Vicksburg: "The result of this campaign has been the defeat of the enemy in five battles outside 
of Vicksburg; the occupation of Jackson, the capital of the State of Mississippi, and tlie capture 
of Vicksburg audits garrison and munitions of war; a loss to the enemy of thirty-seven thousand 
(37,(100) prisoners, among whom were fifteen general officers; at least ten tliousand killed and 
wounded (among the killed Generals Tracy, Tilghman, and Green), and hundreds, and perhaps 
thousands, of stragglers, who can never be collected and reorganized. Arms and munitions of 
war for an army of sixty thousand men have fallen into our hands, besides a large amoimt of 
other public propert3', consisting of railroads, locomotives, cars, steamboats, cotton, Jcc, and much 
was destroyed to prevent our capturing it." 



\ 




nKTirmiK^niiEw ibeifwieiem ©imh^^id jPEiaiBEiEiroMo 



1863.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. g4^- 

more than two years, every impediment to the free navigation of the Missis- 
sippi was removed. Powerful portions of the Confederacy were thus severed 
and weakened, and the loyal jjeople of the land were jubilant with the hope 
and expectation that the end of the terrible strife was nigh. The blow dis- 
mayed the Conspirators, and the wiser men in the Confederacy clearly perceived 
that all was lost.' 



CHAPTER XV II I. 

THE CIVIL WAR, [1801—1865.] 

While a portion of the Xational troops were achieving important vic- 
tories on the banks of the Lower Mississippi," those composing the Army of 
the Potomac w-ere winning an equally important victory not far from the 
banks of the Susquehanna. We left that army in charge of General Joseph 
Hooker after sad disasters at Fredericksburg ; * let us now observe its move- 
ments from that time until its triumphs in the conflict at Gettysburg, between 
the Susquehanna and Potomac ri\ers. 

From January until early in April, Hooker was employed in preparing the 
weakened and demoralized Army of the Potomac for a vigorous campaign. 
It lay on the northern side of the Rappahannock River, nearly opposite Freder- 
icksburg, and, with the exception of some slight cavalry movements, it remained 
quiet during nearly three months of rest and preparation. It was reorganized, 

' Tlie blow was unexpected to the Conspirators. They knew how strong Vicksburg was, and 
were confident that the accomplished soldier. General Johnston, would compel Grant to raise the 
siege. Even the Daily Citizen, a paper printed in Vicksburg, only two days before the surrender 
(July 2), talked as boastfully as if perfectly contident of success. In a copy before the writer, 
printed on wall-paper, the editor said: "The great Ulysses— the Yankee generalissimo surnamed 
Grant — has expressed his intention of dining in Vick,s"hurg on Saturday next, and eeleVirating the 
Fourth of Jidy by a grand dinner, and so forth. When asked if he woidd invite General Joe 
Johnston to join him, he said, ' No I for fear there will be a row at the table,' Ulysses must get 
into the city before he dines in it. The way to cook a rabbit is, 'first catch the rabbit,' &c." In 
another paragraph, the Citizen eulogized the luxury of mule-meat and fricasseed kitten. 

■ See page 646. ' See page 631, 

■■ The army was arranged in seven corps, named, respectively, the 1st, 2d, 3d, 5th, 6th, llth, 
and 12th, and each was distinguished by peculiar badges, worn on the hat or cap, and composed 
of scarlet, white, and blue clotli, made in the forms shown in tlie engraving, whose numbers cor- 
respond with those of the respective corps, as follow : — 




The corps composed twenty-three divisions; and at the close of April [1S63], the army consisted 
of 110,000 infantry and artillery, with 400 guns, and a well-equipped cavalry force, 13,000 strong. 
The corps commanders were Generals J, F, Reynolds, D. N. Couch, D, E. Sickles, G. G. Meade, 
J, Sedgwick, 0, 0. Howard, and II, W, Slocum. 



648 THE NATION. [1863. 

and weeded of incompetent and disloyal officers.' Measures were taken to 
prevent desertions and to recall a vast number of absentees.' Order and dis- 
cipline were thoroughly established ; and, at the close of April, Hooker found 
himself at the head of an army more than one hundred thousand in number, 
well disciplined, and in fine spirits. General Lee, in command of the Army 
of Northern Virginia, then lying on the Fredericksburg side of the Rappahan- 
nock, had been equally active in reorganizing, strengthening, and disciplining 
his forces. —A vigorous conscription act was then in operation throughout the 
Confederacy, and in April, Lee found himself at the head of an army of little 
more than si.\ty thousand men of all arms,' unsurpassed in discipline, and full 
of enthusiasm. A part of his army, under General Longstroet, was absent in 
Southeastern Virginia, confronting the troops of General J. J. Peck, in the 
vicinity of Norfolk. Yet with his forces thus divided, Lee felt competent to 
cope with his antagonist, for he was behind a strong line of intrenchments 
reaching from Port Royal to Banks's Ford, a distance of about twenty-five 
miles. 

We have observed that only some cavalry movements disturbed tlie quiet 
of the Army of the Potomac in the winter and spring of ] 863. Early in Feb- 
ruary the Confederate General W. H. F. Lee made an unsuccessful attempt to 
surprise and cajjture National forces at Gloucester, opposite Yorktown ; and 
at a little past midnight of the 8th of March, the notorious guerrilla cliief, 
Moseby, with a small band of mounted men, dashed into the village of Fairfax 
Court-House, and carried away the LTnion commander there and some others. 
A fc'iv days later the first purely cavalry battle of the war occurred not far 
from Kelly's Ford, on the Rappahannock, between National troops under Gen- 
eral W. W. Averill and Confederates led by Fitz-IIugh Lee. Averill encoun- 
tered Lee while he was pushing on toward Culpejiper Court-House, from the 
Rappahannock, when a severe contest ensued, and continued until late in the 
evening, when Averill retreated across the river, pursued to the water's edge 
by his foe. Each lost between seventy and one hundred men. 

Early in April, before the ranks of his army were full, Hooker determined 
to advance, his objective being Richmond, for the terms of enlistment of a 
large portion of his men would soon expire. He ordered General Stoneman to 

' There were officers in tliat army, liiji^h in ran]<, who were opposed to the policy of eman- 
cipating tlie slaves as a war measure, which, from the beginning, had been contemplated by the 
government. The proclamation of the President to that effect developed this opposition in con- 
siderable strength, and this.ni connection with the active inflncnce of a part of the Opposition 
party, known as the Peace Faction, upon the friends of the soldiers at home, had a most depress- 
ing effect upon the army. The men were impressed with tlie idea that it was'becoming a "war 
for the negro," in.«tead of " a war for the Union." Officers known to be inclined to give such a 
tone of feeling to their men were replaced by loyal men, in active sympathy with the government 
in its efforts to crush the rebellion. 

• When Hooker took command of the army, ho foimd the number of .reported ab,sentees to be 
2,922 commissioned officers and 81,964, non-commissioned officers and privates. This, doubtless, 
included all the deserters since the organization of the Army of the Potomac, and the sick and 
wounded in the hospitals. It is estimated that 50,000 men, on the rolls of that army, were absent 
at the time we are considering, namely, the close of January, 1863. 

° Lee's army was composed of two corps, commanded respectively by Generals J. Longstreet 
and T. J. ("Stonewall") Jackson. His artillery was consolidated into one corps, under the com- 
mand of General Pendleton as chief. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



649 




JOSEPH HOOICER. 



cross the Rappahannock with a large force of cavah-y, strike and disperse the 
horsemen of Fitz-Hugh Lee, of Stuart's cavah-j', known to be at Culpepper 
Court-House, and then, pushing on to Gordonsville, turn to the left, and 
destroy the railways in the rear of ^^ _ 

Lee's army. Heavy rains, which made 
the streams brimful, foiled the move- 
ment at its beginning, and Stoneman 
and his followers swam their horses 
across the Rappahannock, and returned 
to camp. Hooker then paused for a 
fortnight, when he put his whole army 
in motion, for the purpose of turning 
Lee's flank. He sent ten thousand 
mounted men to raid on his rear, and 
threw a large portioii of his army 
(Fifth, Eleventh, and Twelfth Corps) 
across the Rappahannock, above Fred- 
ericksburg, with orders to concentrate 
at Chancellorsville, in Lee's rear, ten 

miles from that city. This was accomplished on the evening of the 30th 
[April, 1863], when over thirty-six thousand troops threatened the rear of the 
Confederate army. 

Meanwhile, the left wing of Hooker's army (First, Third, and Sixth Corps), 
under General Sedgwick, left near Fredericksburg, had so completely masked 
the movements of the turning column, by demonstrations on Lee's front, that 
the latter was not aware of the peril that threatened his army until that 
column had crossed the Rappahannock, and was in full march on Chancellors- 
ville. Hooker expected Lee would turn and fly toward Richmond Avhen he 
should discover this peril, but ho did no such thing. On the contrary, he pro- 
ceeded to strike his antagonist a heavy blow, for the twofold purpose of 
securing the direct line of communication between the parts of Hooker's now 
severed army, and to compel him to fight, with only a part of his force, in a 
disadvantageous position, at Chancellorsville, which was in the midst of a 
region covered with a dense forest of shrub-oaks and pines, and tangled under- 
growths, broken by morasses, hills, and ravines, called The Wilderness. For 
this jiurpose, Lee put " Stonewall " Jackson's column in motion [May 1] toward 
Chancellorsville, at a little past midnight. 

Early in the morning Jackson was joined by other troops, and the whole 
force moved upon Chancellorsville by two roads. Hooker sent out a greater 
part of the Fifth and the whole of the Twelfth Corps, with the Eleventh in 
its support, to meet the advancing columns. A battle ensued ; and the eflTarts 
of Lee to seize the communications between the parts of Hooker's army, just 
alluded to, were foiled. But the Nationals were pushed back to their intrench- 
ments at Chancellorsville, and there took a strong defensive position. 

Both commanders now felt a sense of impending danger, for both armies 
were in a critical position in relation to each other. Hooker decided to rest on the 



650 THE NATION. [1863. 

defensive, but Lee, in accordance with the advice of Jackson, took the bold aggres- 
sive step of detaching the whole of that leader's corps and sending it on a secret 
flank movement, to gain the rear of the National army. The movement was 
successfullj' made, though not entirely unobserved ; but the troops seen moving 
behind the thick curtain of The Wilderness thickets were supposed to be a 
part of Lee's army in retreat. While General Sickles, in command of that 
portion of the line where the discovery was made, was seeking positive knowl- 
edge in the matter, Jackson, who had gained the National rear, solved the 
problem by bursting suddenly from behind that curtain with twenty-five thou- 
sand men, failing suddenly and firmly upon Hooker's right, crumbling it into 
atoms, and driving the astounded column in wild confusion upon the remainder 
of the line. A general battle ensued, in which the residue of the Confederate 
army, under the direct command of General Lee, participated, he having 
attacked Hooker's left and center. The conflict continued until late in the 
evening, when the Confederates sustained an irreparable loss in the death of 
Jackson, who was accidentally shot, in the gloom, by his own men.' 

Hooker liiade new dispositions to meet the inevitable attack the following 
morning [May 3, 1863]. He had called from Sedgwick the First Corps, full 
twenty thousand strong, and it arrived that evening and swelled the National 
force at Chancellorsville to about sixty thousand men. He had also ordered 
Sedgwick to cross the Rappahannock at 'once, seize and hold the town and 
heights of Fredericksburg, and push the bulk of his force with all possible 
haste along the roads to Chancellorsville. He also changed a portion of the 
front of his own line so as to receive the expected attack. During the night 
Lee effected a slight connection between the two wings of his army, and soon 
afterward, Stuart, at dawn, shouted at the head of the Confederate column on 
Hooker's right, " Charge, and remember Jackson !" whose troops he was lead- 
ing, and fell furiously upon a portion of the line commanded by General 
Sickles. Lee attacked Hooker's left and center again. The struggle was 
severe and sanguinary, and when, toward noon. Sickles, finding himself sorely 
pressed, sent to Hooker for re-enfbrcements, the chief had just been prostrated 
by an accident, and for a brief space the army was without a head.'^ There 
was an injurious delay, and finally, after long and hai'd fighting, the wliole 
National army was pushed from the field, and took a strong position on the 
roads back of Chancellorsville, leading to the Rapid Anna and Rappahannock. 
Lee's army was now united, while Hooker's remained divided. 

Sedgwick had endeavored to obey Hooker's command to join him, but 
failed to do so. He had thrown his army across the river on the morning of 
the 2d [May], and was lying quietly when he received the order at midnight. 
He moved immediately, and took possession of Fredericksburg. General 

' Jackson had been reconnoiteriiip; in front of his forces, and, when retiring in the darkness, 
he and his companions were mistaken by tlieir friends for Union cavalry, and were fired upon. 
Jackson fell, pierced by their bullets, and some of his stafl' were killed. His arm was shattered, 
and afterward amputated. He died on the 10th of May. 

' A cannon-ball struck a pillar of the Chancellor House, and hurled it with such force 
against Hooker, that it stunned him. The command then devolved on Couch, but Hooker was 
able to resume it in the course of a few lioiirs. 



1863.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. Q5J 

Early was then in command on the heights. Sedgwick formed storming col- 
umns in the morning, drove the Confederates from the fortified ridge, and with 
nearly las entire force pushed on toward Chancellorsville. At Salem Church, 
a few miles from Fredericksburg, he was met and checked, by a force sent by 
Lee, after a sharp fight, by which he lost, that day, including the struggle for 
the heights in the morning, about five thousand men. Instead of joining 
Hooker, Sedgwick found himself compelled, the next day, in order to save his 
army, to fly across the Rappahannock, which he did, near Banks's Ford, on the 
nio-ht of the 4th and 5th of May. Hooker, meanwhile, had heard of the 
perilous situation of Sedgwick, and, on consultation with his corps command- 
ers, it was determined to retreat to the north side of the river. Lee had pre- 
pared to strike Hooker a heavy blow on the 5th. A violent rain-storm 
prevented, and that night the Nationals passed the river in safety without 
molestation. On the same day the Confederate army resumed its position on 
the heights at Fredericksburg. Both parties had suffered very severe losses.' 
While Hooker and Lee were contending at Chancellorsville, a greater por- 
tion of the cavalry of the Army of the Potomac, commanded by Stoneman, 




EUINS OF THE CHAKCELLOR MANSION.' 

were raiding on the communications of the Army of Northern Virginia. 
They crossed the Rappahannock [April 29], and swejjt down toward Rich- 
mond in the direction of Gordonsville. Unfortunately for the efficiency of 
the expedition, the command was divided, and raided in various directions, 
one party, under Kilpatrick, approaching w;ithin two miles of Richmond. They 
destroyed much property, but the chief object of the expedition, namely, the 
breaking up of the railways between Lee and Richmond, was not accomplished, 
and the week's work of the cavalry had very little bearing on the progress of 
the war. 

' The National loss was reported at 17,107, including about 5,000 prisoners. They left 
behind, in their retreat, their dead and wounded, 13 pieces of artillery, about 20,000 small-arms, 
17 colors, and a large quantity of ammunition. The Confederate loss was probably about 15,000, 
of whom 5,000 were prisoners, with 15 colors, and 7 pieces of artillery. 

^ The villa and out-buildings of Mr. (Chancellor constituted " Chancellorsville." That man- 
sion was beaten into ruins during the battle. The picture gives its appearance when the writer 
sketched it, in June, 1866. 



g52 TH^ NATION. [1863. 

We have observed' that Longstreet M'as operating against General Peck 
in the vicinity of Norfolk. The lat.ter officer, with a considerable force, was 
in a strongly fortified position at Suffolk, at the head of the Xansemond Piiver, 
from which he kept watch over Norfolk and the mouth of the James River, 
and furnished a base for operations against Petersburg and the important Wel- 
don railway. Early in April [1863], Longstreet made a sudden and vigorous 
movement against Suffolk, expecting to drive the Nationals from that post, 
seize Norfolk and Portsmouth, and perhaps make a demonstration against 
Fortress Monroe. But Peck met his foe with such skill and valor that 
Longstreet was compelled to resort to a siege. Li this he failed, and on 
hearing of the battle at Chancellorsville, he withdrew and joined Lee, making 
that commander's army nearly as strong as that of his antagonist. Hooker's 
losses, and the expiration of the terms of his nine months' and two years' 
men, to the number of almost 30,000, about to occur, greatly reduced Ins num- 
bers. Lee's army was buoyant," and Hooker's was desponding. 

Impelled by false notions of the temper of the people of the Free-labor 
States, and the real resources and strength of the government, and elated by 
the events at Chancellorsville, the Conspirators now ordered Lee to invaile 
Maryland and Pennsylvania again. Hooker suspected such intention, and so 
reported, but the authorities at Washington were slow to believe that Lee 
would repeat the folly of tliQ previous year. But he did so. By a flank 
movement he caused Hooker to break up his encampment on the Rappahan- 
nock, and move toward Washington, after there had been some sharp cavalry 
engagements near the river, above Fredericksburg. Lee sent his left wing, 
under Ewell, through Chester Ga]) of the Blue Ridge, into the Shenandoah 
Valley. He swept down rapidly to Winchester, and drove Milroy [June 1.5, 
1863], who was therewith seven thousand men, across the Potomac into SLary- 
land and Pennsylvania, with the loss of nearly all of his artillery and ammu- 
nition. He also lost many men in the race from Winchester to the Potomac, 
but saved his trains. 

Hooker, at the same time, had moved from the Rap]iahannock to Centre- 
ville, for the jjurpose of covering Washington, while Longstreet nuirclicd on a 

' See page 648. 

' The Confederates and their friends were full of liope at this time. The repulse of the Army 
of the Potomac seemed to promise security to Richmond for some time. Vicksburg and Port 
Hudson [see page 646] then seemed impregnable; and the promises of tlie disloyal Peace Faction 
at the North, of a coiuiter-revolution in the free-labor States, seemed likely to be soon fuUillcd. 
The news of the Battle of Chancellorsville inspirited the friends of the Confederates in England, 
and these were clamorous for their government to acknowledge the Confederacy as an inde- 
pendent nation; and in the spring of 1864 a large body, representing the ruling classes in Eng- 
land, formed a league, to assist tlie Confederates, called the Southern Independence Association. 
But the British government wisely hesitated, and only the Pope 'of Rome, of all the rulers of the 
earth, ever recognized the Arch-Conspirator as the head of a nation, whom, in a friendly letter, 
he addressed as " the Illustrious and Honorable Jelfersou Davis, President of the Confederate 
States of America." At this time a scheme of the French Emperor for destroying the Republic 
of Mexico and aiding the Conspirators, was in operation, 20,000 French troops and 5,000 recreant 
Mexicans being engaged in the work. The Austrian Archduke Maximilian was made Emperor 
of Mexico by means of French bayonets, but when the Civil War closed, in 1865, and the 
sohetning Napoleon saw that our Republic was stronger than ever, he abandoned the enterprise 
and his dupe, and Maximilian, overthrown, was shot by order of the legitimate Republican Chief 
Magistrate of Mexico. 



1863.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



653 



parallel line along the eastern bases of the Blue Ridge, watching for an oppor- 
tunity to pounce upon the National Capital. Cavalry skirmishes often occurred, 
for the hostile forces were continually feeling each other. Meanwhile fifteen 
liundred Confederate cavalry had dashed across the Potomac in pursuit of 
Milroy's wagon-train, swept up the Cumberland Valley to Chambersburg, in 
Pennsylvania, destroyed the railway in that region, and plundered the people. 
This raid produced great alarm. Governor Curtin issued a call for the Penn- 
sylvania militia to turn out in defense of their State, and the National authori- 
ties had taken measures to meet the peril. When, a little later, the Confederate 
armj'^ was streaming across the Potomac, about fifty thousand troops, or one 
half tlie number the President had called for from the States nearest tlie Capi- 
tal, were under arms. Almost one half of these were from Pennsylvania, and 
fifteen thousand were from New York. The apathy shown by Pennsylvanians 
when danger seemed remote, now disappeared. 

By skillful movements, Lee kept Hooker in doubt as to his real intentions, 
until Ewell's corps had crossed the Potomac at Williamsport and Shcpards- 
town [June 22 and 23], and was pressing up the Cumberland Valley. Ewell 
advanced with a part of his force to witliin a few miles of the capital of Penn- 
sylvania, on the Susquehanna, while another portion, under Early, reached 
that river farther down, after passing through Emmettsburg, Gettysburg, and 
York, and levying contributions on the people. These movements ci-eated 
an intense panic, and with reason, for at one time it seemed as if there was no 
power at hand to prevent tlie invaders from marching to the Schuylkill, and 
even to tlie Hudson. Three days after Ewell crossed the Potomac, Longstreet 
and Hill followed, and on the 25th of June [l«63] the whole of Lee's army 
was again in Maryland and Pennsylvania. 

The Army of the Potomac was thrown across the river at and near 
Edwards's Ferry, one hundred tliousand strong, having been re-enforced by 
troo])s in the vicinity of Washington. 
A difference of opinion now arose be- 
tween Generals Hooker and Halleek 
(the latter then General-in-Cliief of the 
armies), concerning the occupation of 
Harper's Ferry. Their A-iews were ir- 
reconcilable, and the former offered his 
resignation. It was accepted, and Gen- 
eral George G. Meade was jilaced in 
command of the Army of the Potomac, 
and did not relinquish it until the close 
of tlie war. A change in the com- 
manders of an army in the presence of 
an enemy is a pei'ilous act, bnt in this 
case no evil followed. General Meade 
assumed the command on the 28th of 
June, when the army was lying at Frederick, in Maryland, in a position 
to dart through the South Mountain Gaps upon Lee's line of communication, or 




GEORGE G. MEADE. 



g54 '^^^ NATION. [1863. 

upon his columns in retreat, or to follow him on a parallel line toward the 
Susquehanna. 

Lee was about to cross the Susquehanna at Harrisburg, and march on 
Philadelphia, when he was alarmed by information of the position of the Army 
of the Potomac in increased force, which was threatening his flank and rear. 
He observed at the same time the rapid gathering of the yeomanry of Penn- 
sylvania, and troops from other States on his front, and he thouglit it prudent 
to abandon his scheme of further invasion. He immediately recalled Ewell, 
and ordered a concentration of the Army of Northern Virginia in the vicinity 
of Gettysburg, with a view of falling upon the Nationals with crushing force, 
and then marching on Baltimore and Wasliington, or, in the event of defeat, 
to have a direct line of retreat to the Potomac. 

In the mean time Meade had put his army in motion toward the Susque- 
hanna, but it was not until the evening of the 30th of June that he was 
advised of Lee's evident intention to give battle in full force. Satisfied of this, 
he prepared to meet the shock on a line south of Gettysburg. He had already 
sent his cavalry forward to reconnoiter. At Hanover, east of Gettysburg, 
Kilpatrick's command encountered [June 29] and defeated, in a sharp fight, 
some of Stuart's cavalry, and on the same day Buford and his horsemen 
entered Gettysburg. The Confederates were not yet there, and on the follow- 
ing day the First Corps, commanded by General J. F. Reynolds, reached that 
place. General Hill was then appi'oaohing from Chambei'sburg, and that night 
Buford lay between the Confederates and Gettysburg. On the following 
morning [July 1] he met the van of the Confederates. A hot skirmish ensued. 
Reynolds hastened forward t6 the scene of action, and on Oak or Seminary 
Ridge a severe battle was fought, in which Reynolds was killed. Meanwhile 
the Eleventh (Howard's) Corps came up, and the conflict assumed grander 
proportions, for Lee's troops were concentrating there. The Nationals were 
finally pressed back, and under the direction of Howard took an advantageous 
position on a range of rocky heights back of but close to Gettysburg, forming 
two sides of a triangle, whereof Cemetery Hill, nearest the town, was the 
apex. There the Nationals bivouacked that night, and Meade and the 
remainder of the troops hastened to join them. Lee's army occupied Seminary 
Ridge that night. 

Both commanders were averse to taking the initiative of battle, and it was 
between three and four o'clock in the afternoon of the 2d before the struggle 
was renewed. Then Lee fell heavilj^ upon Meade's left, commanded by Sickles. 
A sanguinary contest ensued, which gradually extended to the center, where 
'Hancock was in command. The chief struggle was for a rocky eminence, 
called Round Top Ridge, or Little Roimd Top ; but the Nationals firmly held 
it against fiei'ce assaults. Heavy masses were thrown against Hancock, but 
these wei'e cast back with heavy losses ; and, at sunset, the battle ended on 
the left and center of the Nationals. When the sounds of conflict' died away 
on that part of the field, they were heard on the right and right center, where 
Slocum and Howard were in command. Howard was on Cemetery Hill, and 
Slocum on Gulp's Hill. Against these Early and Johnson, of Ewell's corps, 



LINCOLN'S ADiriNISTRATION. 



655 



advanced with great vigor. They were thrown back from Cemetery Hill, hut 
succeeded in penetrating, and holding for the night, the works on the extreme 
ri'j;ht of Slocum's command. It was jiear ten o'clock at night [July 2, 1863] 
when the battle ended, and the advantage seemed to be with the Confederates. 

Both parties now prepared for another struggle the next day. It was 
begun at four o'clock in the morning [July 3], when Slocura drove the Con- 
federates out of his lines, and some distance back. It required a hard fight for 
four hours to accomplish it, but it was done. Then Ewell was firmly held in 
check. Round Top Ridge, on Meade's extreme left, was impregnable, and so 
Lee determined to assail his more vulnci-able center. He spent the whole fore- 
noon in preparations for an attack, and, at one o'clock, he opened upon Cem- 
etery Hill and its immediate vicinity one hundred and forty-five cannon. A 
hundred National guns quickly responded, and for the space of two hours 
Gettysburg and the surrounding country wei-e made to tremble by the thunder 
of more than two hundred cannon. Then, like a stream of lava, the Confed- 
erates, preceded by a cloud of skirmishers, swept over the plain, and assailed 
the National line. Fearful was the struggle, and fearful the loss. At near 
sunset the assailants were repulsed at every point, and the great and decisive 
Battle of Gettysburg was won by the Army of the Potomac. It had been 
fought with amazing courage and fortitude by both armies, and each was 
dreadfully shattered by the collision ' The -writer was upon the ground a few 
days after the battle, ^^ ^r^ji- -^_ _ 

wlien full two bundled 
dead horses were still 
unburied. The annexed 
picture shows a group ot 
them as they fell in the 
road in front of a fiim 
house, near Geneial 
Meade's head-quarteis 

On the evening of the 
day after tlie battle [July 
4, 1863], Lee began aie- 
treat toward Virginia, 
and, the next day, was 
followed by Meade, who 
chased him to the Potomac, at Williamsport, above Harper's Ferry. There, by 
strong intrenchments and a show of force, Lee kept Meade at bay until he could 
construct pontoon bridges, when, over these, and by fording the river above, the 
whole remnant of his army, his artillery and trains, passed into Virginia, and 
escaped, much to the disappointment of the loyal people. When it was known 
that the Confederates had been beaten at Gettysburg, and were in full retreat, 




SCENE OK THE GETTYSBnRG BATTLE-GBOnND. 



' The National loss during the three days of conflict was 23,186 men, of whom 2,834 were 
killed, 13,709 wounded, and 6,643 were missing. Lee, as usual, made no report of his losses. 
He spoke of them as having been "severe." A careful estimate, made from various statements, 
places it at about 30,000, of whom 14,000 were prisoners. 



656 '^^'^ NATION. [1SG3. 

it was expected they would be captured at the margin of the swollen Potomac. 
But that disappointment speedily gave way to a feeling of satisfaction because 
of the important victory. That battle proved to be the pivotal one of the 
war — tl>e turning point in the rebellion. The scale of success was then turned 
in favor of the National cause. It was so regarded at tlie time, and in view oi' 
the importance of the victory, the President, as the representative of the 
nation, recommended the observance of a day [Aug. 15] "for National thanks- 
giving, praise, and prayer." ' 

Wliile the loyal people were rejoicing because of the great deliverance at 
Gettysburg, and the government was preparing for a final and decisive 
struggle with its foes, leading politicians of the Peace Faction, evidently in 
affiliation with the disloj^al secret organization, known as Knif/hts of t/ie 
Golden Circle,^ were using every means in their power to defeat the patriotic 
purposes of the Administration, and to stir up the people of the Free-labor 
States to a counter-revolution. This had been their course for several months 
during the dark hours of the Pepublic, before the dawn at Gettysburg ; and 
the more strenuous appeared the eftbrts of the government to suppress the 
rebellion, more intense was their zeal in opposing it. This opposition was 
specially active, when the President, according to the authoi'ity of Congress, 
found it necessary, in consequence of the great discouragements to volunteering 
produced by the Peace Faction, to order [May 8, 1863] a draft or conscription 
to be made, to fill up the ranks of the army. This measure, the suspension of 
the privilege of the writ of Habeas Corpus, and arbitrary arrests, were severely 
denounced. These, and the arrest and ]mnishment, for treasonable practices, 
of C. L. Yallandigham, a citizen of'Ohio and late member of Congress, one of the 



' The Secretary of State, satisfied that the rebellion would soon be ended, addressed [August 
12, 1863] a clieeriug circular to the diplomatic afjents of the government abroad, in wliich ho 
recited the most important events m tlie liistory of tlie war thus for, and declared tliat tlie country 
" showed no signs of exhaustion of money, men, or materials ;" and mentioned tlie fact that our 
loan was purchased, at par, by our citizens at the average of Sl,'.iOO,000 daily, and that gold was 
selling in our market at 23 and 28 per cent, premium, ''while in tlie insurrectionary region it 
commanded 1,200 per cent, premium." According to the report of the Confederate "Secretary 
of the Treasury," at that time, the Confederate debt was over §000,000,000. At about the same 
time Davis, the Arch-Conspirator, sent forth an address, for the purpose of " firing the Soutliern 
heart," and reconciling the people to the merciless conscription they wore then subjected to, filled 
with the most malignant misrepresentations. He told them, in effect, that the Northern people 
were little better than savages. " Their malignant rage," he said, "aims at nothing less tlian tlio 
extermination of yourselves, your wives, and your children. They seek to destroy what they 
cannot plunder. They propose as spoils of victory that your homes shall be partitioned among 
wretches whose atrocious cruelty has stamped infamy on their government. They design to 
incite servile insurrection, and light the rires of incendiarism whenever they can reach your 
homes; and they debauch an inferior race, heretofore docile and contented, by promising thei:i 
the indulgence of the vilest passions as the price of their treachery." 

Davis was then exasperated by the finlure of an attempt of his to gain an official recognition 
by the government, by means of a trick. He sent his lieutenant, Alexander H. Stephens, under 
a false pretense, at the moment when Lee, as he thought, was marching triumphantly on Phila- 
delphia, to seek an interview with the President, as the representative of the "government," so- 
called, at Richmond. Stephens went to Fortress Monroe, but was not permitted to go farther. 
His mission to Washington doubtless liad a twofold object, namely, an offioial recognition of the 
Confederacy by the act of treating with it, and for the purpose of proclaiming the " Confederate 
government," with Jefferson Davis as Dictator, from the portico of the Capitol, when Lcc should 
seize Washington, as it was confidently believed he was abo\it to do 

" See page 520. 



1863.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



657 




most conspicuous leaders of the Peace Faction,' furnished that active fragment 
of tlie Democratic party' 'with pretenses for the most bitter denunciations 
of the government, and violent opposition to its measures. 

The inflammatory appeals of politicians e.xcited the passions of the more 
dangerous classes in cities, and finally led to a fearful riot in the city of New 
York, at the middle of July, the immediate pretext being opposition to the 
Draft, which commenced there 
on Monday, the 13th. A mob 
suddenly collected, destroyed 
the apparatus for making the 
Draft, and burned the build- 
ing. Like a plague this pub- 
lic disorder seemed to break 
out simultaneously at different 
])oints in the northern part of 
the city, and for three days 
the commercial metropolis 
was at the mercy of lawless 
men and women, chiefly na- 
tives of Ireland \ of the lower 

class, and disloyal men from Slave-labor States. The cry against the Draft 
soon ceased, and was followed with that of, " Down with the Abolitionists ! 
Down with the Nigger! Hurrah for Jeff. Davis!" Ar^on and plunder 
became the business of the rioters, and maiming and murder was their recrea- 
tion. The colored population of tlie city were S])ecial objects of their wrath. 
These were hunted do^\'Tl, bruised,-nnd killed, as if they had been noxious wild 
beasts. Men, women, and children shared a common fate. An asylum for 
colored children was sacked and burned, while the poor, affi'lghted orphans, 
some beaten and maimed, fled in terror to whatever shelter they conTd find. 
Finally, the police, aided by some troops, quelled the riot with the strong arm 
of power, after a sacrifice of full four hundred human lives, and the destruction 
of property valued^ at $2,000,000. After that, the Draft was resumed, and 
went quietly on.' 

' General Bnrnside, in command of tlie Department of the Ohio, issued an order for the sup- 
pression of sedition and treasonable speech and conduct. Vallandigham, whose sympathy witli 
the cause of the Conspirators had been conspicuously shown from the beginninfc. denounced tliis 
order, and openly violated it. He was arrested, tried by a military commission, found guilty, and, 
by orders of the President, was sent within tile Confederation, with a penalty of imprisonment 
should he return. He was treated with contempt by his "Southern friends," and soon made his 
way in a blockade-runner to Halifax, and thence into Canada. 

" Tlie Peace Paction of the "Democratic" or Opposition party did not fairly represent the 
great mass of the mertibers of that party. It was essentially disloyal: they were loyal. Yet 
the influence of thL^t faction was so potent, that it controlled the policy of the party as an organi- 
zation. Its aims appeared no higher than the control of the emoluments and offices of the gov- 
ernment : and the encouragement it continually held out to the Conspirators, by folsely repre- 
senting the Opposition party as friendly to their cause, and discouraging volunteering and other 
efforts for putting down the rebellion, prolonged the war at least two j'ears. and, as a consequence, 
tens of thousands of precious lives, and tens of millions of treasure, were wasted. 

- Horatio Seymour, who was one of the alilest of the leaders of the Peace Faction, and then 
Governor of the State of New Yorlc, liad denounced the government as a despot, because of the 

42 



O 



658 ^^^ NATION. [18G3. 

There appears to be ample evidence that preparations had been made 
among the disloyal politicians of the Free-labor States, at the time we are con- 
sidering, for a counter-revolution, which should compel the government to 
make terms of peace with the Conspirators, on the basis of a dissolution of the 
Union and the independence of the so-called Confederate States. The invasion 
of Maryland and Pennsylvania, so as to encourage the Peace Faction, was a 
part of the drama;' and chiefly for the encouragement of the same class in 
the Western States, and form a nucleus for armed opponents of the govern- 
ment in that region, the notorious guerrilla chief, John H. Morgan, was sent 
into Indiana and Ohio at the close of June, with over three thousand mounted 
men. He crossed the Ohio River from Kentucky into Indiana, some distance 
below Louisville, and, pushing a little into the interior, made a plundering 
raid eastward through that State and Ohio, well toward the Pennsylvania 
border. There was an uprising of the people because of his presence, but not 
such a one as the Peace Faction liad led him to expect. Within forty-eight 
hours after Morgan entered Indiana, sixty thousand of its citizens had re- 
sponded to the call of the Governor to turn out and drive him out of it. 
Equally patriotic were the people of Ohio. Morgan was pursued, and 
finally captured, with a remnant of his band, nearly all of whom were killed 
or made jirisoners. The truth seemed to be that the reverse of Lee at Gettys- 
burg had disconcerted the leaders of the Peace Faction, and they were com- 
pelled, by prudence, to postpone their revolutionary operations. The riot in 
New York seems to have been an irregular manifestation of an organized out- 
break in that city, when, as it was expected, the neighing of the horses of Lee's 
cavalry would be heard on the opposite banks of the Hudson. 

When Lee escaped into Virginia [July 14, 1863], and moved up the Shen- 
andoah Valley, Meade determined to follow him along the route pursued by 

arrest and punishment of Vallandigham, "not," he said, " for an offense against law, bnt for a 
disregard of an invalid order, put forth in an utter disregard of the principles of civil liberty." 
He opposed the Draft; mildly and without effect he interposed his authority as Grovernor to quell 
the riot, and sent his adjutant-general to Washington to demand the suspension of the Draft. 
This he told the mob, and said : " Wait till my adjutant returns from Washington, and you shall 
be satislied." He wanted the Draft postponed until the courts should decide whether it was con- 
stitutional, but this obvious advantage to the Conspirator.?, who were then filling their ranks by a 
rigorous con.scription, the President refused to give, and the Draft went on. 

' Lee's invasion was counted on largely as an aid to the Peace Faction in carrying o>it their 
plans. And after his failure, and he was lying quietly near the Rapid Anna, in September, the 
Richmond Enquirer said : " The success of the Democratic party [at tlie approaching election] 
would be no longer doubtful, should General Lee once more advance on Meade. . . . He 
may so move and direct his army as to produce political results, which, in their bearing upon this 
war, will prove more effectual than the bloodiest victories. Let him drive Meade into Washing- 
ton, and he will again raise the spirits of the Democrats, corfirm their timid, and give confidence 
to their wavering. He will embolden the Peace party should he again cross the Potomac, 
for he will show tlie people of Pennsylvania how little security they have from Lincoln for the 
protection of their homes." 

Matthew P. Maury, formerly Superintendent of the National Observatory, and one of the 
most unworthy traitors to ills country, said, in a letter to the L'mdon Times, on the nth Of 
August, 186:i: "There is already a Peace party in the North. All the embarrassments with 
whicli that party can surround Mr. Lincoln, and all the difficulties that it can throw in the way 
of the War party in tlie North, operate directly as so much aid and comfort to the South. . . . 
New York is becoming the champion of State Rights in the North, and to that extent is taking 
Southern ground. . . . Vallaudigham waits and watches over the border, pledged, if elected 
Governor of Ohio, to array it against Lincoln and the war, and go for peace." 



18G;i.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 559 

McClellan in his race for tlie Rappahannock with the same foe the year before,' 
keeping close to the eastern slopes of the Blue Ridge, and using its gaps as circum- 
stances might dictate. The Army of the Potomac crossed the river on the 1 7th 
and 18th of July, and moved rapidly forward, getting the start of its antagonist, 
wliich had lingered between the Potomac and Winchester. Lee tried to recall 
Mcadc, by threatening another invasion of Maryland. He failed, and then 
marclied rapidly up the Shenandoah Valley to meet the dangers that threatened 
his front and flank. Tliere were skirmishes in the mountain-passes during this 
exciting race, one of which, at Manassas Gap, so detained Meade's army, that 
Lee, by a quick movement, went through Chester Gap, and took position in 
front of the Nationals, between the Rappahannock and Rapid Anna rivers. 
Meade slowly advanced to the Rappahannock, and then the two armies rested 
for some time. Both were somewhat weakened by drafts upon them for men 
to serve elsewhere. Finally, at the middle of September, Meade crossed the 
river and drove Lee beyond the Rapid Anna, where the latter took a strongly 
defensive position. In the mean time Meade's cavalry had not been idle, and 
divisions under Buford and Kilpatrick had considerable skirmishing with tliose 
of Stuart between the two rivers. 

General Meade contemplated a forward movement for some time, and Lee, 
feeling able to cope with his antagonist, proposed to march directly on Wash- 
ington, at the risk of losing Richmond, but he was overruled by his " govern- 
ment." So he proceeded to employ the more cautious measure of turning 
Meade's right flank, and attempting to get in his rear and seize the National 
Capital. He had moved some distance for this purpose, and was on Meade's 
flank before the latter w.as aware of it. Then a close race in the direction of 
Washington, by the two armies, occurred for the third time. The Army of 
the Potomac was the winner, and reached the heights at Centreville, the first 
objective [October 15, 1863], before its antagonist. There had been some 
severe collisions on the way. Gregg's cavalry was routed, with a loss of five 
hundred men, at Jeifersonton. Stuart, with about two thousand men, hung 
closely ujjon the rear flank of Meade's array, and at Auburn he came near 
being captured, with all his men. He escaped, however ; and from that point 
to Bristow Station there was a sharp race. There a battle occurred between 
the corps of Generals Warren and Hill, in which the pursuing Confederates 
were repulsed, and the Union force moved on and joined the main army, then 
at Centreville. At Bristow Station Lee gave up the race, and fell back to the 
Rappahannock, destroying the Orange and Alexandria railway behind liim. 
Meade slowly followed, after the railway was repaired, attacked the Confed- 
erates at Rappahannock Station, on the river, and, after a severe battle, drove 
them toward Culpepper Court-House. 

Lee now took post again behind the Rapid Anna, and Meade's army 
lay quietly between the two rivers until late in November, while he was 
watching for a favorable opportunity to advance on his foe, whose forces, 
he had observed, were spread over a considerable surface, in the direction 

' See page 631. 



QQQ THE NATION. [ISC:!. 

of Gordonsville. But Lee had begun the construction of strong defenses along 
the line of Mine Run, and Meade determined to advance and attempt to turn 
his position. It would be a perilous undertaking at that season of the year, 
for it involved the necessity of cutting loose from his supplies, which could not 
be carried with safety to the soutli side of the Rapid Anna. The risk was 
taken. The troops were provided with ten days' rations, and, crossing the 
river on the 26th [November, 1863], pushed on in the direction of Mine Run, 
along the line of which were strong intrenchments, defended bj' heavy ahrttis. 





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General Warren, in the advance, opened a battle, but it was soon found that 
the Confederates were too strongly intrenched to promise a successful assault. 
So Meade suspended the attack, withdrew, and established his army in winter 
quarters on the north side of the Rapid Anna. So ended the campaign of the 
Army of the Potomac in 1863. 

In Western Virginia, adjoining the great theater on which the armies of 
the Potomac and of Northern Virginia were ])erforming, there liad been very 
few military movements of importance since the close of 1861. In the summer 
of ] 86.3 a raiding party, under Colonel Tolland, went over the mountains from 
the Kanawha Valley, and struck the Virginia and Tennessee railway at 
Wytheville. Finding sharp resistance, they retraced their steps with great 
suffering. A little later. General W. W. Averill went over the mountain- 
ranges from Tygar.t's Valley, with a strong cavalry force, destroyed Confed- 
erate salt-works and oth*r property, and menaced Staunton. He fought Con- 
federate cavalry near White Sulphur Springs for nearly two days [August 26 
and 27], and was compelled to retreat. Early in November he started on 

' Alaivi is a French term in Fortification, for obstructions placed in front of works, composed 
of felled trees, with their branches pointing outward. Such obstruction is represented in the 
engraviu''. 



1863.] LINCOLN'S A D MINISTR A T I X. QQl 

another expediuoii, pushing the Confederates before him in the mountain 
I'egious, and nearly jjurging West Virginia of armed rebels. He pushed ibr- 
ward for the purpose of breakihg up the Virginia and Tennessee railway, 
which was the chief communication between the armies of Lee and Bragg, 
and on the 16th of December, after a perilous march, over icy roads, he struck 
that highway at Salem, and destroyed tlie track and other property over an 
extent of about fifteen miles. The Confederates in all that region were 
aroused, and no less than se\en difierent leaders combined in an attempt 
to intercept Averill's return, but failed. The raider escaped, with two hun- 
dred prisoners, and a loss of only six men drowned, live wounded, and ninety 
missing. 

Let us now turn our attention to events in Tennessee, where we left the large 
armies of Jlosecrans and Bragg, after the Buttle of Stone's River, the former 
at Jlurfrecsboro' and the latter a little further southward.' Bragg's line was 
along the general direction of the Duck lliver, from near the Cumberland 
mountains westward," and in that relative position thfe two armies lay from 
January until June [1863], Rosecrans waiting to complete full preparations for 
an advance, before moving. Meanwhile, detachments of the two armies, chiefly 
of mounted men, were active in minor operations. At the beginning of Feb- 
ruary, General Wheeler, Bragg's chief of cavalry, with Wharton and Forrest 
as brigadiers, concentrated his forces, over four thousand strong, at Franklin, 
a little south of Nashville, and, advancing rapidly to the Cumberland River, 
attem))ted to capture the post of F'ort Donelson,^ then commanded by Colonel 
Harding. They were repulsed, after considerable loss on both sides. General 
J. C. Davis was operating in Wheeler's rear, and hastened his departure from 
the region of the Cumberland. A little later, General Earl Van Dorn was 
found hovering around Franklin with a considerable force of cavalry and 
infantry, and against these General Sheridan and Colonel Colburn were sent. 
The latter was compelled to surrender [March 5] to superior numbers, while 
the former drove Van Dorn southward across the Duck River. 

There was a severe struggle eastward of ^Inrfreesboro' [ JIarch 1 8] between 
troops under Colonel Hall and those of Morgan, the guerrilla chief, in which 
the latter were worsted, and lost between three and four hundred men. 
Early in April Van Dorn was again in the vicinity of Franklin, with a force 
estimated at nine thousand men, the object being to seize that post, preliminary 
to an attack on Nashville, the great depository of Rosecrans's supplies. Gen- 
eral Gordon Granger was then in command at Franklin, whei-e lie was building 
a fort on the bank of the Harpeth River, and, being forewarned, he was pre- 
pared for an attack, which Van Dorn made on the 10th [April, 1863]. The 
Confederates were repulsed and retired to Spring Hill, after a loss of about 

' See page 639. 

^ Bragg's line extended from Columbia, on the west, to McMinnville, on the east. His infantry 
occupied tlie space between Warlrace and Shelbyville ; his cavalry, on his right, stretched out to 
McMinnville, and on his left as far as Spring Hill, between Franklin and Columbia. 

' Forrest had been operating at one or two other points on the Cumberland, for the purpose 
iif cutting off Rosecrans's supplies by way of that river, for his army was chiefly subsisted by 
provisions that came down from the region of the Ohio River. 



662 



THE NATION. 



[1803. 



three hundred men. The Union loss was less than forty.' A few days later 
a detachment of Rosecrans's army, under General J. J. Reynolds, drove a band 
of Morgan's men from McMihnville [April 20], and destroyed a good deal of 
Confederate property there ; and these and lesser expeditions, sent out from 
time to time, while Rosecrans was procuring cavalry horses and making other 
preparations for an advance, caused great circumspection on the part of the 
Confederates. 

A more ambitious expedition than any previously sent out by Rosecrans, 
moved toward the middle of April, under Colonel A. D. Streight, for the pur- 
pose of crippling the resources of the foe. He left Nashville in steamers [April 
11], and, debarking at Fort Donelson, crossed over to the Tennessee River at 
Fort Henry, and ascended that stream to the borders of Mississippi and Ala- 
bama, gathering horses for his use on the way. At Tuscumbia, niost of his 
troo]3s being then mounted, Streight turned southward, and, sweeping through 
Alabama in a curve bending eastward, pushed on toward Rome, in Northern 
Georgia, where extensive iron-works were in operation, and Atlanta, an import- 
ant railway center. The cavalry of Forrest and Roddy followed. The 
parties skirmished and raced; and finally, when near Rome, Streight's 
exhausted command was struck and mostly captured [May 3, 1863], when 




LIBBY PRISOK, BIOIIMOND. 



they were sent to Richmond, and confined in the famous Libby Prison. From 
that loathsome place the leader and one hundred of his officers escaped, in 
February following, by burrowing under the foundations of the building. 

As June wore away, and the Army of the Cumberland (Rosecrans's) was 

' Tan Dorn was one of the most dashing of the Confederate leaders. He was shot soon after 
the battle we hare just considered, by an indignant husband, whose wife the Confederate leader 
had dishonored. 



I8«3.] LINCOLN'S AD MIN I ST U AT 1 OX. ggg 

yet lying at Murfreesboi-o', the public, unable to comprehend the obstacle to 
its advance, became impatient of the delay. The cavalry of that army was 
then in a fair condition, and its supplies being abundant, Rosecrans, on the 
23d of June, ordered an advance, his grand objective being Chattanooga. 
Bragg, his antagonist, was strongly intrenched among hills favorable for 
defensive operations. Yet the Army of the Cumberland, moving in three 
corps, commanded respectively by Generals Thomas, McCook, and Crittenden, 
was so skillfully managed, that the Confederates were soon pushed from their 
position along the line of the Duck River, back to Tullahoma. When Bragg 
saw Rosecrans seize the mountain passes on his front, and threaten his flanks 
in his new position, he fled [June 30, 1863] without offering to give a blow in 
defense of a line of most formidable works which he had cast up in the course 
of several months. 

Rosecrans now pressed hard upofi the rear of the fugitive Confederates, 
but the latter having the railway for transportation, kept out of his reach, and 
pusiied as rapidly as possible over the Cumberland Mountains toward the Ten- 
nessee River, which they crossed at Bridgeport, destroyed the bridge behind 
them, and hastened to Chattanooga.' Rosecrans advanced his army to the 
base of the mountains, when, finding Bragg too far ahead to be easily over- 
taken, he halted his entire force, and rested more than a month while gathering 
supplies for his army at proper jjlaces,'' and repairing the railway from the 
high table-land at Decherd, down through the mountain pass of Big Crow 
Creek, to Stevenson. At the middle of August he moved forward, his army 
stretched over a long line east and west, with cavalry on its flanks. In the 
course of four or five days it crossed the mountain ranges and stood along the 
shores of the Tennessee from above Chattanooga westward for a hundred 
miles, startling [August 21, 1863] Bragg by its apparition, the thunder of can- 
non on the eminences opposite that town, and the screaming of shells over the 
Confederate camp. 

Early in September, Thomas and McCook crossed the Tennessee with their 
corps at points each side of Bridgeport, where the railway spans it, and by 
the 8th had secured the passes of Lookout ]Mountain as far as Valley Head, 
while Crittenden's coi'ps took post at Wauhatchie, in Lookout Valley, nearer 
the river. Informed of these threatening movements, Bragg abandoned Chat- 
tanooga, passed through the gaps of the Missionaries' Ridge' to the West 
Chickamauga River, in Northern Georgia, and posted his army in a strong 
position near Lafayette, to meet the National forces expected to press through 

' This expulsion of Bragg's army from Middle Tennessee, by which a greater portion of that 
State and Kentucky -n^ left under the absolute control of the National authority, was a dis- 
hearteuing event for the Confederates, and they now felt that every thing depended upon their 
holding Ciiattanooga, the key of East Tennessee, and, indeed, of all Northern Georgia. 

^ Bragg had stripped that mountain region of forage, so Rosecrans waited until the Indian 
corn, in cultivated spots, was sufficiently grown to furnish a supply. Meanwhile he gathered 
supplies at Tracy City and Stevenson, "and thoroughly picketed the railway from Cowan to 
Bridgeport. 

' The writer was informed by the late John Ross, the venerable Chief of the Cherokee 
Nation, tliat this undulating'ridge, lying back of Chattanooga and rising about 300 feet above the 
Tennessee River, was named the Missionaries' Ridge because missionaries among the Cherokees 
had a station on the southeastern slope of it. 



664 



THE NATION. 



[1863. 



the mountain passes. .'This was done in expectation of precisely what Rose- 
crans proceeded to do, namely, pass through the mountains, and threaten his 
enemy's communications between Dalton and Resaca. Rosecrans came to this 
determination with tlie mistaken idea, when informed by Crittenden that 
Bragg had left Chattanooga, that the latter had commenced a retreat towarct 
Rome. Crittenden, who had made a reconnoissance on Lookout Mountain, 
and from its loftj' summit looked down upon Chattanooga and observed that 
Bragg had retreated from it, immediately moved his corps into the Chatta- 
nooga Valley, and on the evening of the ] 0th of September, encamped at 
Rossville, within three or four miles of the deserted village. Thus, without a 
battle, the chief object of the movement of the Army of the Cumberland 
over the mountains was gained. With great ease Bragg had been expelled 
from Middle Tennessee, and was now held at bay in an unfortified position, 
away from the coveted stronghold and sti-ategic position of Chattanooga. 

General Burnside, who was in command of the Army of the Ohio, was 
now brought into active co-operation with Rosecran.'s, having been ordered to 
pass over the mountains into East Tennessee to assist that leader in his struggle 
with Bragg. When summoned to that field, he concentrated his command, 
then in hand, about twenty thousand in number, at Crab Orchard, in South- 
eastern Kentucky. He prepai'ed for a rapid movement. Ills infantry were 

mostly mounted ; his cavalry and artil- 
lery had good horses, and his supplies 
were carried on pack-mules, that more 
facile movements might be made than a 
wagon-train would allow. On the day 
when Bragg was startled by the great 
guns of his pursuer at Chattanooga 
[August 21, 1863], Burnside began his 
march over the Cumberland mountains, 
a cavalry brigade in advance. They 
soon passed the great ranges, and wore 
speedily posted on the line of the rail- 
way southwesterly from Loudon, on the 
Tennessee River, so as to connect with 
Rosecrans at Chattanooga. General 
Buckner, who commanded about twenty thousand troops in East Tennessee, 
had retired on Burnside's approach, and joined Bragg, and the important moun- 
tain pass of Cumberland Gap was soon in possession of the Nationals. The 
great valley between the Alleghany and Cumberland mountains, from Cle^'e- 
land to Bristol, seemed to be permanently rid of armed Confederafces.' 




■-":^-?s5 



PAOK-MULES. 



' The magnificent Valley of Ea.st Tennessee has an average width of seventy-five miles, and 
:i length of two hundred miles. The loyal inhabitants of that region received the National 
troops with open arms. It is difficult to conceive the intensity of the feeling.s of the Union peo- 
ple along the line of Burnside's march. "Everywhere." wrote an eye-witness, "tlie people 
flocl\Gd to the roadsides, and. with cheers and wildest demonstrations of welcome, sainted the 
flag of the Republic and the men who had borne it in triumph to the very heart of the ' Confed- 
eracy.' Old men wept at the sight, which they had waited for through months of suffering; 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



665 



Ik'lieving, as we have observed, that Bragg had begun a retreat toward 
Rome, Rosecrans pushed his troops through the gaps of Lookout Mountain to 
strike his flank, but he soon ascertained that his toe, instead of retreating, was 
concentrating his forces at Lafayette, to attack the now attenuated line of the 
Army of the Cumbeiland, whose left was at Ringgold and its right near Alpine 
— points, by the National line, about fifty miles apart. Rosecrans immediately 
ordered the concentration of his own troops, to avoid and meet perils that 
threatened them. This was quickly done, and at a little past the middle of 
September [1863], the contending forces confronted each other, in battle array, 
on each side of the 'C^hickamauga Creek, in the vicinity of Crawford's Spring 
and Lee and Gordon's Mill, the lino of each stretching northward to the slopes 
of the Missionaries' Ridge. 

General Thomas took position on the extreme National left, and opened 
battle on the morning of the 19th [September], by attacking the Confederate 
right. The conflict raged almost without intermission until four o'clock in the 
afternoon, when there was a lull. It was renewed by the Confederates at five 
o'clock, and continued until dark. On the right center there had been some 
severe fighting, and wlieii night fell the advantage appeared to be with the 
Nationals. In the mean time Long- 
street, who had been sent from Vir- 
ginia, by Lee, with his corjjs, to help 
Bragg, and liad passed through the 
Carolinas and Georgia to Atlanta, was 
now coming up with his forces. He 
arrived on the field that night, and 
assumed command of Bragg's left, and 
on the morning of the 20th the Con- 
lederates had full seventy thousand 
men opposed to fifty-five thousand 
Nationals. 

Both parties prepared to renew 
the struggle in the morning. Thomas's 
troops intrenched during the night. 
A heavy fog enveloped the armies in 

the morning, and when it lifted, between eight and nine o'clock, a most san- 
guinary battle was commenced on the wing where Thomas was in command. 
It soon raged furiously along the whole line. Finally a desperate charge was 
made upon the temporarily weakened right center of the Nationals, when the 
line was broken. The right wing was shattered into fragments, and fled in 
disorder toward Rossville and Chattanooga, carrying along upon its turbulent 
and resistless tide Rosecrans, Crittenden, and McCook, while Sheridan an.d 

cliilJren, even, hailed with joy the sign of deUverance. Nobly have these persecuted people 
stood by their faith, and all loyal men will rejoice with them in their rescue at last from the clutch 
of the destroyer." •• They were so glad to see Union soldiers," wrote another, '-that they cooked 
every thing they had, and gave it freely, not asking pay, and apparently not thinking of it. T^'omen 
stood by the roadside with pails of water, and displayed Union flags. The wonder was where 
all the 'Stars and Stripes' came from." 




GEORGE H. THOMAS. 



QQQ THE NATION. [18G3 

Davis rallied a portion of it upon another road. Rosecrans, unable to join 
Thomas, and believing the whole army would be speedily hurrying, pell-mell, 
toward Chattanooga, pushed on to that place to make provision for holding 
it, if possible. But Thomas stood firm, and for awhile fought a greater part 
of the Confederate army, enduring shock after shock, and keeping it at bay 
until he could withdraw his forces, in obedience to an order from Rosecrans. 
This was done in good order, and the worn and wearied troops took jjosition in 
the Rossville and Dry Valley gaps of the Missionaries' Ridge, where they 
bivouacked that night. On the following evening the whole army fell back to 
Chattanooga ; and within forty-eight hours after the battle it was so strongly 
intrenched that it defied Bragg, who had not thought it prudent to follow the 
retreating forces from the battle-field. He contented himself with taking pos- 
session of the Missionaries' Ridge and Lookout Mountain. Victory was won 
by the Confederates in the battle of Chickamauga, but at a fearful cost to both 
armies.' 

The Army of the Cumberland was now closely imprisoned at Chattanooga. 
By holding Lookout Mountain, which abuts upon the Tennessee River, Bragg 
commanded that stream and cut oif Rosecrans's communication with his sup- 
plies at Bridgeport and Stevenson, and compelled him to transport them in 
wagons, over the rough mountains, fifty or si.xty miles. This was a severe and 
precarious service. For awhile the army was on short allowance, and not less 
than ten thousand horses and mules were worked or starved to death in the 
service. In the mean time a change in the organization of the army was 
effected. It was determined by the government to hold Chattanooga, and for 
that purpose it was ordered that the armies under Ijurnsidc, Rosecrans, and 
Grant, should be concentrated there. Over these combined forces Grant was 
placed. His field of command was called the Military Division of the Missis- 
sippi '^ 

When Grant arrived at Chattanooga, late in October, he found Thomas 
alive to the importance of securing a safe and speedy way for supplies to reach 
that post. Nearly the whole of Bragg's cavalry had been operating against 

' The National loss was reported at 16,326. of whom 1,681 were killed. The total loss of 
officers was 974. It is probable the entire Union loss was 19.000. The Confederate loss was 
20,950, of whom 2,674 were killed. Rosecrans brought off from the field 2,003 prisoners, 36 
guns, 20 caissons, and .^,450 small-arm.?. 

' Kosecran.s was relieved of tlie command of the Army of the Cumberland, and was succeeded 
by Thomas, and General W. T. Sherman was promoted to the command of Grant's Array of the 
Tennessee. Rosecrans was ordered to St. Louis, and was placed in command of the Department 
of Missouri. 

Before Grant was called to his enlarged command, he had taken measures for securing every 
advantage of the victories at Vicksburg and Port Hudson. He sent his paroled prisoners (see 
page G46) lo the Confederate lines at Jackson, and on the same day ordered Sherman to lead a 
heavy force against Johnston, whose troops were hovering in the rear of Vicksburg. His head- 
quarters was at Jackson, and wlien Sherman advanced, he concentrated his forces there, behind 
intrenchments. From there he was driven on the l.'fth of July, when he fled toward the interior 
of Mississippi. Grant cast up a line of fortifications around Vicksburg, and with these, and the 
expulsion of Johnston, that post was made secure. On tlie day of the fall of Vicksburg, the 
important post of Helena, in Arkansas, fiirther up tlie Mississippi, was attacked by a heavy force 
of Confederates, but they were repulsed with heavy loss: and wlien Grant was summoned to the 
command at Chattanooga, the freedom of navigation on the Mississippi River seemed to be per- 
manently secured. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



667 



his line of communications .among the mountains. They had seized and 
destroyed wagon-trains, and, notwithstanding tliey were driven here and there 
by Union cavalry, these raiders made the safe transportation of supplies so 
doubtful, that the troops at Chattanooga were threatened with famine. Thomas 
had already devised a method of relief. General Hooker had been sent with 
the Eleventh and Twelfth Corps (Howard's and Slocum's), from the Army of 
the Potomac, to guard Rosecrans's communications. He was now at Bridge- 
port with a part of these forces, and it was proposed that he should cross the 
Tennessee with them, and, pushing into Lookout Valley, threaten Bragg's 
left, and cover the river to a point ^f here a short route by land to Chattanooga 
might be obtained. Grant approved the plan, and it was executed. Hooker 
reached Wauhatchie, in Lookout Valley, after some fighting, on the 28th of 
October, and at the same time General W. F. Smith came down from Chatta- 
nooga, and threw a pontoon bridge across the river at a point only a few miles 
from that town.' This movement, a Riclimond journal said, deprived the 
Confederates "of the fruits of Chickamauga." 

From the hour when Hooker entered Lookout Valley, his movements had 
been keenly watched by the Confederates on Lookout Mountain, and at mid- 
night [October 28, 29] a strong body of them swept down from the hills and 
fell suddenly upon the Nationals at Wauhatchie, commanded by General 
Geary, expecting to surprise them. They were mistaken. Geary was awake, 
and met the attack bravely; and, with the help of troops from Howard's 
(Eleventh) corps, repulsed the assailants, and scattered them in every direc- 
tion. From that time the safe passage of the i-iver, from Bridgeport to 
Brown's Ferry, was secured. Bragg's 
plans for starving the National army 
were defeated, and a little steamboat, 
called Chattanooffu, was soon carry- 
ing jjrovisions up the river, in abun- 
dance." 

While these events were occurring 
near Chattanooga, others of importance 
were seen in the great Valley of East 
Tennessee. Burnside's forces were busied 
in endeavors to drive the armed rebels 
out of that region, and in so doing sev- _ _ 

eral skirmishes and heavier engagements ^^^ chattanooga. 

occurred, the most prominent of which 
were at Blue Springs and Rogersville. Meanwhile, Longstreet was sent by 



a^i 




' Eis'iteen hundred troops, under General Hazen, went down tlie river in batteaux at about 
midnight [October 26 and 27], gliding unobserved by the Confederate sentinels along the base of 
Lookout Mountain, where the Tennessee sweeps around Moccasin Point, and, witli other troops 
tliat went down by land, seized Brown's Ferry and threw a pontoon bridge across the river tliere. 
Hool<cr's troops coming up, connected with those at the ferry, and secured its possession to the 
Nationals. u ■ <• 

■•' Tliere was no steamboat to be found on the Tennessee River in that region, so mechanics ot 
the army built one for the public service, and called it Chattanooga. 



668 THE X ATI ON. [1863. 

Bragg to seize Kno-xville and drive the Nationals out of East Tennessee. He 
advanced swiftly and secretly, and on the 20th of October struck the first 
startling blow at the outpost of Philadelphia, and drove the Nationals to the 
Tennessee, at Loudon. Below that point he crossed, and moved on Knoxville, 
but was temporarily checked by Burnside in a severe fight at Campbell's Sta- 
tion, each losing between three and four hundred men. Burnside fell back to 
Knoxville, where he was strongly intrenched, closely followed by Longstroet, 
who began a regular siege of the place. 

While the Confederates were besieging Knoxville, stirring events were 
occurring near Chattanooga. Grant had been waiting for the arrival of forces 
under Sherman, to enable him to advance on Bragg and send relief to Burn- 
side. So early as the 22d of September, that commander had been ordered, 
with as many troops as could be spared from the line of the Mississippi, to 
proceed to the help of Rosecrans. These troops were on the line of the Mem- 
phis and Charleston railway, at the middle of October, and toward the close 
of the month they were summoned by Grant to Stevenson, to head off an 
anticipated flank movement by Bragg, in the direction of Nashville. When 
Sherman arrived there, c\ents were in such shape that Grant tliought it proper 
to attack Bragg as speedily as possible, for the twofold purpose of preventing 
his flight southward, which he suspected was his design, and to demoralize or 
weaken Longstreet's force and compel iiim to abandon the siege of Knoxville. 

Grant determined to aim his first heavy blow at Bi-agg's riglit, on the Mis- 
sionaries' Ridflje. Sherman was directed to cross the Tennessee, and menace 
his right on Lookout Mountain, and then secretly recross, move to a point 
above Chattanooga, cross again, and advance on the Ridge. All this was 
satisfactorily done. Meanwhile, it was thought best to make a movement 
from the center, at Chattanooga. This was performed [November 23] by 
Thomas, when a commanding eminence in front of the Missionaries' Ridge, 
called Orchard Knob, was seized by the Nationals and fortified. Hooker was 
then ordered to attack Bragg's right on Lookout Mountain early the next 
morning, so as to attract the attention of the Confederates while Sherman 
should cross the Tennessee above Chattanooga. 

Hooker performed his prescribed duty with ^igor and success. He opened 
his guns upon the breastworks and rifle-pits of the Confederates along the 
steep, wooded, and broken slopes of the mountain, and then his troops, dash- 
ing vigorously forward, swejit every thing before them, and captured a large 
portion of their foes on their front. Then the victors scaled the rugged sides 
of the mountain, up to the muzzles of cannon planted in a hollow far toward its 
summit, and driving the Confederates there around an arable belt in the direc- 
tion of the Chattanooga Valley, established a line firmly on the eastern face 
of the mountain, with its right resting at the palisades at its top. During a 
greater part of the struggle which ended in this advantage to the Nationals, 
Lookout Mountain was hooded in a mist that went up from the Tennessee in 
the morning, and Hooker's troops were literally fighting in the clouds, and 
were hidden from their listening brethren at Chattanooga below, who heard 
the thunders of the cannon, but could only get an occasional glimpse of the 



18C3.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION, 



669 



Union bcinners.' Perceiving the danger of having their only way of retreat to 
the Cliattanooga Valley cut oft", the Confederates occupying the summit of tlie 
mountain fled at midnight, masking their retreat by an attack on the Nationals, 
in tlie gloom. In the bright sunlight and 
crisp morning air the next day, the National 
flag was seen by delighted eyes below, wav- 
ing over Pulpit Rock, on the top of Lookout 
Mountain, where, only a few days before, Jef- 
ferson Davis had stood and assured the assem- 
bled troops that all was well with the Con- 
federacy. 

While Hooker was fighting on Lookout 
Mountain, Sherman's troops were crossing 
the Tennessee on pontoon bridges. They 
were all over at noonday, and, pressing for- 
war.d, secured a position on the northern end 
of the Missionaries' Ridge. That night [No- 
vember 24] both armies prepared for a struggle 
in the morning. Bragg withdrew all of his 
forces from Lookout Mountain, and concen- 
trated them on the Missionaries' Ridge ; aiid 
on the following day [November 25, 1803] 
they were attacked there in flank and front. 
Sherman moved early along the ridge, with 

flank columns at the base on each side. Hooker descended from Lookout 
Mountain, and, entering Ross's Gap, made a similar movement upon Bragg's 





THE MISSIONARtES' RIDGE, FBOM THE CEMETERY AT CHATTANOOGA. '' 

riglit, in the afternoon. A terrible struggle ensued, which Grant, standing on 

' During this struggle, a battery, planted on Moccasin Point, under Captain Naylor, did 
excellent service. It actually dismounted one of tlie guns in a Confederate battery, on the 
summit of the mountain, 1.500 feet above the river. 

'' This ridge is made up of a series of small hills, with gaps or passes between. The hdl more 
m the foreground, at the left, is Orchard Knob, on which Grant made his quarters dunng the 
battle of the 25th. 



670 



THE NATION. 



[1S63. 



Orcliard Knob, watched with the most intense interest. The center, under 
Thomas, was ordered forward. The eager soldiers cleared the rifle-pits at the 
foot of the ridge, and then scaled the acclivity. The Confederates were speedily 
driven from their stronghold, and fled in the direction of Ringgold ; and that 
night the Missionaries' Ridge blazed with the camp-fires of the victors.' Early 
the next morning, Sherman, Palmer, and Hooker went in pursuit of Bras^f's 
flying army. His rear-guard, under Cleburne, the " Stonewall Jackson of the 
South," was struck at Ringgold, and, after sharp fighting, was driven. Then 
Grant's troops fell back, and General Sherman was sent to the relief of Burn- 
side. Bragg retreated to Dalton, established a fortified camp there, and was 
succeeded in command by General Josejjh E. Johnston. Davis made Bragof 
General-in-Chief of the Confederate armies. 

Immediately after his arrival before Knoxville, Longstreet opened some of 
his guns [November IS, 1863] upon the National works, and sharply attacked 

their advance, under General W. P. 
Sanders, who was in immediate com- 
mand there. A severe but short en- 
gagement ensued, in which Sanders 
was killed, and his troops were driven 
back to their works. From that time 
until the dark night of the 28th, 
Longstreet closely invested Knoxville.' 
Then, alarmed by the news of Bragg's 
disaster at Chattanooga, and being 
re-enforced by nearly all of the Con- 
federate troops then in East Tennessee, 
he proceeded, at midnight, to assail 
Fort Sanders, the principal work of 
the defenses of Knoxville. It was 
a strong, bastioned earth-work. The 
troops that defended it, as well as others there, were under the immediate 
command of General Ferrero. A gallant defense was made. A heavy storming 
party of Confederates, who made a most cotirageous attack, were repulsed 




JAMES LONGSTREET. 



' The Union loss was 5,616, of whom 757 were killed. The Confederate loss was a little 
over 9,000, of whom 6,000 were prisoners. Grant captured, 40 pieces of cannon and 7,000 
small-arms. General Halleek said, in a report of the operations of the army; '-Considering the 
strength of the rebel position and the difficulty of storming his intrenchments. the Battle of 
Chattanooga must l)e regarded as the most remarkable in history. Not only did the officers and 
men exhibit great skill and daring in their operations in the field, but the higliest praise is also 
due to the commanding genera! for his admirable dispositions for dislodging the enemy from a 
position'apparently impregnable." 

' When the siege commenced there was in the commissary department little more than one 
day's rations, and supplies could then be received only from the south side of the liolslon, across 
a pontoon bridge, the foe holding tlie avenues of approach to Knctville on tlie north side of the river. 
Burnside's efforts were directed to keeping open the country between the HolsCbn and the French 
Broad, and every attempt of Longstreet to seize it-%vas promjitly met. A considerable quantity 
of corn and wheat, and some pork, was soon collected in Kno.xville, but almost from the beginning 
of the siege the soldiers were compelled to subsist on half and quarter rations, without coffee or 
sugar. Indeed, during the last few days of the siege, the bread of their half-rations was made 
of clear bran. 



1863.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. QfJ^ 

witli fearful loss, and Knoxville was saved.' Sherman's forces were then 
pressing forward, and on the morning of the 3d of Decembei', when Ijong- 
street perceived that his army was flanked, he raised tlie siege, and withdrew 
towavd Virginia. Then Sherman and his troops returned to Chattanooga, 
liecause of the victory at the latter place and the salvation of Knoxville, the 
President recommended the loyal people to give public thanks to Almighty 
God " for the great advancement of the National cause." 

Let us now turn again to the Atlantic coast, and consider the most prom- 
inent events there after the departure of Burnsidc from North Carolina and 
the seizure of the coasts of South Carolina, Georgia, and Florida." Burnside left 
General Foster in command of the troops in North Carolina; and from New 
Berne, which was his principal head-quarters, the latter sent out expeditions 
from time to time to break up rendezvous of Confederates and scatter their 
forces, for it was evident that they were watching opportunities to recapture 
lost posts in that State. Sometimes sharp skirmishes would ensue, and heavy 
losses occm\ In one of his raids to Goldsboro' [DecemlTer, 1862], for the pur- 
pose of damaging tlie Weldon and Wilmington railwaj', Foster lost over five 
hundred men. He attempted to establish communication with the National 
forces at Suffolk and Norfolk, but when Burnsidc was repulsed at Fredericks- 
burg,' and Confederate troops sent from North Carolina to assist Lee in that 
cam]iaign were thereby released, he abandoned further attempts at that time. 
Finally, General D. H. Hill was ordered to make a diversion in favor of Long- 
street at Suffolk,^ where, with a considerable force, he first menaced New 
Berne, and then marched on Little Washington. He invested that place 
[March 30, 1863], and the li'itle garrison of twelve hundred men were speedily 
cut off from the outside world. Finally, the Fifth Rhode Island Regiment 
went to its relief, from New Berne [April s], by water. The blockade of the 
river Avas run [April 13], and the garrison was relieved; and when, a little 
later, Foster marched upon Hill, the latter withdrew to the interior of the 
State. During the succeeding summer Foster kept up his raids, until he was 
called to take the place of General Dix, in command at Fortress Monroe. 

Looking farther down the Atlantic coast, we observe vigorous jJi'eparations 
for an attempt to take Charleston. Admiral Dupont was working with Gen- 
eral Hunter to that end, in the spring of 1863, when, at the middle of May, a 
slave named Robert Small (a pilot), and a few fellow-bondmen, came out of 
the liarbor of Charleston in the Confederate steamer. Planter, delivered her to 
Dupont, and communicated information concerning military affairs at Charles- 

' The charge of the stormins party was greatly impeded by a novel contrivance. Between the 
abatis and rifle-pits in front of Fort Sanders, the ground was covered with the stumps of recently 
felled trees. E.xtending from one to another of these stumps were strong wires, aliout a foot 
above tlie ground, and these tripped the assailants at almost every step. Whole companies were 
prostrated by this wire net-work, and at the same time the double-shotted guns of the fort were 
playing fearfully upon them. Yet the assailants pressed up, gained the ditch, and one ofBcer 
actually reached the parapet and planted tlie Confederate flag there. He soon rolled dead into 
tlie ditch, wliich was swept by a bastion cannon. Lieutenant Benjamin, cliief of artillery in the 
fort, actually took bomb-shells in his hand, ignited tlie fuses, and threw them over into the 
ditch, where they produced great destruction of life. 

' See pages 607 and 608. ' See page 6:11. * See page 652. 



gY2 THE NATION. [1863. 

ton of great value. Hunter concentrated troops on Eilisto Island, preparatory 
to throwing them suddenly upon James's Island, and marching swiftly on tlie 
deeply offending city, while otlier troops were sent to break up the railway 
connecting the cities of Charleston and Savannah. Meanwhile the Confed- 
erates prepared to meet the Nationals on James's Island ; and, finally, when 
Union troops crossed over to that island, under the direction of General Ben- 
ham, and attacked [June IC, 1863] Confederate works at Secessionville, they 
were repulsed M'illi great loss. This event postponed the intended march on 
Charleston, and in September Hunter was superseded by the energetic General 
O. 31. Mitchel. That officer was making preparations for vigorous measures 
for indirect operations against Charleston, when he sickened and died [Oct. 
30]. General Brannan attempted to carry out his plans against the Charleston 
and Savannah railway, but he found that road so well guarded at points to 
which he penetrated that he could not accomplish his pur])Ose. 

jVfter Mitchel's death little was done by tlie military in the Department 
of the South until the following spring. The navy in that region was sooie- 
what active in other than mere blockading service. Late in February [1863], 
the famous blockade runner, I^ashville, imprisoned in the Ogeechee River, 
below Savannah, was attacked by the " monitor " Montauk, commanded by 
Captain John L. Worden, and destroyed [Feb. 28, 1863]. She had been lying 
under the protection of the guns of Fort McAllister, and upon this work Com- 
mander Drayton tried the guns of some armored vessels a few days later, but 
without serious effect. Meanwhile Admiral Dupont was preparing for a vigor- 
ous attack on Charleston. Hunter was again in command of the Department 
of the South, and was strengthened, for co-operation with Du])ont, by twehe 
thousand troops from North Carolina. Four thousand men, under General 
Truman Seymour, were stationed in a masked position on Folly Island at the 
beginning of April, and on the 6th of that month Dupont crossed Charleston 
bar with nine "monitor" vessels, leaving five gun-boats outside as a reserve 
squadron. It had been determined by the government to speedily reduce the 
rebellious city to subjection, for resisting forces were yet intensely active 
there.' 

Dupont moved up to attack Fort Sumter, the most formidable obstacle in 
the way to Charleston. The Confederate batteries near were ominously silent, 
until the advanced vessels became entangled in a terrible net-work of torpe- 
does and other obstructions. Then Fort Sumter, and other batteries, bearing 
an aggregate of nearly three hundred guns, opened a concentric fire upon the 
assailants, repulsed them after a sharp fight, and destroyed the Keokuk, one 
of the smaller but most daring of the monitors. The fact was, the harbor 
was filled with formidable obstructions, and around it were guarding batteries 



' At tlie close of January [18G3] two formidable "rams" darted out of Charleston harbor 
in the obscurity of darkness and fog, and attacked the blockading squadron. Two of the ships 
were quickly disabled, and compelled to strike their colors. Although the assailants fled back to 
Charleston without taking possession of the disabled vessels, the Conspirators at Richmond 
actually proclaimed to the world that the blockade of Charleston harbor w.ns raised. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION 



673 



of great strength,' and the attempt to enter it was necessarily a failure. Tlie 
land troops were not in a condition to co-operate, excepting in the event of 
the reduction of Fort Suuiter. 

There Avas comparative quiet along the coasts of South Carolina and Geor- 
gia for some time after Dupont's attack on Fort Sumter. General Hunter was 
succeeded [June 12, 180:i] hy General Q. A. Gillmore." He found a little less 
than eighteen thousand troops in the Department, with arduous duties to i)er- 
fornij^ There were eighty effective cannon and an ample supply of small-arms, 
munitions and stores, at liis command. With these forces and supplies he set 
about organizing an expedition for the capture of Charleston by troops and ships. 
He determined to seize Jlorris Island and its fortifications, and from it batter 
down Fort Sumter and lay the city in ashes by his shells, if not surrendered. 
Dupont, having no faith in the scheme so far as the navy was concerned, was 
relieved of the command of the fleet there, and was succeeded hy Admiral 
Dahlgren on the 6th of July.^ 

Gillniore found J''olly Island, next to IMorris Island, well occupied by Union 
troops on his arrival. He caused batteries to be erected to bear upon the lat- 
ter, so as to make way for his 
forces to cross Light-House In- 
let to that island, and attack 
Fort Wagner. These fortifica- 
tions were well made behind a 
curtain of pine-trees, under the 
direction of General Vogdes, 
and a large number of cannon, 
mostly Parrott guns, were 
planted on them. Then General Terry was sent to James's Island with a force 

' The fortifications consisted of two batteries on Sullivan's Island seaward from Fort Moultrie, 
and Battery Bee, landward from it. On Mount Pleasant, on the main near the mouth of Cooper 
River, was a heavy battery. In front of tlie city was Castle Pinckney; and on a submergred 
sand-bank, between this work and Fort .lohnson, was Fort Ripley, or Middle-ijround Battery. 
Along tlie southern border of the harbor were Fort Johnson 
and some batteries. On Morris Island, not far from Fort Sum- 
ter, was Battery Gregg, on Cummings's Point, from which the 
first shot was hurled at Fort Sumter in 18G1 ; and back of it 
was Fort Wagner, a very strong work, stretching entirely 
across Morris Island at that point. Across the channels of 
TORPEDO. the harbor, rows of piles had been driven, and there were chains 

composed of railway iron linked : and across the main channel 
a cable was stretched, from which hung festoons of torpedoes in the form given in the engraving, 
which were to be exploded by electricity, through wires extending from apparatus at Forts Sumter 
and Moultrie. At one point, where a space in the row of piles had been left open, inviting a ship 
to enter, was a submerged mine containing 5.000 pounds of gunpowder. 
" See page G07. 

' Tin; Department did not extend far in the interior, but its line parallel with the coast was 
about two hundred and fifty miles in length. This was to be picketed, and posts at different 
points were to be maintained. 

' At about the time of Gilimore's arrival, rumors reached Dupont that a powerful " ram " 
was nearly ready, at Savannah, to make a raid on his blockading squadron, near the mouth of 
the Savannah River. This w,-is the swift blockade-runner F,ngal, which, unable to escape to sea, 
had been converted into an armored warrior of the most formidable kind, and named Atlanta. 
Dupont sent two monitors ( Weehatokf-n and Nahant) to Warsaw Sound to watch her. She appeared 
In those waters on the morning of the 17th of June. She was supposed by the Confederates to 
be an o%'ermatch f^r both monitors; and gun-boats, filled with spectators, accompanied her to tow 




A P.4RR0TT GUN. 




G74 



THE NATION. 



to mask the real intentions of the Nationals, when General Strong, with two 
thousand men, went in boats to Morris Island, landed suddenly [July 10, 
1863], and, with the help of the Latteries on Folly Island, drove the Confed- 
erates to Fort "Wagner. Strong allowed his troops to rest until the ne.\t morn- 
ing, when he as.sailed Fort Wagner, but was repulsed. These movements 
greatly alarmed the Confederates, and Beauregard and the Mayor of Charles- 
ton advised all non-eombatants to leave the city. 

Fort Wagner was stronger than Gillmore suspected it to be, and he deter- 
mined to attempt to reduce it, first by a bombardment, and if tliat failed, then 
by a regular siege. A line of batteries were erected across the island within 
range of Fort Wagner, and Dahlgren's fleet took position to open fire on that 
work. This was done by the land and naval forces on the 18th [July], with a 
hundred gre^t guns ; and while, at sunset, a heavy thunderstorm was sweeping 
by, arrangements were made for another assault on the fort. Terry had with- 
drawn from James's Island after a sharp fight, and now Gillmore's troops were 
concentrated for the important work. Two assaulting columns moved upon 
the fort. The first, under General Strong, was repulsed with great slaughter. 
The second, and smaller one, under Colonel H. S. Putnam, met a similar fate.' 
Gillmore now abandoned the plan of direct assault, and began a regular 
siege, approaching the fort by parallels. He also, with great labor, planted a 

battery in the midst of 
a marsh between Morris 
and James's Islands, on 
which was mounted a 
200-pounder Parrott gun, 
called "The Swamp An- 
gel," from which shells 
were hurled into Charles- 
ton, a distance of five 
miles.'- Finally, Gill- 
more's preparations for 
attack on Fort Wagner 
were completed, and on 
the 17th of August fire 
from twelve batteries, and from Dahlgren's fleet, was opened upon it and Fort 
Sumter. Before night the walls of the latter began to crumble, and its guns 

back to Savannah the captured iron-clads. She first encountered the Weehawkm. Four shots 
from the latter caused the Atlanta to haul down lier colors; and instead of sweeping the block- 
ading squadron from the coast, and opening southern ports to the commerce of the world, as was 
expected by the Confederates, she was sent to Philadelphia, and exhibited for the benefit of the 
Union Volunteer Refreshment Saloon of that city. 

' Strong was mortally wounded, and Putnam was killed. In this assault a regiment of col- 
ored troops from Massachusetts, under Colonel Shaw, performed gallant deeds. Shaw was killed, 
and the Confederates, supposing they were disgracing the young hero, buried him in a pit in the 
sand mider a large number of his slain negro troops. 

'■' The mud on which this battery was constructed was about sixteen feet in depth. Piles 
were driven through it to the solid eartli, and on these, timbers were laid. Colonel Serrell. of 
New York, had the matter in charge, and ho assigned to a lieutenant the superintendence of the 
work. When the spot chosen for building the buttery was shown to the latter, he said the ihing 
was impossible. ■■There is no such word as ■impossible' in the matter." the colonel nnswerod, 




THE SWAMP ANGEL. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



675 



were silenced, uikUi- the pounding of Dahlgren's cannon. The land troops 
pushed the parallels closer to Fort Wagner, and at near midnight, of Sfcptember 
6th, Terry was prepared to storm the works. It was soon ascertained that the 
Confederates liad abandoned tliem. Gillraore immediately took possession of 
P'ort Wagner and Battery Gregg, turned their gtnis upon Fort Sumter and 
Charleston, and made the " Cradle of Secession " a desolation in the world of 
business. Fort Sumter was made apparently harmless, yet a garrison remained 
there, and when one night [Sept. 8] a party from the fleet attempted to -sur- 
l>rise and capture the fort, they were repulsed with terrible loss. Finally, late 
in October, Gillmore opened heavy guns upon it, and made it a slopin<»: heap 
of rubbish from the parapet to the water." 

Let us now change our field of observations, in the extended theater of the 
war, from the sea-coast to the region beyond the Mississippi River, a thousand 
miles farther westward, and see what of importance occurred there since the 
battle of Prairie Grove,'^ the re-occupation of all Te.\as by the Confederates,' 
Banks's march to the Red River,'' and the battle at Helena,^ in July, 1863. 
Missouri and Arkansas, after brief repose, were convulsed by the machinations 
of disloyal citizens and the contests of hostile troops. Marmaduke, a noted 
leader, suddenly burst out of Arkansas, and fell upon Si)ringfield, in Missouri, 
early in 1863, when he was repulsed with a loss of two hundred men. After 
reverses at other points, he fled back into Arkansas early in February. There 
were some stirring movements in Northwestern Arkansas at about the same 
time. Two thousand Confederates attacked a Union force under Colonel Har- 
rison, at Fayetteville [April 18, 1863], when the assailants were repulsed, and 
fled over the Ozark mountains. 

Marmaduke, meanwhile, had gone to Little Rock, the capital of Arkansas, 
and there, with the chief leaders in that region, planned a raid into Missouri, 
cliiefly for the jjurpose of capturing National stores at Cape Girardeau, on the 
Mississippi River. With about eight thousand men, he pushed rapidly into 
that State, and following the general line of the St. Francis River to Freder- 
icton, turned eastward, and moved on Cape Girardeau. General McNeil was 
there to receive him, and after a severe engagement [.April 26, 1863], drove 
Marmaduke out of the State. 

Li May, three thousand Confederates, under Colonel Cofley, menaced Fort 
Blunt [Ma)' 20] in the Indian country just west of Arkansas, but did not ven- 

and directed the lieutenant to build the battery, and to call for every thing required for the work. 
The next day the lieutenant, who was something of a wag, made a requisition on tlie quarter- 
master for one hundred men, eighteen feet in height, to wade through mud si.xteen feet deep, 
and then went to the surgeon to inquire if he could splice the eighteen-feet men, if they were 
furnished him. This pleasantry caused the lieutenant's arrest, but he was soon released, and 
constr\ieted the work witli men of usual height. — Davis's History of the One Hundred and Fourth ' 
Penniylvania lieginient, page 253. 

' In his annual report to Congress, in December, 1863, the Secretary of the Navy, in summing 
up the operations of tliat arm of tlie service on the Southern coast, said : " Not a blockade runner 
has succeeded in reacliing the city for months, and the traffic which had been to some extent, 
and with large profits, previously carried on, is extinguished. .\s a commercial mart, Cliarleston 
has no existence; her wealth, her trade, has departed. In a military or, strategic view, the place 
is of little consequence ; and whether the rebels are able, by great sacrifice and exhaustion, to 
hold out a few i\-eeks, more or less, is of no importance," 

^ See page 637, ' See page (U-l. ■" See page G4 1. ' See note 2. pngo 660. 



QfJQ THE NATION. [ISGri. 

lure to attack. So they moved off, with a large drove of cattle, for some 
weaker prey. A little more than a month later, a wagon-train for Fort Blunt 
was attacked [July 1] hy Te.xans and Creek Indians. These were repulsed, 
and the train reached the fort in safety. Just then a great peril threatened 
that post. Six thousand Confederates were approaching to assail it. General 
Blunt had just arrived. He at once led three thousand troops, with twelve 
light cannon, to attack the Confederates. He found them at Honey Springs, 
under General Cooper, where he fell upon them suddenl}^ After two hours' 
hard fighting [July IT], the Confederates gave way. Only an hour afterward. 
General Cabell, whom Cooper was expecting, came up with three thousand 
Texan cavalry. It was too late. Cabell did not tliink it prudent to attack 
Blunt, and so he moved across the Canadian River into Texas. 

Guerrilla bands were now active in Blunt's rear. Early in August, about 
three hundred of these, composed chieflj^ of desperate characters of Missouri, 
and led by a white savage, who had assumed the name of Quantrell, crossed 
into Kansas, and attacked the town of Lawrence [August 13], inliabited chiefly 
by Unionists. The town was wholly without defenders, and the guerrillas 
murdered people and destroyed property without hinderance. In the course 
of "a few hours, one hundred and forty persons were murdered, and one hun- 
dred and eighty-five buildings were in flames. This crime produced horror 
and indignation ; and when, ten days afterward, the guerrilla chief, M. .left'. 
Thompson, was captured, it was very difficult to sliield him from personal 
injury. 

Soon after the capture of Vicksburg, General Steele organized an expedi- 
tion at Helena for the capture of Little Rock. He moved, on the 10th of 
August, with about twelve thousand men and forty cannon. He crossed the 
White River at Clarendon, and jnishing back the Confederates under Marma- 
duke, reached the Arkansas, below Little Rock, on the Ith of September. A 
part of his forces, under General Davidson, crossed to the south bank, and 
upon opposite sides of the river the two columns moved on Little Rock. !Mar- 
maduke made some opposition, but with General Price and others, and all the 
troops in that vicinity, he abandoned the Arkansas capital, leaving several 
steamers on' fire. On the evening of the 10th [Sept., 1863], Steele's forces 
occu])icd the city and the fortifications. The Confederates retreated rapidly 
to Arkadelphia, on the Washita River. This successful campaign occupied 
forty daysi 

Blunt,, meanwhile, was trying to bring the Confederates and Indians in the 
region \^'¥st of Arkansas to battle, but failed to do so; and Cabell, with a large 
force, hastened to the aid of Price at Little Rock. He did not reach there in 
time, bat joined Price in his retreat to Arkadelphia. Blunt took possession of 
Fort Smith, and garrisoned it ; and early in October, when on his way from 
Kansas to that post, with an escort of a hundred cavalry, he was attacked 
[October 4], near Baxter's Springs, by Quantrell and six hundred guerrillas. 
The escort was demolished; an accompanying train was plundered and burned, 
and Blunt, with about a dozen followers, barely escaped with their lives to 
Little Fort Blair. The Confederates in that region, now finding their supplies 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



677 



to be nearly exhausted, a part of Cabell's command, under Colonel Shelby, 
undertook a raid into Missouri, to procure some. In the southwestern part of 
that State they were joined by a considerable force under Cofley, when the 
combined army was twenty-five hundred strong. They penetrated the State 
to Booneville [October 1, 1863], on the Missouri River, but were quickly 
driven back into Arkansas by Generals Brown and McNeil, when the latter 
was placed in command of the Army of the Frontier. Comparative quiet 
prevailed in Missouri and Arkansas after that for some lime, the only hostile 
movement of note being an attack [Oct. 25] by Marmaduke tipon Pine Bluff, 
on the Arkansas River, with two thousand men and twelve guns. The little 
garrison, under Colonel Clayton, with the help of two hundred negroes in 
making barricades, drove off the assailants, after a contest of several hours. 

Let us now see what was occurring west of the Mississippi, in the Gulf 
Department, commanded by General N. P. Banks. When that commander 
withdrew from Alexan- 
dria, on the Red River, 
to invest Port Hudson,' 
General Dick Taylor, 
whom he had driven into 
the wilds of Western 
Louisiana, returned, took 
possession of the aban- 
doned towns of Alexan- 
dria and' Opelousas, and 
garrisoned Fort de Rus- 
sy, early in June [1863]. 
Then he swept rapidly 
through the State toward 
the Mississippi, and in 
the direction of New Orleans, causing Banks to draw in his outposts to 
Brashear City. But this post was soon captured [June 2i, 1863], with an 
immense amount of public property, and a thousand prisoners.' A few days 
later, a Confederate force, under General Green, attempted to seize Fort 
Butler [June 20], at Donaldsonville, on the Mississippi, but were repulsed, 
with a loss of over three Inmdred men ; and, on the 12th of July, the same 
leader attacked some troops under General Dudley, in the rear of Donaldson- 
ville, when, after a partial success, the Confederates were driven, and retreated 
out of that district. This was about the last struggle of Taylor's troops to 
gain a foothold on the Mississippi, for Banks's force, released by the fall of 
Port Hudson,^ quickly expelled the Confederates from the region eastward of 
the Atchafalaya. 




FOET DE RUSSY. 



' See page 644. 

' The Confederates took possession of the fort there, with its ten guns ; also, a large amount 
of smal-larms. munitions of war, provisions, kc. the whole vahied at full S2.0no,liOO. A thousand 
refugee negroes were also seized there, and remanded into slavery worse than they had endured 
before. " See page 646. 



QljQ TIIK NATION. [1863. 

Banks now turned his thoughts to aggressive movements. Grant visited 
him early in September, when the two leaders united in an earnest expression 
of a desii'e to move, with their combined forces, on Mobile. But the represent- 
ations of Texan loyalists, then in Washington City, caused the government 
to order an expedition for the recovery of Texas. Banks fitted out one, to 
make a lodgment in that State at Sabine Pass, on the boundary-line between 
Louisiana and Texas. He sent four thousand veteran troops for the purpose, 
under General Franklin ; and Admiral Farragut detailed, as a co-operative 
naval force, four gun-boats, under Lieutenant Crocker. The expedition crossed 
the bar at Sabine Pass on the Sth of September [1863], when, instead of the 
troops landing, according to instructions, and taking the Confederate works in 
reverse, the gun-boats proceeded to make a direct attack. They were repulsed 
by a handful of men behind a small work, armed with eight guns,' and the 
expedition returned to New Orleans, leaving behind two steamers, with fifteen 
rlfled-guns, two hundred men as prisoners, and fifty men killed and wounded. 

The notice given to the Confederates by this unfortunate expedition, of a 
design to invade Texas coastwise, caused an abandonment of the scheme at that 
time, and Banks concentrated his forces on the Atchafalaya, for the jjurj)Ose 
of penetrating that State by way of Shreveport, on the Red River. There 
aj)peared insuperable obstacles to an expedition over that route. Banks deter- 
mined to make an attempt to seize and hold the harbors of that commonwealth 
on the coast. General C. C. Washburn was ordered to mask the movement 
by marching from Brashear toward Alexandria, and, on the 26th of October, 
an expedition, consisting of about six thousand troops and some war-vessels, 
sailed from New Orleans directly for the Rio Grande. The troops, under the 
immediate command of General Dana, landed at Brazos Santiago, drove some 
Confederate cavalry toward Brownsville, thirty miles up the river, and, fol- 
lowing them, reached that post on the 6th of November. Detachments were 
sent to other jjoints, and in the space of a month National troops took posses- 
sion of Texan seaports and fortified posts on the coast, from the Rio Grande 
eastward, to near the mouth of the Brazos. Only the latter place, and Galves- 
ton Island, were now held by the foe. There they had formidable works. At 
the close of the year all Texas west. of the Colorado was abandoned by them.' 

' This fort had a garrison of 200 men ; but, at the time of the attack, all but forty-two were 
absent. Those present were chiefly Irishmen, and belonged to an organization known as the 
"Davis Guards." For their gallantry on this occasion, Jefferson Davis presented each m.nn with 
a small silver medal, a representation of which may be found in Lossing's Pictorial Field-Book of 
the Ciril War. iii., 222. 

^ While the events we have just noticed were occurring in the region westward of tli;' 
Lower Mississippi, others, having a slight bearing upon the war, occurred on the same side of llic 
great river, in tlie region of its upper waters. This was a war with the Sioux tribe of Indians, in 
the State of Minnesota. It broke out in tlie summer of 18G2. when Little Crow, a saintly-looking 
savage in civilized costume, led his fellow-savages in the butcliery of the white inhabitants at 
different places along the frontier settlements. These warriors besieged Forts Ripley and Aber- 
crombie in the autumn, and in that region they massacred about five hundred white people — men. 
women, and children. Finally, troops under General Sibley captured about live hundred of tlic 
savages, and thirty-seven of the wor.st offenders were hanged. Little Crow was shot by a private 
citizen while the savage was picking blackberries. His skeleton is preserved in the Minnesnt.i 
Historical Society. The war was not ended until the summer of 1863, when General Pope w-as 
in command of that Department. 



1863.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. g79 

Before proceeding to a consideration of military aflairs in 1864, let us take 
a brief glance at the aspect of civil affairs at the beginning of that year. The 
management of the finances of the nation were yet in the hands of Mr. Chase.' 
The public debt had then reached the appalling sum of considerably over 
§1,000,000,000;'' the great war was in full career, and the debt was increasing 
every day ; and yet the public credit, among American citizens, never stood 
higher. " The history of the world," said the Secretary of the Treasury, a 
year later, when he had been fully sustained by the people, " may be searched 
in vain for a parallel case of popular financial support to a National move- 
ment." The Secretary, in his report to Congi-ess in 1862, had shown that, to 
meet all demands to the close of the fiscal year, at the end of June, 1864 
(eighteen months), provision must be made for raising over §900,000,000 more. 
Such a demand would have appalled the representatives of a less hopeful 
people. But they met the matter firmly, and took measures for raising the 
money. The people manifested their confidence in the government, by lending 
it, within the space of two months after the adjournment of Congress [March 
3, 186.3], §169,000,000. 

The finances of the Confederates were in a deplorable condition at the 
beginning of 1864. Their public debt, in round numbers, was §1,000,000,000, 
with a prospective increase at the end of the year to full §2,000,000,000. The 
currency in circulation amounted to §600,000,000, and was so depreciated that 
the Conspirators could see nothing but ruin ahead. Few persons, besides de- 
ceived and sympathizing Europeans, particularly Englishmen,' could be induced 
to take the " government " bonds willingly. The producers of the Confederacy 
were unwilling to take the promises to pay of the Conspirators for their i)roducts, 
and want had threatened their army with destruction. So the authorities at 
Richmond had boldly adopted the measure of seizing supplies for their armies ; 
and, for the purpose of keeping their ranks full, liad passed a law declai-ing, iu 
substance, every white man in the Confederacy, liable to bear arms, to be in 
the military service, and that tipon failure to report for duty at a military sta- 
tion within a certain time, he loas liable to the 2}enalty of death as a deserter* 

Notwithstanding these disabilities and the fading away of every hope of 
recognition by foreign governments, or the moral support of any civilized 
people,' the Conspirators at Richmond, holding the reins of despotic power 

' See page 5i;0. 

'' The National debt on the first of July, 1S63, was $1,098.793,181. ' It was estimated that at 
the same period in 1804 it would be S1,6Si1,9"j6,190. The average rate of interest on the whole 
debt, without regard to the varying margin between coin and notes, had been reduced from 4-36 
per cent., on the first of July, 186:2, to :i'77 per cent, on the first of July, J 863. 

' The Confederates negotiated a loan iu Europe of $15,(100,000, on the security of cotton to 
be sent abroad and sold. Members of the Simikern Independence Association, m England, com- 
posed of persons of the ruling class, were lieavy losers by the transaction. 

' The history of civilized nations has no parallel to this despotic act. Davis and his fellow- 
conspirators had then reached a critical point in their wicked game, and seemed willing to sacrifice 
ever}' man, ruin every family, waste all the property in the Confederacy, and see their section of 
the liepublic converted into a wilderness, in a desperate effort to win. well knowing tliat failure 
would be niin to themselves. They seemed to regard the " common people " as of no account, 
excepting as docile instruments for the aggrandizement of the slave-holding Oligarcliy. 

* On' the first of April, 18G4, Lord Lyons, the British minister at Washington, forwarded to 
Jefferson Davis, by permission of our government, a letter from P^arl Russell, the British Foreign 
Secretary, in which, in the name of "her Majesty's government,'' he protested against the further 



ggQ THK NATION. [1S63. 

with firm grasp, resolved to carry on the war regardless of consequences to 
their deluded and abused victims. They employed the President's Proclama- 
tion of Emancipation ' as a means for '■ firing the Southern heart," and they 
put forth the grossest misrepresentations to deceive the people. They devised 
schemes for retaliation, and the most cruel measures toward negro trooj)s and 
their white commanders were proposed. They refused to recognize captive 
negro soldiers as prisoners of war, and sought, by threats of vengeance, to 
deter negroes from enlisting. But more prudent counsels prevailed, for it was 
seen that such measures might be retorted with fearful effect. The President 
stood firm concerning emancipation. His proclamation was the exponent of 
the future policy of the government. Congress passed laws in consonance 
with it. The organization of negro troops for military service was authorized 
and carried out, and the government took the just ground that all its soldiers 
should have equal protection. The slave-holding Oligarchy raved. The 
Peace Faction protested. The loyal people said to the government. Be firm. 
"The signs," the President said, "look better." jMore than fifty thousand 
square miles had been recovered from the Confederates in the West. The 
autumn elections [1863] showed that the friends of the government, who had 
spoken at the ballot-bo.\, we/e overwhelming in numbers and moral strength. 
The government took fresh courage, and adojjted measures for a vigorous 
military campaign in 1804. The President, with the hope of weakening the 
moral strength of the Conspirators, issued a generous Amnesty Proclamation,' 

procuring of pirate vessels within the Britisli dominions hy the Confederates. After courteously 
reciting facts connected with the matter, Russell said: "Under these circumstances, her Majesty's 
government protests and remonstrates against any further efforts being made on tlie part of the 
so-called Confederate States, or the authorities or agents thereof, to build, or cause to be built, or 
to purchase, or cause to be purchased, any such vessels as those styled 'ram.s,' or any other ves- 
sels to be used for war purposes against the United States, or against any country with whicli 
the United Kingdom is at peace and on terms of amity ; and her Majesty's government furtl*er 
protest and remonstrates against all acts in violation of tlie neutrality laws of the realm." 

These words from one wlio, personally and as the representative of the British government, 
had given the insurgents all tlie "aid and comfort " a wise business prudence would allow, kindled 
the liottest indignation of the Conspirators, and Jefferson Davis instructed one of his assistants 
(Burton N. Harrison) to reply that it " would be inconsistent with the digiuty of the position he 
[.r. Davis] fills as Chief Magistrate of a nation comprising a population of more than twelve mil- 
lions, occupying a territory many times larger than tlie United Kingdom, and possessing resources 
unsurpassed by those of any other country on tlie face of the globe, to allow the attempt of Earl 
Eussell to ignore the actual existence of the Confederate States, and to contemptuously style them 
'so-called,' to pass without a protest and a remonstrance. The President, therefore, does pro- 
test and remonstrate against this studied insult: and he instructs me to say that in future any 
document in which it may be repeated will be returned unanswered and unnoticed.'' The scribe 
of the irate "President" added: "Were, indeed, her Majesty's govcj'nment sincere in a desire 
and a determination to maintain neutrality, tlie President would not but feel that they would 
neither be just nor gallant to allow the subjugation of a nation like the Confederate States, by 
such a barbarous, despotic race as are now attempting it." 

' See page 640. 

' Tlie President offered full pardon, and restoration of all rights of property, excepting as to 
slaves, to all persons (with specified exceptions*, who had participated in the rebellion, who should 
take a prescribed oath of allegiance to the government. The persons excepted we're all who were 
or had been civil or diplomatic agents of the so-called Confederate government; all who had left 
judicial stations under the United States to aid the rebellion: all who were or had been military 
or naval officers of the so-called Confeih-rate government above the rank of colonel in the army 
and lieutenant in the navy ; all who left seats in the National Congress to aid the rebellion ; all 
who resigned commissions in tlie National Army or Navy, and afterward aided the rebellion; and 
all who had engaged in any way in treating colored persons, or white persons in charge of such, 
otherwise than lawfully as prisoners of war. 



18G4.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. (Jgl 

and a prescription for the reorganization of States wherein rebellion existed. 
The new Congress (XXXVIIIth) had heavy majorities of loyal members in 
both Houses. 

The National forces in the field at the opening of 1804 numbered about 
800,000. Those of the Confederates were about half that number. The former 
were ready and disposed to act on the offensive ; the latter, generally, stood 
on the defensive. The government and people were tired of delays and the 
almost indecisive warfare of posts, as the struggle had been up to this time. 
It was evident that proper vigor in the control of the armies could only be 
obtained by placing that control in the hands of one competent man in the 
field. For this purpose Congress created the office of Lieutenant-General. 
The President nominated Ulysses S. Grant to fill it. The Senate confirmed 
the nomination [March 2, 1864], and that successful leader was commissioned 
[March S] General-in-Chief of the Armies of the United States, and made his 
head-quarters in the field, with the Army of the Potomac. 

Grant h,ad no sympathy with a system of warfare half coercive and half 
persuasive. - That had been tried too long for the public good. He believed 
his government to be right and the Conspirators wrong. He regarded sharp 
and decisive blows as the most merciful in the end, and calculated to save life 
and treasure, and so he resolved to make war with all the terrible intentions of 
war, and end it. He at once organized two grand expeditions, having for 
their geographical objectives the capture of Richmond in Virginia and Atlanta 
in Georgia; and their prime oly'ect was the destruction of the two great 
armies of the Conspirators, commanded by Lee and Johnston. The Army of 
the Potomac, destined to conquer Lee, was placed under the command of 
General George G. jMeade ; that intended to fight .Johnston was intrusted to 
General "VY. T. Sherman. Events proved the wisdom of Grant's choice. 

Before considering these great campaigns, lot us notice, briefly, other 
important movements in the country between the mountains and the Missis- 
sippi River, and the region beyond that stream. 

When Sherman went to the assistance of Rosecrans,' he left General J. B. 
McPherson in command at Vicksburg. Late in October [1863] that officer 
went out with about eight thousand men, to drive the Confederates from the 
line of the railway between Jackson and Canton, but was met by a superior 
force [October 21], and returned without fighting. Meanwhile, the Confed- 
erate guerrilla eiiief, Forrest, with about four thousand men, broke into West 
Tennessee from Northern Mississippi, and making Jackson, in that State, his 
head-quarters [December], sent out foraging parties in various directions. 
Troops were sent by Hurlbut, at Memphis, to catch him, but he managed to 
escape with much plunder. Sherman soon afterward reappeared in Mississippi, 
and on the .3d of February he left Vicksburg with about twenty-three thou- 
sand effective men, for a grand raid through that State, in the direction of 
Montgomery, in Alabama, and to march on, Mobile, if circumstances should 
warrant the movement. General (Bishop) Polk was then in command in that 

' See page 668. 



682 



THE NATION. 



[1864. 



region, witli :i large force of infantrj' and cavalry. He made but a feeble 
resistance, and fell back as Sherman moved victoriously to Meridian, at the 
intersection of important railways. There the latter halted, and waited for 
a division, chiefly of cavalry, under General W. S. Smith, expected fivsm 
Tennessee. Shennan''s path from Jackson to Meridian, was marked by the 
destruction of the railway, its station-houses and rolling stock, besides stores 
and other public property; and during a week that he staid at Meridian he 
made the most complete destruction of railroads each way from that point. 
In the mean time Smith fiiiled to join him. He started late, and was driven 
bdck by a Confederate force under Forrest and others. Slierman, at the end 
of a week, laid Meridian in ashes, and returned to Vicksburg with four hun- 
dred prisoners, a thousand wliite Union refugees, and about five thousand 
negroes. His raid spread dismay throughout the Confederacy, from the Mis- 
sissippi to the Savannah, and inflicted a heavy loss on the foe.' 

Sherman's raid caused Johnston, at Dalton, in Xorthern Georgia, to send 
troops to the aid of Polk. Informed of this, Grant, at Cliattanooga, sent the 
Fourteenth Army Corps, under General Palmer, to menace Johnston and 
compel him to recall his detachments. The retrograde movement of Sherman 
caused these detachments to fall back, when Palmer, confronted by a superior 
force, after some severe fighting [February, 1S64], between liinggold and 
Dalton, returned to Chattanooga. 

Forrest, whose sphere of duty had been enlarged, was now charged with 
that of preventing re-enforcements from reaching Johnston's opponent, frtmi 
the region of the Mississippi, by keeping them employed there. Late in 
March lie made a rapid raid through Tennessee and Kentucky, to the Ohio at 
Padueah, with about five thousand men, capturing Union City and Hickman 
by the way. He assailed the fort and garrison at Padueah, under Colonil 
-~^^ =»_^^C^^ Hicks, and was repulsed, 

when lie hurried to attack 
Fort Pillow, on the Ten- 
nessee, above Memphis, 
commanded by Major L. 
F. Booth, with a garrison 
composed largely of col- 
ored troops. Tills post 
Forrest besieged on the 
13th of April. Booth was 
assisted in the defense by 
the gun-boat Keio Era, 
Captain Marshall, but was 
overcome b v a trick rather 

MEW EKA. ■ 

than by arms. v orrest 
sent in a flag of truce, demanding a surrender of the fort, and while it was 



'fi^ip, 




' Tlie sum of injury done to the Confederates during Sherman's raid, includin? tliat of Smith, 
and an expedition which Porter sent simultaneously to attack Yazoo City and distract the Con- 



18G-).] LINCOLN'S AD M I X 1ST R A TI OX. 533 

tliere, and the summons was under consideration, he secretly placed large 
numbers of his troops in ravines near, where they might eifectually fall upon 
the fort from points where their presence was least expected. This was done, 
with the cry of " No quarter," when a large number of the garrison, who 
threw down their arms, were slaughtered by methods most cruel. The poor 
negro troops were objects of the direst vengeance of the assailant.' "Forrest's 
motto," said Major C. W. Gibson, one of his men, to the writer, " was, ' War 
means fight, and figlit means kill — we want but few prisoners.' " This principle 
was fully illustrated by Forrest by his foul deed at Fort Pillow." 

An attempt was made to intercept Forrest in his retreat southward from 
Fort Pillow. It failed. Some weeks later General Sturgis was sent out 
from Memphis with a large force into INEississippi, to hunt up and beat him, 
when the former was attacked near Gun ToAvn, on the Mobile and Ohio rail- 
way, by Forrest, and, after a severe battle [.June 10], was compelled to fly 

federates, may be stated in general terms as follows: The destruction of 150 miles of railway, 6T 
bridges, 700 trestles, 20 locomotives, 28 ears, several thousand bales of cotton, several steam 
mills, and over 2,000.000 bushels of corn. About 500 prisoners were taken, and over 8,000 
negroes and refugees followed the various columns back to Vicksburg. 

The expedition sent to Yazoo City consisted of some gun-boats, under Lieutenant Owen, and 
a detachment of troops under Colonel Osband. They did not then capture the place, but inflicted 
considerable damage, and returned with a loss of not more than .".0 men. Yazoo City was soon 
afterward occupied by a Union force, composed of tlie 8tli Louisiana and 200 of the Seventh Mis- 
sissippi colored troops, and tlie lltli Illinois. Tliey were attacked by a superior force on the 5th 
of March. A desperate fight ensued, Tlie assailants were iinally driven away by some re-en- 
forcements from below, and soon afterward the town was evacuated. The Union loss in this 
struggle was 130. That of the Confederates was about the same. 

' There was much opposition to tlie employment of negroes as soldiers, until quite a late 
period of the war. At the breaking out of the rebellion, crojored men in the Free-labor States 
offered their services as soldiers, but they were not accepted. When General Hunter took com- 
mand in the Department of tlie South, ho proclaimed tlie freedom of the slaves, and was about to 
organize regiments of colored men. The government would not sanction his proceedings. When 
General Phelps, commanding a short distance from New Orleans, proposed to make fighters of 
those colored men wlio tied into liis camp from tlieir master.?, and was ordered by General Butler 
to employ them only as servants, he declared tliat he was not '■ willing to become a mere slave- 
driver." and tlirew up his commission and returned to Vermont. But, as the war went on, and 
prejudice gave way to necessity, the enlistment of colored men into the army was authorized. 
Their usefulness was proven at Milliken's Bend, Port Hudson, Fort Wagner, and other places. 
In March, 1SG3, the Adjutant-General of the armies was sent to tlie Mississippi Valley for the 
purpose of promoting tlie enlistment of colored troops. During the war full 200,000 of these 
tlusky soldiers were seen in the uniform of the armies of the Republic. For awhile the Confed- 
erates refused to consider them as prisoners of war and subjects of equal exchange witli white 
captives. But they were finally compelled to acknowledge their equality as soldiers, and accept 
the conditions imposed by necessity. 

^ In a report of a sub-committee of the Congressional CommiUei on the Conduct of the War, 
made shortly after the deed, the perpetration of tlie most liorrible cruelties were proven. One or 
two illustrative instances will suffice: "All around were heard cries of 'No quarter! Kill the 
damned niggers! Shoot 'em down I' and all who a.sked for mercy were answered by the most 
cruel taunts and sneers. Some were spared for a time, to be murdered under circumstances of. 

tlie greatest cruelt}- One negro, wlio had been ordered by a rebel officer to hold hia 

horse, was killed by him when lie remounted; another, a mere child, whom an officer had taken 
up behind liira, was seen by Chalmers [General (''halmers, one of Forrest's leaders], wlio at once 
ordered the officer to put liim down and shoot him, which was done." They burned huts and 
tents in which the wounded had souglit shelter, and were still in them. "One man was deliber- 
ately fastened down to the floor of a tent, face upward, by means of nails driven through liis 
clothing and into the boards under liim. so that he could not possibly escape, and then the tent 
set on fire. Another was nailed to the side of a building outside of the fort, and then the build- 
ing set on fire and bnrned These deeds of murder and cruelty ceased when night 

came on, only to be renewed the next morning, when tlie demons carefully sought among the 
dead, lying about in all directions, for any of the wounded yet alive, and thosj tliey found were 
deliberately shot." i 



g84 THE NATION. [18C4. 

biick to Memphis as rapidly as possible, with very heavy loss. Another expe- 
dition, under General A. J. Smith, composed of about twelve thousand men, 
was sent on a similar errand. He fought and defeated Forrest near Tupelo 
[July 14], and then returned to Memphis. Three weeks afterward Smith 
returned to Mississippi, with ten thousand men, in search of Forrest, but while 
he was there, that bold leader, with three thousand picked men, flanked him, 
dashed into Memphis inl)road daylight, hoping to capture some Union generals 
at the Gayosa House, and then fled back to Mississippi. 

Let us now look across the Father of Waters, and see what was occurring 
there in 1864. 

Early in January, General Banks received orders from Halleck, the General- 
in-Chief of the armies, to organize an e.vpedition for the recovery of Te.vas, to 
go by way of the Red River, to Shreveport, in the vicinity of which was a 
considerable Confederate force, under General E. Kirljy Smith and other 
leaders. It was proposed to have troops from Sherman's command, and a fleet 
of gun-boats under Admiral Porter, to co-operate directly with Banks, while 
Steele, at Little Rock,' should more remotely aid the expedition. .VccordingU^ 
early in March, Porter was at the mouth of the Red River [March 7], with 
his fleet, and transports with Sherman's troops under General A. J. Smith. 
The latter were landed at Simms's Port on the Atchafalaya. They marched to 
Fort de Russy' and captured it [March 14, 1864], and then, on transjjorts, 
w^ent up the river to Alexandria, and took possession of the town [March 16]. 
Banks's column had marched, meanwhile, from the vicinity of Brashear City, 
under General Franklin, and moving by way of Opelousas, arrived at Alex- 
andria on the 26th. Banks had arrived there two days before. Smith's troi)])s 
went forward, driving the Confederates who \vi:rc gathering on their front, and 
took post twenty miles farther u]> the river, in the direction of Shreveport. 

The water in the Red River was low, and falling, and it was with much 
difiiculty that the fleet and transports got above the rapids at Alexandria. 
They did so after a few days of hard labor. Banks's column, meanwhile, had 
advanced to Natchitoches, eighty miles above Alexandria [April 3], the Con- 
federates, in increasing numbers, falling back as they advanced. Smith's 
troops on transports, and the fleet, advanced to Grand Ecore, near Natchi- 
toches, and from that point the great body of the expedition moved toward 
Shreveport. The larger gun-boats could go no further, so a detachment of 
Smith's command, under General T. Killjy Smith, accompanied the transports 
and lighter gun-boats, with supplies for the army. 

The expedition eneountei'ed the Confederates on the way, now and then, 
but they invariably fell back, until they reached Sabine Cross Roads, not far 
from Mansfield, where thej- made a stand in heavj' force. There Banks's 
cavalry, and part of his infantry and artillery, engaged in a sharp struggle 
[April 8], when they were forced to retreat a short distance by overwhelming 
numbers. Franklin came up with re-enforcements late in the afternoon, when 
the whole body of National troops were routed with heavy loss of men and 

' See page 6T6. , '' See page 671. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



685 



materials of war. Fortunately the fine division of General Emory was neai", 
and took a stand at Pleasant Grove to receive tlie fugitives and resist the 
Confederates. Another heavy battle ensued, when the Xation.als were again 
victorious. They thouglit it prudent, however, after the battle, to fall back to 
Pleasant Hill, fifteen miles in the rear, for it was not certain that General 
Smith would come up in time to aid the wearied troops on the field cf victory. 
There the united forces took a strong position. The Confederates had fol- 
lowed closely, and there another severe battle was fought [April 9, 1864], 
which resulted in another victory for the Nationals. Banks proposed to move 
again toward Shreveport, in the morning, but the unanimous opinion of the 
officers of his and Smith's command, was that it would be best for the expedi- 
tion to fall back to the Red River, at Grand Ecore.' The transports and 
guarding troops, and the lighter gun-boats, which had gone up to Loggy 
Bayou, after some fighting on the way with Confederates on the banks of the 
river, joined the aruiy at Grand Ecore. 

The troubles of the expedition were not at an end. It was determined to 
fall back to Alexandria, and it was an easy matter for the army to do so, but 
the water in the Red River was so low, and still falling, that it was difficult to 
get the fleet over the bar at Grand Ecore. This was accomplished, however, 
and on the 17th of April the fleet started down the river, when one of the 
vessels was sunk by a torpedo. The army moved on the 21st [April, 1864], 
but was met at the passage of the Cane River, where the Confederates, on 
Monet's Bluff, confronted them. These were dislodged by skillful maneuvers 
and sharp fighting, and the National forces entered Alexandria on the 27th, 
after an absence of twenty-four days. Some of the fleet had a severe struggle 
with a battery at the month of Cane River, but the vessels ran by it in the 
darkness, excepting a pump-boat. The expedition against Shreveport was now 
abandoned, and it was determined to return to the Mississippi. 

The fleet encountered a most serious obstacle at Alexandria. The water 
was so low that it was impossible for the vessels to pass over the rapids. A 
means had been suggested, by Lieutenant Colonel Joseph Bailey, Engineer of 
the Nineteenth Corps, so early as the day of the battle at Pleasant Hill, 
when a retreat was thought of It was to dam the river at the foot of the 
rapids, so as to deepen the water on them, and thus, when the vessels were 
there, open a sluice and allow them to go down with the deep current.** This 

' Tlie chief reasons offered were: (I.) The difficulty in bringing his trains which liad been 
sent forward on the road toward Grand Ecore, in time to move quickly after the flying Confede- 
rates; (2.) A lack of water for man or beast in tliat region, excepting such as the wells afforded; 
(3.) The fact that all surplus ammunition and supplies of the army were on board the transports 
sent up tlie river, and the impossibility of knowing whether these had reached their destination; 
(4.) The falling of the river, which imperiled the naval part of the expedition; and (5.) The report 
of a scouting party, on the day of tjie battle, that no tidings could be heard of the fleet. " These 
considerations," said Banks, '-the absolute deprivation of water for man or beast, the exhaustion 
of rations, and the foilure to effect a connection with the fleet on the river, made it necessary for 
the army, although victorious in tlie struggle through whicli it had just passed, to retreat to a 
point where it would be certain of communicating with the fleet, and where it would have an 
opportunity for reorganization." 

'' .\dmiral Porter, in his dispatch to the Secretary of the Navy, said: "The work was com- 
menced by running out from the left bank of the river a tree-dam, made of the bodies of very 



686 THE NATION. [1804. 

V 

was done successfully. All of the vessels passed the rajjuls safely into the 
deep water below, made so by an upward current of the brimful Itlississipjii, 
one hundred and fifty miles distant. With very little further trouble, the 
whole expedition moved down to the Mississippi. At Simms's Port on the 




bailey's red river dam. 

Atchafalaya, General Canby appeared, and took command of Banks's troops, 
and the latter returned to New Orleans. General Smith returned to jMissis- 
sippi, and Porter resumed the service of patrolling the Mississippi River. 

General Steele had not been able to co-operate with the expedition, as was 
expected. He started southward from Little Kock late in March with about 
eight thousand troops, and was soon joined by General Thayer, commander of 
the Army of the Frontier. They pushed back Price, Marraaduke, and others, 
who opposed them in considerable force, and captured the important post of 
Camden [April 1.5, 1864], on the Washita River. It was a difficult one to 
hold, and Steele soon abandoned it, and returned to Little Rock, after a severe 
battle at Jenkinson's Ferry on the Sabine River. So ended, in all its parts, 
the disastrous campaign against Shreveport for the repossession of Texas. It 
failure was owing to a radically defective plan, over which the leaders liad no 
control.' 



large trees, brush, brick, and stone, cross-tied with other heavy timber, and strengthened in ever\- 
way ingenuity could devise. This was run about three liundred feet into the river. Four large 
coal-barges were tlien filled with brick, and sunk at the end of it. From the right bank of the 
river cribs filled witli si one were built cut to meet the barges." 

' General Banks had so often objected to taking the route of the lied River, for Te.fas, that 
when Halleck again urged it, he did not feel at liberty to demur. He laid before the General-in- 
Chief a memorial, in wliich were explicitly stated the obstructions to be encountered, and tlie 
measures necessary to accomplish the object in view. It recommended as indispcnsahle tii 
success: (1.) Such complete preliminary organization as would avoid tlie least delay in move- 
ments after the campaign had opened ; (2 ) That a line of supply be established from the Missis- 
sippi, independent of water-courses, because these would become unmanageable at certain seasons 
of the year; (3.) The concentration of the forces west of the Mississippi, and such other force as 
should be assigned to this duty from General Sherman's command, in such a manner as to expel 
the enemy from Northern Louisiana and Arkansas: (4.) Such preparation and concert of action 
among the difl'erent corps engaged as to prevent the enemy, by keeping him constantly employed, 
from operating against our positions or forces elsewhere; and (5.) That the entire force should 
be placed under the command of a single general. Preparations for a long campaign was alsi> 
advised, and the month nf May was indicated as the point of time wlicn the occupation of 



18G4.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 087 

The failure of the Red River expedition, and the expulsion of Steele from 
llie region below the Arkansas River, emboldened the Confederates, and they 
soon had almost absolute control of the State. Raiding parties roamed at 
will ; and very soon the Unionists were awed into silence, and the civil power, 
in a great degree, passed into the hands of the enemies of the Republic' 
This condition of aifairs was favorable to a long-conteinplated invasion of 
Missouri by Price, which had both a military and political object in view. 
In the Western States, and particularly in Missouri, were secret associations in 
sympathy with the Conspirators, known as Knujhis of the Golden Circhr and 
"Sons of Liberty." An arrangement appears to have been made for an 
armed uprising of the members of these associations, when Price should 
enter the State, and he was induced to do so by promises of being joined by 
over twenty thousand of these disloyal men. The vigilant Rosecrans, then 
commander of the Department of Missouri,' discovered their plans, made 
some arrests, and so frightened the great mass of tliesc secret enemies of the 
government, that when Price appeared, he found very few recruits. 

Price, and Shelby, with nearly twenty thousand followers, entered South- 
eastern Missouri, late in September, and pushed on to Pilot Knob, half way to 
St. Louis from the Arkan: a;, line. There General Ewing, with a single brigade, 
struck liim an astounding blow that made him very circumspect. Fortunately 
Rosecrans had just been re-enforced by volunteers from the surrounding region, 
and by troops under General A. J. Smith, which had been stopped at Cairo on 
their way to join Sherman in Northern Georgia, with others under General 
Mower, which sjx'edily arrived. Price saw that a web of peril was rapidly 
weaving around him, so he abandoned his design of marching upon St. Louis, 
lie liastened toward Jefferson City, but passed on witliout touching it, and 
fled toward Kansas, closely pursued. It was an exciting chase, and was made 
lively, at times, by shai-j) encounters. Finally, early in November, Price was 
driven into AYestern Arkansas with a broken and dispirited army. It was the 
last invasion of Missouri. 

Turning our attention eastward, at about this time, we observe some 
stirring events in East Tennessee. After Longstreet's retirement from Kno.\- 
ville'' he lingered some time between there and the Virginia border. General 
Foster took Burnsido's place as the commander of the Union troops there. 
Some severe skirmishing occurred at different ])laces, but no pitched battle ; 
and, finally, Longstreet withdrew into Virginia, to re-enforce the menaced army 
of General Lee. The notorious ^Morgan and his guerrilla band lingered in 

Shreveport might be anticipated. "Not one of these suggestions," said General Banks in liis 
report, " so necessary in conquering tlie inliercnt difficulties of the expedition, was carried into 
execution, nor was it in my power to establish them." Tliere existed that bane of success, a 
<lividcd command. Banljs, Porter, and Smitli, acted independently of each other, as far as they 
pleased, there being no supreme authority to compel unity or co-operation in action. 

' After Steele took possession of Little Rock iu the autum of 18G:!, the Unionists of Arkansas 
held a Convention there, and proceeded to re-estaljlish civil government according to the prescrip- 
tion contained in the President's Amnesty Proclamation. Now the .State was so absolutely under 
the control of the Confederates, that the disloyal government called a session of the old Legis- 
lature [.September 22, 1864]. and elected a representative in the so-called "Senate" of the Con- 
spirators, at Richmond. 

^ .Sec page 520. ' See note 2, page 066. ' ' See page 671. 



688 



THE NATION. 



[1SG4. 



East Tennessee a few months longer. At tlie close of May he went over the 
mountains into Kentucky, and raided through the richest portions of that 
State, well up toward the Ohio, for the purpose of drawing Union troops, 
then threatening Southeastern Virginia, in that direction. General Burbridgc 
hastened after him, and struck him such blows that his shattered column 
went reeling back into East Tennessee. At Greenville, early in September, 
Morgan was surprised, and was shot dead while trying to escape. Soon after 
this, Breckinridge moved into East Tennessee with a considerable force ; and 
from Kno.xville to the Virginia line, was a theater of stirring minor events of 
the war. 

Early in 1S64, there were some movements having in view the capture of 

Richmond, and the release of Union prisoners in the Libby, and on more ho:- 

rible Belle Isle in the James River. The first of these which attracted ranch 

attention, occurred in February, when General B. F. Butler, then in command 

of the Department of Virginia and North Carolina, sent about fifteen hundred 

troops against Richmond. The expedition, owing to treachery, was fruitless. 

Later, General Kilpatrick, with five thousand ca\alry, sM-ept around Lee's 

._^„^^ „,_, _,^ ,^ ^_^ ^_ right flank, down to Rich- 

"■ " ^ - -5- - ^,^— =-.__- mond, and into its out- 

^i^ ^ er line of fortifications 

[March ], 1S64], but w.is 
compelled to retire. At 
about the same time 
Colonel Dahlgi-en, with a 
part of Kilpatrick's com- 
mand, apjjeared before 
Richmond [Marcji 2, 
1864], at another point, 
but was repulsed, and 
while retiring, was killed. 
The Confederate authori- 
ties were so exasperated by the audacity of Kilpatrick, that they contemplated 
the summary execution of ninety of Uahlgren's command, who were captured ;' 
and they actually placed gunpowder under Libby Prison for the purpose of 
blowing it up with its hundreds of captive Union soldiers, should they attempt 
to escape !" A few days later, General Carter, with a considerable force. 

1 A Ri-bl War Clerk's [J. B. .Tones] Diary, March 5, 1864. The Riclimond press, in the 
interest of the Conspirators, strongly recommended the measure. "Let tliem die," said the 
Richmond Whig, not by court-martial, not as prisoners, b\it as hostes Immani generis by general 
order from the President, Commander-in-Chief." 

' A Rebel War Clerk's Dviry, March 2, 1S64. "Last night," says the Diary, "when it was 
supposed probable that the prisoners of war at the Libby might attempt to break out. General 
Winder ordered that a large amount of j^owder be placed under the building, with ini^tructions to 
blow tliem up if the attempt were made." Seddon would not give a written order for the diaboli- 
cal work to be done, but lie said, signiticantly, " the prisoners must not be allowed to escape. 
under any circumstance)!" "which," says tlie diarist, "was considered sanction enough. Captam 

obtained an order for and procured several hiindred pmmds of gimpowder, which was 

placed in readiness. Whether the prisoners were advised of this I know not: but I told Captain 
it would not be justifiable to spring such a mine in the absence of their knowledge of the 




I 



BELL^ ISLE. 



1S64.] LIXCOLX'S ADMINISTRATION. (389 

threatencil Lee's conimunicatioiis in the direction of Charlottesville and the 
Shenandoah Valley. 

We now come to the consideration of one of the great campaigns, planned 
hy General Grant, namely, that of the Army of the Potomac under General 
^Icade, against the Army of Northern Virginia under General Lee, and Rich- 
mond, the head-quarters of the Consjjirators. Grant, as we have seen,' made 
his head-quarters with the Army of the Potomac, which was rc-organized, and 
divided into three corps, commanded, respectively, by Generals Hancock, 
Warren, and Sedgwick, and known in the order of the commanders named, as 
the Second, Fifth, and Sixth. General Burnside, who, since his retirement 
from East Tennessee, had been re-organizing his old Ninth Corps, was ordered 
forward, and joined the Army of the Potomac, on the Rapid Anna. Re-enforce- 
ments rapidly filled the armies, and at the close of April [1864], Grant gave 
orders for ^leade in Virgini.a, and Sherman in Northern Georgia, to advance. 

The Army of the Potomac crossed the Rapid Anna, into the tangled region 
known as The Wilderness, on the morning of the 4th of Maj. At that time 
Lee's army lay strongly intrenched behind Jline Run,- and extending from the 
Rapid Anna almost to Gordonsville. It was also divided into three corps,, 
under Ewell, Hill, and Longstreet. Grant intended to move swiftly by Lee's 
flank, masked by The Wilderness, and plant the LTnion army between that of' 
the Confederates and Richmond; but the latter was vigilant, and boldly 
leaving his intrcnchments, attacked the Nationals in The Wilderness. A very 
sanguinary battle ensued [May 5 and 6], on that strange battle-field,^ by which 
both armies were shattered, but without any decided advantage gained by 
either. It continued two days, when Lee withdrew behind his intrcnchments, 
and Meade prepared to get out of The Wilderness, into the open country near 
Spottsylvania Court-House, as soon as possible. In this sanguinary battle, 
the gallant Union General Wadsworth was killed, and the Confederate General 
Longstreet was wounded. 

General Warren led the movement out of The Wilc^rness, and Grant's plan 
of flanking Lee would doubtless have been successful, but for del.ays. When, 
on the morning of the 8th [May, 1864], Warren emerged into the open country 
two or three miles from Spottsylvania Court-House, he found a part of Lee's 
army across his path, in strong position behind intrenchments previously cast 
up, and the remainder rapidly arriving. Before the whole of the Array of the 
Potomac could arrive, that of Northern Virginia was there and ready to- 
oppose Grant in flanking movement. Dispositions were made for battle, 

fate awaiting them in the event of tlieir attemptin.a: to break out, because such prisoners are not 
to be condemned for striving to regain their liberty. Indeed it is the duly of a prisoner of war to. 
escape if he can." 

' See page 681. ' Seop.ige 660. 

' Covered witli a thick growtli of pine, cedars, and shmb-oaks, and tangled under-brush, it 
was a country in which maneuvering, in tlie military sense, was almost impossible, and where by 
the compass alone, like mariners at murky midnight, the movements of troops were directed'. 
Tlie tliree hundred guns of the combatants liad no avocation there, and the few liorsemen not 
away on outward duty were compelled to be almost idle spectators. Of the two hundred tliou- 
sand men there ready to fall upon and slay each other, probably no man's ej'es saw more tlian a 
thousand at one time, so absolute was the concealments of the thickets. Never in the liistory of 
war was such a spectacle exhibited. 

44 



(-.90 



THE NATION. 



[1SG4. 



after some skirmisliing on the morning of the 9th, and that day was spent 
in preparations. The gallant Sedgwick was killed wliile superintending the 
arrangement of a battery. Every thing was in readiness for battle on tin' 
morning of the 10th. It opened vigorously, and raged furiously all day, with 
dreadful losses on both sides. On the following morning [May 11, 1864], 
General Grant sent to the government that famous dispatch in which occurred 
his declaration, ''''I propose toJi(/ht it out on this line, if it takes all sumnier.^^ 

Early on the 12th, another and equally sanguinary contest ensued, when 
Hancock broke through the Confederate lines, gained a great advantage, and 
held it. Another day of terrible fighting ensued, and did not wholly cease 
until midnight, when Lee suddenly withdrew behind his second line of intrench- 
ments, and was apparently as strong as ever. In the sjjace of eight days, the 
Army of the Potomac had lost nearly thirty thousand men. Yet Grant, sent a 
cheering dispatch to the government ; and the whole country was listening 
with the deepest anxiety for tidings from the two great armies. Finally, 
Grant determined to turn Lee's present position, and made dispositions accord- 
ingly. Lee proceeded to thwart him, and a severe battle occurred on tlie 19th 
of Ma3% in which the Nationals were successful in repulsing Lee, but with 
fearful loss to themselves. About forty thousand of the army that crossed the 
Rapid Anna was now disabled. Lee had lost about thirty thousand. 




THE PLACE WHERE SEDGWICK WAS KILLED.' 



When the Army of the Potomac emerged from The Wilderness, General 
Philip IT. Sheridan, with a greater portion of the National cavalry, went upon 
a raid on Lee's rear. He swept down into the outer line of works before 
Richmond, fighting and killing on the way, a few miles north of the city, the 
eminent cavalry officer, General J. E. B. Stuart, and destroying the railways 
and a vast amount of public property. He pushed on to the James River below, 
and then returned to the army. In the mean time a co-operating force, under 
General Sigel, in the Shenandoah and Kanawha Valleys, was active. A part of 

' This is from a sketch made bytlie author in Jime, 1 860, taken from the breastworks in front 
of the Union line. Toward the riglit is seen the logs of the battery, the construction of which 
Sedgwick was superintending, and near which he fell. The bullet came from the clump of trees 
on the knoll seen more to the right, on rising ground. 



1804.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. ggj 

it uiuler Sigel in person, fought Confederates under Breckinridge, at New 
Market [May 15], when the Nationals were routed. Another part, under 
Generals Crooke and Averiil, moved out of the Kanawha Valley, and pro- 
ceeded toward the Virginia Central railway, to destroy it, and also some lead 
mines near Wytheville. But little was accomplished. Later than this. General 
Hunter, who had succeeded Sigel in command, fought [June 5] the Confeder- 
ates at Piedmont, not far from Staunton, where he was joined by Crook and 
Averiil. Then the whole body, twenty thousand strong, went over the mount- 
ains to capture Lynchburg. It was too strong ; and Hunter, after destroying a 
vast amount of property in that region, withdrew into "West Virginia, and was 
not able to join in the campaign for several weeks afterward. 

While the Army of the Potomac was struggling with Lee, General Butler, 
who had been joined by troops, under General Gillmore, which had been called 
up from Charleston, made effective co-operative movements. He T^ent up 
the James River [May 4, 1864], in armed transports, with about twenty-five 
thousand men, followed by a squadron of gun-boats under Admiral Lee, and 
unarmed transports. Fort Powhatan, Wilson's Landing, and City Point, at 
the mouth of the Appomattox Uiver, were seized, and Butler proceeded at 
once to take possession of an<l hold the peninsula of Bermuda Hundred between 
the rivers James, and Appomattox. Simultaneously with this movement up 
the James, General Kautz, with five thousand cavalry, went out from Suffolk, 
to break up the railways south and west of Petersburg ; while Colonel West, 
with fifteen hundred mounted men went up the Peninsula, forded the Chick- 
ahominy, and took post on the James River, opposite City Point. All this was 
done with scarcely any opposition, for Confederate troops were then few in 
that region. 

General Butler proceeded to cast up a strong lino of intrenchmcnts across 
the peninsula of Bermuda Hundred, and to destroy the railway between Peters- 
burg and Richmond. The former place was then at his mercy, and might 
have been easily taken, but misinformation from Washington made Butler 
move cautiously. Meanwhile, the withdrawal of Gillmore's troops having 
relieved Charleston of immediate danger, left the Confederate fbrces there free 
to act elsewhere. So, when Butler moved up the James, Beauregard was 
summoned to Richmond with all the troops he could collect. He passed over 
the Weldon road before Kautz struck it, and filled Petersburg with defenders 
before Butler could move upon it in force. His columns were receiving acces- 
sions of strength every hour, and while Butler was intrenching, Beauregard 
was massing a heavy force on his front along the line of the railway. Finally, 
on the morning of the 16th [May], while a dense fog shrouded the country, he 
attempted to turn Butler's right flank, which was connected with the James by 
a thin line. A National brigade was utterly ovenvhelmed by the first heavy 
blow, when two regiments, standing firmly at the junction of roads, checked 
the victors. At the same time a force that had fallen on Butler's front, was 
repulsed. The assault was renewed, on the National right, when the Union 
troops all fell back to their intrenchments. Li this collision the Nationals lost 
about four thousand of their number, and the Confederates, about three thou- 



692 



THE NATION. 



[1864. 



sand. For several days afterward tliere was some sharp fighting in front of 
Butler's line. Kautz, meanwhile, had been on the railway communications in 
the rear of Petersburg, inflicted considerable but not very serious damage, and 
returned to head-quarters. 

And now Grant's flanking column was moving grandly forward. Lee had 
tlie advantage of higher ground, and a more direct road to Richmond, and 
wlien the Army of the Potomac approached the North Anna Kiver, near the 
Fredericksburg railway crossing, it found its antagonist strongly posted on the 
ojipositc side, to dispute its passage. A heavy battle ensued [May 23], when 
• Lee withdrew a little to a stronger position. Grant became satisfied, after 
careful examination of that position, that he could not carry it. So he with- 
drew [jNIay 20], and resumed his march on Richmond, well eastward of his foe, 
Sheridan, with the cavalry, in the advance; and on the 28th the entire Army 
of the Potomac was south of the Pamunkey River, witli an unobstructed com- 
munication with its new base of supplies at White House, near the mouth of 
that stream. But Lee, moving by a shorter road, was again in a strongly 
intrenched position on the National front, covering the turnpike and the two 
railways to Richmond. There heavy battles were fought [May 28, 29], wlien 
Grant, again finding Lee's position too strong to be carried, began another 

flanking movement, with the intention 
of crossing the Chickahominy near 
Cool Arbor. Sheridan had seized an 
eligible position at Cool Arbor, and 
tliere, on the following day, the jVrmy 
of the Potomac was re-enforced [May 
31] by ten thousand men under Gen- 
eral W. F. Smith, sent up by Butler 
from the Army of the James at Ber- 
muda Hundred. 

Meade now gave orders for an 
advance upon the foe, and the forcing 
of a passage of the Chickahominy. 
Here was the old battle-ground where 
McClellan and Lee fought two years 
before, and here were now some san- 
guinary engagements preparatory to the final struggle which occurred on the 
3d of June, when the Army of the Potomac attempted to break through the 
lines of the Army of Northern Virginia, and cross the Chickahominy. The 
struggle Avas fearful and bloody, but brief Twenty minutes after the first shot 
was fired, full ten thousand Union men were killed or wounded. The Nationals 
lost no ground, but did not attempt to advance farther. They were attacked 
that night, but repulsed their assailants. Another attack the ne.vt day, and 
also at night, had a similar result, but with heavy losses on both sides.' ]Mean- 




PHILIP H. SHERIDAN. 



' The total loss of the Dnionists in the strujrgle around Cool Arbor, waa H, 153, of wliom 
1,705 were killed, 9,042 wounded, and 2,405 missing. 



lS6-i.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. g93 

while the Nationals were gradually movuig to the left, and on the 7th [June] 
that wing touched the Chickahominy. Then Sheridan was dispatched with 
two divisions of cavalry around Lee's left. He tore up the railways in that 
direction, and scattered all Confederate forces that opposed him until he reached 
Gordonsville, where lie found them so nujuerous that he retraced his steps. 

Grant now formed the bold resolution to cross the Chickahominy for to 
Lee's right, and then pass the James River and attack Richmond froni the 
south. Tins resolution startled the authorities at Washington with fears that 
Lee might turn back and seize that city. Grant had considered all the contin- 
gencies incident to such a bold movement, and feared no evil from it.' To 
this end the whole army was put in motion [June 12, 13]. The most of the 
troops crossed the Chickahominy at Long Bridge, and moved toward the 
James by way of Charles City Court-House, carrying with them the iron work 
of the railway between the Chickahominy and White House. The passage of 
the river was safely made by the army on ferry-boats and pontoon bridges on 
the 14th and 15th of June. At the same time unsuccessful efforts were made 
by a portion of the Army of the James to seize Petersburg before aid should 
come down to Beauregard from Lee. The failure to do so was a sad misfor- 
tune, and from that time, for about ten months, Petersburg and Richmond sus- 
tained a most pressing siege. 

General Grant established his head-quarters at City Point, and thither 
Meade hastened, after posting liis army [June 16], to consult him, when it was 
determined to make a general assault that evening on Petersburg. It was done 
by the combined corps of Warren, Hancock, and Burnside, at a heavy cost of 
life, but with the gain of a slight advance of the National line. It was evident 
that a greater portion of Lee's army was now south of the James River. A 
force under Terry, sent out by Butler to seize and hold the railway, was driven 
by Longstreet and Pickett. Another general assault was ordered on the morn- 
ing of the 18th, when it was found that the Confederates had withdrawn to a 
stronger line of works nearer Petersburg. The attack was made in the after- 
noon, and resulted in no gain to the Nationals, but in a heavy loss of men. 

It was now evident that Petersburg could not be carried by a direct assault, 
so a flanking movement was made for the purpose of seizing and cutting the 
Weldon road, and turning the Confederate right. The turning column was 
heavily attacked [June 22, 1864] by General A. P. Hill, and were falling back, 
when ]\Ieade arri^'ed. Then the line was restored, and, by an advance at 
nightfall, nearly all of the lost ground was recovered. The Weldon road was 
reached the next morning, but just as destructive operations upon it were com- 
mencedj Hill struck the Nationals a stmming blow, which made them recoil. 
In this unsuccessful flank movement, the Unionists lost about four thousand 
men, mostly by capture. At the same time General Wilson, with his own and 
Kautz's cavalry, struck the Weldon railway at Reams's Station, destroyed the 

' Tlie country between Lee's shattered army and Washington, was thorouglily exhausted by 
tlie troons that liad passed over it, and liad Lee attempted such a movement, Gr-jnt could have 
sent troops from the James by way of the Potomac for the protection of the capital much sooner 
than Leo could have marched to the attack. 



694 



THE NATION. 



[1864. 



buildings and track, and then pushed on to the Lynchburg road. This was 
also destroyed over a distance of twenty-two miles. In the prosecution of this 
destructive business, the cavalry went on to the Staunton River, when they 
turned, and found themselves compelled to fight their way back. Wearied 
and worn, the shattered column reached the army, with a loss of their guns, 
train, and nearly a thousand men made captive. 

Butler now threw a pontoon bridge across the James River at Deep Bottom, 
over which troops passed and menaced Richmond. Lee sent a force to cmi- 




PONTOOJI BRHIGE AT DEEP BOTTOM. 

front them, when Hancock crossed over, flanked the Confederate outjjost, and 
drove them back to the shelter of strong works at Chapin's Bluif, not far 
below Fort Darling, on Drewry's Bluft". These Sheridan attemj)ted to flank. 
Lee was so alarmed by these movements within a fewiuiles of Richmond, that 
he withdrew a large portion of his army from the south side of the river to 
meet the menace, wlien Grant took the opportunity to make a vigorous attempt 
to carry the Confedei-ate lines before Petersburg. He had secretly run a mine 
under one of iheir princijial forts, in front of Burnside's position, and this was 
sprung on the morning of the 30th of June. The explosion produced a large 
crater where the fort stood, and by it about three hundred inmates of the work 
perished. At the same moment the National Artillery was oj>ened along the 
whole line, but a simultaneous assault that was to have l^een made at the point 
of the explosion for the purpose of penetrating the Confederate works, was 
not undertaken in time, and the scheme failed.' 



' Owing to a lack of readiness on the part of tlie attacking column, the assault was not made 
until the Confederates had recovered from the shock, and massed troops at the breach. These 



1«6*] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. g95 

There was now a brief lull in operations before Petersburg and Richmond, 
during which there were some stirring events in Maryland. When Hunter 
disappeared beyond the mountains,' General Early, who had been sent by Lee 
to drive the former from Lynchburg, hastened to the Shenandoah Valley, and, 
with about fifteen thousand men, swept down to and across the Potomac, driv- 
ing General Sigel into Maryland. Early did not stop to molest some of Sigel's 
command on Maryland Heights at Harper's Ferry, but pushed on to Hagers- 
town and Frederick. His was a powerful raid, for the purposes of plunder 
and a possible seizure of Baltimoi-e and Washington, but chiefly to cause 
Grant to send heavy bodies of troops for the defense of the latter city, and so 
compel him to raise the siege of Petersburg. 

At tliat time the only force at hand to confront Early were a few troops 
commanded by General Lewis Wallace, whose head-quai-ters were at Baltimore. 
That energetic officer proceeded at once to a judicious use of the small force 
under his control, in which he was ably seconded by the gallant Gener.al E. B. 
Tyler. On hearing of Early's movement. General Grant had sent the Sixth 
Corps, under General Wright, to Washington, and, fortunately, the Nineteenth 
Corps, under General Emory," arrived at this juncture at Fortress Monroe, from 
New Orleans. The division of General Ricketts, of that corps, was imme- 
diately sent to Baltimore, and with these, and such troops as he could gather 
in his department, Wallace made a stand behind the Monocacy River, not far 
from Frederick. There, with his handful of men, he fonght Early [July 8, 
1864], whose cavalry were making demonstrations on his flanks. Wallace was 
compelled to fall back on Baltimore after heavy loss.^ Then Early pushed on 
toward Washington, but the check and lesson given him by Wallace so 
retarded his movements that the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps arrived there in 
time to save the city from capture. Early withdrew from in front of Wash- 
ington on the night of the r2th, and with much booty crossed the Potomac 
into Virginia at Edwards's Ferry. General Wright pursued him through 
Snicker's Gap to the Shenandoah River, where, after a sharp conflict [July 19], 
Early began a retreat up the Valley, and Wright returned to Washington. 
Threatenings in that valley caused both the Sixth and Nineteenth Corps to be 
quickly sent there, and soon afterwai-d occurred Sheridan's brilliant campaign 
in that region, which will be noticed jiresently. 

A fortnight after the failure of the mining operations at Petersburg, Grant 
sent another expedition to the north side of the James, at Deep Bottom, com- 
posed of the divisions of Birney and Hancock, and cavalry under Gregg. As 
befoi'e, Richmond was sei'iously threatened, but in engagements on the 13th 
and 16th of August, no decided advantage to the Unionists was gained, except- 
ing the incidental one of assisting similar demonstrations on the right of the 
Confederates, against which Warren was impelled, for the purpose of seizing 

repulsed the assaulting columa wlien it moved forward, and inflicted a loss on tlie Unionists of 
about 4.400 men. 

' Sec page 691. ■ See page C84. 

' He lost nearly two thousand men. including 1,282 who were made prisoners, or were other- 
wise missing. His killed numbered 98, and his wounded 579. 



69G 



THE X ATI OX. 



[I8G4. 



the Weklon road. This he effected [August 18], with a loss of a thousand 
men. There he commenced intrenching, when a stronger force tlian lie had 
encountered endeavored to regain the road. In so doing they temporarily 
broke [August 19] Warren's line, and captured t\?enty-five hundred of his 
men, including General J. Hayes. But the Nationals held the road in spite of 
all efforts to dislodge them. They repulsed another heavy attack on the 21st, 
and on the same day Hancock, who had returned from the north side of the 
James, struck the Weldon road at Reams's Station, and destroyed the track 
for some distance. The Confederates attacked them in hea^■y force, when they 
were most gallantly opposed by Miles and others. The Nationals were finally 
driven off after a loss of 2,400 men out of 8,000 men ; also five guns. 

For a month after this there was comparative quiet along the linos, when 
National troops moved simultaneously upon the right aiul left flanks of the Con- 
federates. That of Warren, on their right, was more for the purpose of mask- 
ing a more formidable one by Butler on their left, on the north side of the 
James, with the Tenth Corps, under Birney, and Eighteenth, under Ord. 
Warren gained some advantage by pushing forward the National lines, but 
that gained by Butler was of far more importance. He stormed and captured 
their strongest work [September 29, ISG-t] on 
that side of the river, known as Fort Harrison, 
with fifteen guns and a line of intrenchments. 
In an attack upon another fort near, immediate- 
ly afterward, the Nationals were repulsed, and 
General Burnham was killed. The gallant 
behavior of colored troops in this charge was 
such that General Butler, after the war, caused 
a number of silver medals to be struck and 
given to the most distinguished among them, 
in testimony of their valor on that occasion. 
Now there was another pause for a month, 
when an attempt was 
made to turn the Con- 
federate right, while 
Butler menaced their 
left on the north side 
of the James IJiver. 
The bulkof the Army 
of the Potonuic was 
massed on Lee's right, 
and moved [October 
27] upon his works on 
Hatcher's Ivun, Avest 
of the Weldon road. 
For that position there was a severe struggle, which resulted in a repulse of 
the Xatio.ials, and :heu final withdrawal [Oc.obei 29] to t:ieir Intre.ichn.ents 
in front of Petersburg From that time until the opening ^of the spring cam- 




TIIE BCTLER MEDAL. 



lSu.4.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



697 



paign, little was clone by the Xationals immediately in front of Petersburg and 
Richmond, excepting an extension of their line to Hatcher's Run. Up to the 
first of November, from the fifth of May, tlie losses of the Army of the Potomac 
had been fearful — a little more than 88,000 men. Probably the entire loss 
among troops engaged in the campaign against Richmond during that time 
was 100,000 men. 

In the mean time there had been stirring events in the Shenandoah Valley. 
On the day after Wright and Early fought,' Averill, moving up from Martins- 
burg, had a contest with and worsted a Confederate force near Winchester 
[July 20], taking prisoners and guns. Two or three days afterward. Crook 
was driven back from that neighborhood by a strong attacking party, and it 
was evident that Early had not, as was expected, hastened to rejoin Lee, but 
was in full force in the Valley, and ready to fight. His own estimate of his 
jjower was evinced by his sending General McCausland and others on a raid 
into Maryland and Western Pennsylvania, at which time they burned about 
two-thirds of the city of Chambcrsburg. When the raiders turned again 
toward the Potomac, Averill, who was in the vicinity of Chambersbnrg, fol- 
lowed, but they went back to Virginia with plunder, without much molesta- 
tion. 

When information of this daring raid reached Washington, the Sixth and 
Ninth Corps were sent first in quest of the invaders, and then into the Shenan- 




VIEW AT CEDAR CREEK. 



doah Vallej-, where they were joined by Hunter's troops. The whole force, 
about 30,000 strong, was placed under the command of General Sheridan early 
in August. After a month's preparation, he assumed the offensive against 
Earlv, and by a series of brilliant movements and a sharo battle, he sent him 



See page 695. 



698 



THE NATION. 



[1864 



" whirling up tlie Valley," as he expressed it. First there was a severe battle 
near Winchester [Sept. 19], when Early retreated to the strong position of 
Fisher's Hill, not far from Strasbiirg. He was driven from this vantage 
ground on the 21st, with heavy loss, and fled to the mountains with not more 
than half his army with which he had at first met Sheridan. The latter fell 
back to a position behind Cedar Creek, near Strasburg, where, on the 19th of 
October, Early, who had been re-enforced, and had come down to Fisher's 
Hill, fell suddenly and crushingly upon the Nationals, and came near over- 
M'helming them with destruction. They fell back to Middletown and beyond, 
where, under the chief direction of General Wright, they turned ujwn their 
jjursuers. Sheridan had just come up from Winchester. A sharp conflict 
ensued, when the tide was turned, and Early was again sent in swift retreat up 
the Shenandoah Vallej', with heavy loss. Sheridan's short campaign in the 
Valley was a brilliant success, and ended hostilities in that region, for he nearly 
annihilated Early's army, and Lee eijuld spare no more men for warfare away 
from Richmond. 



as A P T E R XIX 



THE CIVIL WAR. [1861—1865.] 

/^■' 

Let us here turn from a consideration of the campaign against Richmond, 

and its defenders, for awhile, and observe the progress of that against Atlanta 

and the arni)^ that stood in the way of the National advance. General William 

T. Sherman was chosen by Grant, to lead the troops in the campaign in 

Georgia, and he set out from the 
vicinity of Chattanooga, at the be- 
ginning of May, with nearly 100,000 
men.' His antagonist, General Joseph 
E. Johnston, then at Dalton, had 
about 55,000 men." Johnston was in 
a strong position at Dalton, the ap- 
proaches to it, through gaps in a 
mountain range, being strongly forti- 
fied. Sherman, when he moved for- 
ward, was satisfied that a direct 
attack on Johnston's front, through 
Buzzard's Roost Pass in Rocky Face 
Ridge, would be disastrous to his 
yr. T. SHERMAN. meHy so he began that series of mas- 

' Sherman was the commander of the Military DuMgien of the Missisippi. whieliGnuit held at 
the time of his promotion. His force for the campaii^^omprised three armies, namely: Army 
of the Cumberland, led liy General Geortre H. Tliomas. G0."7:i; Army of the Tennc-ssce, General 
McPherson. 24.465; and Army of the Ohio. General Sc^field. 13.559; total, 98.797. 

" Johnston's army was divided into three corps, commanded respectively by Generals Hardee, 
Hood, and Folk. '■ 




18G4.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. ggg 

tcrly flank movements by wliich lie compelled his adversary (wlio was deter- 
mined to save his army), to abandon one strong position after another. 

Sherman menaced Johnston on front and flank, on the 7th of May, when 
the latter abandoned his position at Dalton, and fell back behind strong works 
at Resaca, which e.x^tcnded from the Oostenaula River, northward. When 
Sherman approached, Johnston sent out troops to attack a portion of his com- 
mand. A sharp tight occurred [May 15], about two miles from Resaca Station, 
ill which the Confederates were driven, and retreated, across the Oostenaula 
covered by the corps of Hardee. Tlie Nationals closely pursued, Thomas 
following directly in the rear of the fugitives, while MePherson and Schofield 
took routes to their right and left. General J. C. Davis and his division pushed 
on to Rome, where they destroyed mills and founderies of great importance. 
Near Adairsville, Johnston made a brief stand against the central pursuing 
column, but on the near approach of the Nationals, he continued his retreat to 
a strong and fortified position at Cassville. There he evidently intended to 
give battle, but he thought it prudent to move on [May 19], when he crossed 
the Etowah River, burnt the bridges behind him, and took another good 
position covering the Allatoona Pass, in a mountainous region. 

Sherman now rested his army a little. He perceived that Johnston's posi- 
tion was almost impregnable, so he determined to, flank him out of it, by 
moving well to the right, and concentrating his army at Dallas. Johnston 
attempted to thwart the movement, and in that vicinity a severe but indecisive 
battle was fought [May 25]. Johnston's army, meanwhile, had been very 
busy in casting up intrenchments between Dallas and Marietta, over a broken 
wooded region, in which it was very diflieult for troops to operate. In that 
region much skirmishing and lighting occurred, and finally, on the first of June, 
Johnston was compelled to evacuate the Allatoona Pass. He also, soon after- 
ward, abandoned his intrenchments near New Hope Church and Ackworth. 
Sherman now garrisoned Allatoona Pass, and made it a secondary base of sup- 
plies, he having caused the railway and its bridges between there and Chatta- 
nooga to be put in order. He was now re-enforced by infantry, and cavalry, 
making his army nearly as strong as when it left Chattanooga ; and he moved 
forward [June 9] to Big Shanty, not far from the great Kenesaw Mountain, 
around and upon which, as well as upon Lost Mountain and Pine Mountain, 
the Confederates had lines of intrenchments. 

In this region there was much maneuvering and fighting, for a few days, 
in the midst of almost incessant rain, during which General (Bishop) Polk was 
killed. By j)ersistent assaults, Sherman compelled Johnston to abandon, first, 
'Pine Mountain [June 15], then Lost Mountain [June 17]; and finally, after 
some sanguinary engagements, in which both parties suftered terribly, he was 
compelled to evacuate the great Kenesaw Mountain [July 2], overlooking 
Marietta. At dawn on the 3d, the National banner was seen waving over that 
peak, and at eight o'clock in the onorning Sherman rode into Marietta, close 
upon the I'ear guard of Johnston's army, then hastening to the Chattahoochee 
River, near Atlanta, closely jiurstied by the Nationals. Sherman hoped to 
strike Jolnison a fatal blow while he was crossing that stream, but that skillful 



700 



THE NATION. 



leader so quickly covered the passage by strong intrenchments, that his army 
was all across, excepting troops liolding tlie works, early on the morniiii'' of 
the 5th, without havintr been molested. 




SUMMIT OF OKEAT KENBS.VW MOUNTAIN.' 



Sherman promptly advanced to tlie Chattahoochee, where quick and success- 
ful turning movements by Schofield and Howard, caused Johnston to abandon 
the line of the river, and retreat toward Atlanta [July 10, 1864]. He formed 
a new line, covering that town, with the Chattahoochee on his left., and Peach- 
tree Creek on his right. Now the two armies rested a little; and at that time 

Johnston was relieved of command, 
and General J. B. Hood, of Texas, was 
appointed to fill his place. The former 
had been careful to preserve his army. 
His force was every way inferior to 
that of liis antagonist, and he knew 
tliat in pitclied battles he would doubt- 
less lose a large portion of his men 
and materials. The Conspirators at 
Kielimond were dissatisfied witli his 
wise caution, and committed liis army 
to a dashing and brave soldier, who 
preferredithe quick work of brute force ^^<M 
to the slower acliievements of mili-Vl-J 
tary science, j Hood received from 
Johnston full fifty thousand eftective 
men, of whom 10,000 were cavalry. With these he resolved to figlit, and not 
retreat. 

On the IGth of July, General Rousseau joined Sherman witli 2,000 cavalry; 




' Tliis is from a sketeli made by the autlinr in Mav. ISIU!. The hicfh peak in tlie distanrf i.s 
Lofi, Moiintain. Tlie eminence on tiie extreme right is Pine Mountain, on which General Polk 
was killed while watcliing the movements of troops. 



1864.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



701 



and on the 19tli such of the National forces as had not crossed the Chatta- 
hoochee, passed over it. Then the left, led by Schofield and MoPherson, 
advanced with the intention of striking the railway east of Decatur, that 
connects Atlanta with Augusta. Thomas, at the same time, crossed Peach-tree 
Creek at several places, and heavy skirmisliing occurred along the entire front 
of the advancing columns. McPherson struck and destroyed the railway for 
several miles, and Schofield reached Decatur. Hood had determined to give 
battle at an auspicious moment, and on the afternoon of the 20th he fell 
heavily upon the corps of Howard and Hooker, and a part of Palmer's, but 
was repulsed after a most gallant struggle, in which both sides suffered 
severely.' 

On the morning of the 22d [July, 1864], Sherman discovered that the Con- 
federates had abandoned the heiglits along Peach-tree Creek, and it was con- 
cluded that Hood, following the example of Johnston, was about to evacuate 
Atlanta. The army was at once moved rapidly toward that city, when, at an 
average of two miles from it, it encountered a very heavy line of intrench- 
ments, which had been cast up tiie previous year, with Hood and his army 
behind them. General Blair, commanding the Seventeenth Corps, had carried 
an important point the night before, and was in full view of the city, and 
preparations were made for assailing the Confederate lines in heavy force, 
when they were compelled to perform less acceptable service. Hood had 
been holding the Nationals in check with a small part of liis army, and had 
made a long night march around with his main body, and now he fell with 
crushing force upon Sherman's rear. The first assault was made by Hardee ; 
and at about the same time, jMcPherson, who was riding about alone in the 
woods, and in fancied safety, making observations, was shot dead, when 
General Logan succeeded to the command of his troops. A terrible battle, 
that lasted for hours, succeeded Hardee's assault, when, toward evening, the 
Confederates, who had lost very heavily, unable to carry the coveted points, 
desisted. The assault was soon renewed, and after another desperate struggle, 
the Nationals were victorious, and the Confederates retired to their works.' 

Hood now seemed more disposed to be quiet, and Sherman dispatched 
cavalry to make raids on the railways in the rear of his antagonist. Generals 
A. D. McCook and Stoneman were sent on this business, on different routes, 
but with the intention of co-operating. Failing in this, their operations, 
tliough important, fell short of Sherman's expectations. Stoneman effected 
very little, and his force, divided and weakened, was captured or dispersed, 
and himself made prisoner. Meanwhile Sherman made dispositions for flanking 
Hood out of Atlanta, when the latter attacked the Nationals [July 28], and a 
sanguinary battle ensxied. Hood was repulsed with heavy loss, and soon 
]>erceiving that Sherman was gradually getting possession of the railroads by 

' Tlie Union loss, mostly of Howard's corps, was about 1,500 men. Sherman estimated the 
Confederate loss at 5,000. They left 500 dead, and 1,000 severely wounded, on the field, besides 
many prisoners. 

'' The National loss in the struggles of tliat day was 3,722, of whom about 1.000 were prisoners. 
Sherman estimated Hood's total loss at not less than 8,000. He left 2,200 dead on the field, 
within tlio Union lines, and 1,000 prisoners. 



702 



THE NATION. 



[1S64. 



■which the Confederates in Atlanta received their supplies, he sent his cavalry 
to retaliate in kind, by striking Sherman's communications. This absence of 
Hood's cavalry gave Sherman a coveted opportunity to harm his antagonist 
seriously. He dispatched Kilpatrick at the middle of August with 5,000 
horsemen, to break up the railways leading, one toward Montgomery, in 
Alabama, and the other to Macon, in Georgia. This raid was successful, and 
was followed by a movement of nearly the whole army from Atlanta to the 
railways in its rear, when Hood, fatally dividing his army, sent a part under 
Hardee, to fight Howard at Jonesboro', twenty miles south, on the Macon 
road, while he, with the remainder, staid at Atlanta. There was a desperate 
battle at Jonesboro' [August 31], in which the Nationals were victorious. 
Howard lost about 500 men, and Hardee 2,500. The Confederate works 
covering Jonesboro' were captured, and Hardee retreated. 

On hearing of the disaster at Jonesboro', Hood blew up his magazines at 
__ ^ ^ ^^ Atlanta, and fled to a point of junction 

with Hardee. Sherman took possession 
of the city and fortifications, and found 
that Hood had not only left the place 
desolate by the destruction of factories, 
founderies, and other industrial establish- 
ments, but had left scarcely any food for 
the inhabitants. It was impossible for 
Sherman to subsist both them and his 
army, so he humanely ordered them to 
leave for the Xorth or the South, as their 
inclinations might lead them.' 

While Sherman was resting his army 
at Atlanta, Hood flanked his right, 
crossed the Chattahoochee, and made a raid upon his communications. With 
a strong force he threatened Sherman's supplies at AUatoona Pass, then lightly 
guarded, but General Corse hastening up from Rome assisted in saving them. 
Not doubting it to be Hood's intention to push up into Tennessee, Sherman 
sent Thomas to Nashville, so soon as he heard of Hood's flank movements ; 
and leaving Sloeura (who had succeeded Hooker) in command at Atlanta, he 
pushed the bulk of his array in the direction of AUatoona Pass, and from the 
top of Great Kenesaw, told Corse, by signal, that help was near, and to hold 
out until it should reach him. The Confederates were repulsed, and then 
Hood moved northward, threatening posts along the line of the railway, under 
instructions, to entice his adversary out of Georgia. Sherman closely followed 
him, well up toward Chattanooga, when the route of the chase deflected 
westward. In Northern Alabama, Sherman relinquished it, and sending 
Schofield, and most of his cavalry, under Wilson, to Thomas at Nashville, he 
returned to Atlanta, taking with him the garrisons of posts, dismantling the 

' In government wagons, and at the cost of the government, over 2.000 persons with much 
furnitnre and clothing were carried south as far as Rough and Readj^, and those who desired to 
go north, were kindly taken to Chattanooga. 




Sherman's head-quarters in Atlanta. 



1864.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. fjQQ 

railway, and burning founderies, &c. He cut loose from all liis c-ommuni- 
cations on the north, and prepared for a march to the sea. 

Sherman's great march to the sea was begun, with 65,000 men of all arms, 
on the 11th of November, 1864, on which day he cut his telegraphic communi- 
cations with the North, and was not heard from for some time, excepting 
through Confederate newspapers. His army moved in two grand divisions, 
the right led by General O. O. Howard, and the left by General H. W. Slocuni. 
General Kilpatrick led, with 5,000 cavahy. Much of Atlanta was destroyed 
before they left it, and the railways and public property were made desolate in 
the track of the two heavy columns. Wheeler's cavalry afforded the chief 
annoyance to the army on its march. Feints were made here and there, to 
distract the Confederates, and were successful. The destination of the 
Nationals from the beginning, had been Savannah or its vicinit}', but the 
foe sometimes thought it was Augusta, and then Milledgeville. They passed 
on, and on the 13th of December, [1864], General Hazen captured Fort 
McAllister, on the Ogeechee Uiver, not far from Savannah. That city was 
immediately invested, and on the night 
of the 20th, Hardee, in command there 
with 15,000 troops, evacuated it, and 
fled to Charleston, after destroying much 
public property. On the following day 
the National troops took possession of 
Savannah,' and there rested. The army 
had marched two hundred and fiftj fi\ e 
miles in the space of six weeks, inflicting 
much injury on the Confederates, but 
receiving very little injury in return ° 
As Sherman approached the coast. Gen- 
eral Foster, commandinn; in that region, , ..,„„„,„ £,,„.x.»t.ct 

' = a ) SHERMAN S HEAD-QUARTERS IX SAVAKJfAH. 

made valuable co-operative movements ; 

and when Hardee fled to Charleston, he occupied strong positions on the rail- 
way between the two cities, at Pocotaligo, and other places. 

There were some stirring scenes in 1864, in the region of the Atlantic 
coast between the Pamlico and St. John's rivers, which had passed into history 
when Sherman reached the estuaries of the sea at the close of that year. Wo 
left Gillmore easily holding Charleston with a tight grasp at the close of 1863." 
Information had then reached him, and the government, that Florida was 
ready to step back into the Union, through the open door of amnesty, but 
needed a military escort, for there were some active Confederate troops', under 

' Sherman, in a dispatch to the President, said : " I beg to present yon, as a Christmas gift, the 
city of Savannah, with 150 heavy gnns, and plenty of ammunition, and also about 25,000 bales of 
cotton. 

■■' Sherman lost during the march, 567 men. whereof only 63 were killed. He captured 1,32S 
men, and 167 guns. He found and used ample subsistence on the route, amounting, in the 
aggregate, to l.'!,000 beeves. 160,000 bushels of corn, and over 5,000 tons of fodder: also 5,000 
horses, and 4,000 mules. He burned about 20,000 bales of cotton, and captured 25,000 bales, at 
Savannah. ' See page G75. 




704 THE NATION. [1804. 

General Finnegan, yet within her borders. General Gillmore accordingly sent 
General Truman Seymour, with about six thousand troops, horse and foot, to 
assist in the restoration of Florida to the Union.' lie entered the St. John's 
River on a fleet of steamers and sailing vessels, with an imposing display, and 
on the 7th of February, took possession of the ruined city of Jacksonville, 
from which Finnegan had fled on Seymour's approach. 

Finnegan was immediately pursued. Colonel Henry, with cavalrj^ leading 
in the chase. He drove the Confederates from place to place, capturing their 
guns, their stores, and men, and was closely followed by Seymour with the 
residue of the army. Finally, Seymour concentrated his forces at Sanderson, 
and, with about five thousand men, moved toward the Suwannee River. At 
Olustee Station, where the railway that crosses the peninsula passes through a 
cypress swamp, lie encountered Finnegan [February 20, 1864], in a strong 
position, and in a severe battle that ensued, was repulsed. He retreated to 
Jacksonville in good order, burning, on the way, stores valued at $1,000,000. 
In that unfortunate expedition Seymour lost about two thousand men. 

At about that time, Rear-Admiral Bailey destroyed important salt-works, 
on the Florida coast, which were valued at $3,000,000. There were sonie 
raids in Florida in the course of the summer, but after the battle at Olustee, 
very little was done toward the restoration of Florida to its place in the 
Union.'' In Georgia, Sherman's invasion was absorbing all interest. In South 
Carolina, very little of importance, bearing upon the progress of the war, was 
accomplished. There were some unsuccessful offensive movements in the 
vicinity of Charleston. Gillmore's guns kept watch and ward over the harbor 
and city, while he and some of his troops went up the James, to assist in 
operations against Petersburg, and Richmond, as we have seen.^ 

There were some events a little more stirring, in North Carolina, early in 
1864. On the first of February, a Confederate force under General Pickett, 
menaced New Berne, and destroyed a fine gun-boat lying there. A few weeks 
later. General Hoke marched seven thousand men against Plymouth [April 17, 

1864], near the mouth 
of the Roanoke River, 
where General Wessells 
was in command of a 
garrison of about twen- 
ty-fb\u' hundred men, 
with some fortifica- 
tions. A formidable 
" ram," called the Al- 
bemarle, lying in the 
Roanoke, assisted in the attack, and on the 20th, Wessells was compelled to 

' The President commissioned, Jolin Hay, one of his private secretaries, as major, and sent liim 
[January 1 3], to Hilton Head, for the purpose of accompanying tiie e.xpedition, to act in a. civil 
capacity, if circumstances should require him to. 

' On tlie 20th of May there was a Union Convention, at Jacksonville, to take measures for tlie 
restoration of civil authority in Florida. No practical advantage resulted from the gathering. 

^ See page 09 1. 




THE ALBEUARLE. 



1864.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. ^05 

surrender the place, with sixteen hundred men, twenty-five guns, and a large 
quantity of small-arms and stores. After the fall of Plymouth, General Palmer 
abandoned [April 28] Washington, at the head of Pamlico Sound, and 
Hoke summoned New Berue to surrender, expecting the co-operation of the 
Albemarle in a siege. She was enticed from her safe anchorage under the 
guns at Plymouth, and after a severe fight with the Sassacus, was compelled 
to flee for safety up the Koanoke. The siege of New Berne was abandoned, 
and Hoke was called to the James River. Several months later, the gallant 
Lieutenant Gushing, of the navy, destroyed [October 27], the dreaded Albe- 
marle with a torpedo, in the Roanoke. Four days afterward, the National 
troops re-entered Plymouth. After that the war in that region consisted 
chiefly of a series of encounters between Unibn raidei's and detachments of 
Confederates. 

When Sherman sent Thomas to Nashville, he gave him the widest dis- 
cretionary powers. These were used with great judgment, and Thomas pre- 
pared for the stirring events which soon followed, with wise skill. Hood, as 
Sherman had anticipated, pushed across the Tennessee Rjver, Forrest's cavalry 
heralding his advance. That active leader went raiding up the railway that 
leads from Decatur to Nashville, when he was met at Pulaski by Rousseau, 
and compelled to turn eastward to the Chattanooga road. Rousseau again 
confronted him at TiiUahoma. At the same time General Steedman was 
marching against him in considerable force from another direction. Forrest 
eluded them, and for awhile, in September and October [1864], there were 
stirring scenes between the Tennessee and Duck rivers, for several detach- 
ments of National troops were vainly endeavoring to catch the bold raiders. 
At length, late in October, Hood appeared near Decatur, in Northern Alabama, 
then held by General Gordon Granger. He menaced that post, but only as a 
mask to the passage of his army over the Tennessee, near Florence. Forrest 
was again on the war-path, co-operating with Hood, and caused the destruc- 
tion, at Johnsonville, on the Tennessee River, of National stores and other 
property, valued at $1,500,000. 

Hood had been re-enforced by a part of Dick Taylor's army, and he now 
pressed vigorously northward with more than 50,000 men, a large number of 
them natives of Tennessee and Kentucky. Thomas had about 30,000 imme- 
diately available troops, with nearly as many more scattered over Tennessee 
and Northern Alabama. He sent troops forward to impede rather than pre- 
vent Hood's march on Nashville, and was successful. Schofield, with a strong 
force at Pulaski, fell back, as Hood advanced, across Duck River, with his 
train ; and at Columbia he kept the Confederates on the south side of that 
stream until his wagons were well on toward Franklin, where he took a posi- 
tion on the 30th of November, and, casting up intrenchments, prepared to 
fight, if necessary, until his trains should be safely on their way to Nashville. 
Hood came up in the afternoon, and attempted to crush his opponent by the 
mere weight of numbers. A most desperate struggle ensued. At the first 
onset the Confederates drove the whole National line, capturing the works and 
guns, and gaining, apparently, a complete victory. A counter charge was 



706 1"'^^ NATION. [1864. 

made, when the Confederates were driven out of the captured works, the guns 
were recovered, ten flags and three liundred men were captured from the 
assailants, and the National line was restored, chiefly through the skill and 




VIEW ON THE B^\TTLE-GROUND AT PBANKLIN. 

bravery of General Opdyke, directing gallant soldiers. Hood made desj^erate 
but unavailing attempts to retake the works, and the battle raged until 
toward midnight. Hood's loss was terrible — at least one-sixth of his effective 
force.' 

Schofield now fell back to Xashville, carrying with him all of his guns, 
when Hood advanced and invested that post with about 40,000 men. Thomas 
had been re-enforced by General A. J. Smith's troops, which hatl just come 
from assisting in chasing Price out of Missouri.' Thomas's infantry was fully 
equal in numbers to those of his adversary, but he was deficient in cavalry. 
Rousseau was in Fort Rosecrans, at Murfreesboro', to hold the railway to 
Chattanooga, and Thomas allowed Hood to remain in front of him as long as 
possible, so as to give himself time to increase his own supply of horses and 
obtain means for transportation. Finally, on the 15th of December, Thomas 
moved out upon Hood. The battle was opened by the Fourth Corps, under 
General T. J. Wood. The Confederates were. driven out of their works, and 
pressed back to the foot of the Harpeth hills with a loss of 1,200 prisoners and 
16 guns. Wood again advanced the next day [Dec. 10, 1864], and with other 
troops, after a severe battle, drove the Confederates through the Brentwood 
Pass. They left behind them most of their guns, and a large number of their 
companions as prisoners.' They were hotly pursued for several days. Hood 
turning occasionally to fight. Forrest joined him at Columbia, and formed a 
covering party ; and at near the close of the month Hood escaped across the 
Tennessee River with his shattered columns. So ended, in complete victory 

' The Confederate loss was reported by General Thomas at G.252, of wliom 1.750 were killed. 
The National loss was 2,326, whereof 189 were killed. Nearly 1,000 were captured. 

- See page 687. 

' lu the two days' battles, Thomas captured 4,462 prisoners, of whom 287 were officers, one 
of them a major-general ; also fifty-three guns and many small-arms. 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



707 



for the Nationals, Thomas's admirably managed campaign in Tennessee.' 
Hood's arm}^ had now ceased to be formidable in numbers or spirit, and at 
Tupelo, in Mississippi, that commander was relieved, at his own request, on 
the 23d of January, 1865, and was succeeded by Beauregard. 

Let us now turn a moment from the consideration of the struggle on the 
land, to some events of the war on the ocean. We have already noticed the 
pirate ship Alabama,^ commanded by Raphael Semmes. The same man had 
previously commanded the pirate ship Sumter, whicli, after a brief but destruct- 
ive career on the ocean, was blockaded by the ship-of-war Tuscarora at Gibral- 
tar, and there sold early in 1 SC2. A superior cruiser, built forthe Conspirators, 
in England, called tlie Florida, afterward roamed the sea in charge of J. N. 
Maffit. Also the Georgia, built in Great Britain, and sailing under British 
colors. These freebooters captured and destroyed scores of ships, and cargoes 
valued at many millions of dollars ; and they drove at least two-thirds of the 
carrying trade between the United States and Europe into British bottoms. 
They were heartily welcomed into all British ports; and the remonstrances of 
the American Minister in London against the building, fitting out, anil encour- 
agement of these marauders, as we have seen,^ were of no avail. Three others 
were added by British shipmasters in 1864 {Tallahassee, Olustee, and Chickor 
mauf/a), whose ravages quickly swelled the sum total of damage inflicted 
upon American commerce by Anglo-rebel pirates.'' 

The new cruisers were equally destructive, and great efforts were made to 
capture them. The Georgia was seized off the port of Lisbon in August 
[1864], by the Niagara, Captain Craven; and on the 7th of October, the 
Wachusetls, Captain Collins, captured the Florida in a Brazilian port.' The 



' Tliomiis Iiad sent Stoncman from his array, and Burbridge from Eastern Kentucky, in No- 
vember, to confront Breckinridge in East Tennessee. They drove him out of that region, and 
captured Abingdon, in Virginia, where they destroyed a large quantity of Confederate stores. In 
these movements there liad been severe skirmishes. These were continued. The Confederate 
cavalry was commanded by General Vaughan. and these were repeatedly attacked by General 
Gillem in that mountain region. Stoneraan, who had been followed in his advance on AVytheville, 
by Breckinridge, turned upon him at Marion, wlien the latter fled over the mountains into North 
Carolina. East Tennessee was now entirely cleared of Confederate troops. 

General Thomas reported that during his campaign, from September T, 1864, to January 20, 
1 865, when all was quiet in the region of his command, he had captured, including officers, 
11,587 prisoners, besides 1,3.32, who had been exchanged. He had also administered the oath 
of allegiance to 2,207 deserters from the Confederate armies, and ciptured 72 serviceable guns 
and 3,079 small-arms. His total loss during the campaign was about ten thousand men, which 
he estimated to be less than half tliat of tlie enemy. 

' See page G41, and note 5, same page. 

' See note 4, page 641. 

' At the beginning of 1864 the pirates then on the ocean had captured 193 American merchant 
ships, whereof all but 1 7 were burnt. The value of their cargoes, in the aggregate, was esti- 
mated at 513,445,000. So dangerous became the navigation of the ocean for American vessels, 
that about 1.000 of them were .«;old to foreign merchants, chiefly British. 

' This act the Secretary of Stale disavowed in behalf of our government, on the ground of the 
unlawfulness of any unauthorized e.xercise of force by this countrv within a Brazilian harbor. 
At tlie same time, wliile making this reparation, he declared that Brazil justly owed reparation 
to the United States for harboring the pirate. On that point he said that the government main- 
tained tliat the Florida, "like the Alabama, was a pirate, belonging to nn nation or lawful belligerent, 
and, therefore, the harboring and supplying of tliese piratical ships and their crews, in belligerent 
ports, were wrongs and injuries for which Brazil justly owes reparation to the United States, as 
ample as the reparation she now receives from them." 



708 



THE NATION. 



[1864. 




WINSLOW. 



Alabama liad already been sent to the bottom of the sea by the Kearsarge, 
Captain Winslow, off the French port of Cherbourg, where the two vessels 

had a combat on Sunday, the 19th of 
June. After a mutual cannonade for 
an hour, the Alabama was disabled 
and in a sinking condition, when she 
struck her flag, and in twenty minutes 
went down. The Alabama had a 
British tender near, named the Deer- 
hound, which was active in rescuing 
Semmes and his officers, so that they 
ihight not be captured and become 
prisoners of war.' The "■common 
people" of tlic ship were rescued by 
the Kearsarge and a French vessel. 

Soon after the desti-uction of the Ala- 
buma, measures were taken for further 
diminishing the aid continually given to the Confederates by British vessels, 
by closing, against the blockade-runners, the ports of Mobile and Wilmino-ton, 
the only ones now remain- ^ ,_, 

ing open to them. These " "° ' ^ 

having double entrances, 
made it difficult for block- 
ading squadrons to pre- 
vent the swift, light-draft 
blockade-runners, from 
slipping in with valuable 
cargoes of supplies, and 
slipping out with cargoes 
of cotton.' It was re- 
solved to seal up Mobile 
first, and for that purpose 
Admiral Farragut appeared [August 5, 1864] off the entrance of Mobile Bay, 
with a fleet of eighteen vessels, four of them iron-clad, while a land force, sent 
from New Orleans, under General Gordon Granger, was planted upon Dauphin 




BLOCKADE-RUNNEE. 



' The Deerh'iund was a yacht Ijelonging to one of the British aristnCracy, named Lancaster, 
who was in her, and watched witli eagerness the fight between his friend Semmes and Winslow. 
It appears clear that he was there by previous arrangement, to afford the pirate any needed assist- 
ance in his power, and especially, in the event of disaster, to l<eep him out of tlie hands of 
the victor. This was done. He carried Semmes and his ofBcers to England. At Southamp- 
ton a public dinner was offered to Semmes; and a British admiral (Anson) headed a list of 
subscribers to a fund raised for the purpose of purchasing an elegant sword to present to the 
corsair. 

^ These vessels were generally painted a light gray, so that it was not easy to discern them 
in a fog, or the light haze that often lay upon the waters around the seaports. They were built 
for speed, with raking smolce-stacks, and were generally more nimble in a chase than their pur- 
suers. A very large number of these vessels were captured, and it is lielieved that a balance- 
sheet, illustrative of the pecuniary results of the business, in the aggregate, would show a loss to 
the violators of law. 



1864] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. ^09 

Island for the purpose of co-operating. Early on that day the fleet sailed in 
between P'orts Morgan and Gaines, the vessels tethered to each other in couples, 
and the Admiral himself lashed to the rigging at the main-top of his flag-ship, 
the Hartford, that he might overlook his whole fleet, and not be thrown down 
by the shocks of battle.' All went safely, in spite of the opened guns of the 
fort, excepting the iron-clad Tecumseh, which was destroyed by a torpedo.' 
They drove before them three Confederate gun-boats. The forts were passed, 
their fire had become almost ineffectual, and the battle seemed to be over, 
when a Confederate " ram," called the Tennessee, commanded by Buchanan, 
of Merrimac fame,^ came swiftly down the bay, accompanied by the other gun- 
boats, and made a dash at the fleet. A brief but furious naval engagement 
now ensued, which resulted in the capture of the Tennessee, and a complete 
victorj^ for the Nationals.^ 

Farragut now turned his attention to the forts. He shelled Fort Gaines, on 
Dauphin Island; and on the following day [August 7, 1864] it was surrendered, 
for Granger and his troops were threatening its rear. Then Farragut turned 
upon Fort Morgan, the far stronger work, situated on Mobile Point, on the 
site of Fort Bowycr.* Granger's troops were transferred to that peninsula 
[August 17], and invested the fort, and on the 23d, its commander, seeing no 
chance for relief or escape, surrendered it.' With the two forts the victors 
received one hundred and four guns, and 1,464 men. By this victory the port 
of Mobile was effectually closed, and the land operations against the city, 
which occurred some months later, became easier and more speedily effectual. 
The victories at Mobile and Atlanta,' following close upon each other, with 
minor successes elsewhere, and the noble response given to the call of the 
President a few weeks before [July 18] for three hundred thousand men to 
re-enforce the two great armies in the field, gave assurance that the end of 
the Civil War and the return of peace was nigh. Because of these triumphs, 
and the hopeful aspect of affairs, the President issued a proclamation [Sept. 3, 
1864] in which he requested the people to make a special recognition of divine 
goodness, by offering thanksgivings in their respective places of worship on 
the following Sabbath [Sept. 11]. And on the same day he issued orders for 
salutes of one hundred guns to be fired at several places in the Union.'* 

While the National armies were struggling desperately, but almost every- 

' By means of a tube extending from his lofty position to the deck, Farragut communicated 
his orders. He exemplified in this act a characteristic remark of his own, that •' e.xposure is one 
of the penalties of rank in tlie navy." 

' The Tecumseh was commanded by Captain Craven. She was sunk almost instantly, and 
Craven and nearly all of his officers and crew went down in her. Only 17 men out of 130 were 
saved. 

' See page 614. 

' The Union loss in this contest was 3S5, of whom 1G5 were kUled, including the 113 who 
went down in the Tecumseh. The Confederates lost nearly 300, chiefly in prisoners. Admiral 
Buchanan was severely wounded. "With him were captured 190 men. 

' See page 438. 

• These forts were about thirty miles from Mobile. Into Fort Morgan about three thousand 
shells were'cast before it surrendered. 

' See page 702. 

' At Washington, New York, Boston, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Baltimore. Newport (Ken- 
tucky), St. Louis, New Orleans, Mobile Bay, Pensacola, Hilton Head, and New Berne. 



^J^O '■'HE NATION. [1864. 

where successfully, during the summer and autumn of 1864, the people in the 
Free-labor States were violently agitated by a jjolitical campaign, the chief 
objective of which, to use a military phrase, was the election of a President of 
the Republic, as Mr. Lincoln's term of office would expire early in the ensuing- 
spring. At a " Union " National Convention, held at Baltimore on the Tth 
of June, a series of ten resolutions were adojited, by which the party there 
represented were pledged to sustain the government in its war against rebel- 
lion, and to uphold its position in regard to slavery. The acts of the President 
touching the prosecution of the war for the life of the Republic, were heartily 
approved, and an amendment of the Constitution, so as to do away with 
slavery forever, was recommended.' Mr. Lincoln was nominated for the Presi- 
dency by a mianimous vote of the delegates, and Andrew Johnson, of Ten- 
nessee, then Military Governor of that State, was nominated for the Vice- 
Presidency.' 

On the Q9th of August, the Opposition, or "Democratic" party held a 
National Convention at Chicago, over which Governor Seymour, of New York, 
presided, and who, in his address on taking the chair, took strong ground 
against the war. Besides the delegates gathered there, a vast concourse of 
members of the *' Knights of the Golden Circle," and other secret associations 
in sytnpathy with the Conspirators, together with Confederate officers from 
Canada, crowded Chicago, and the most inflammatory speeches were made at 
outside meetings.' It is asserted that the gathering of these disloyal men, and 
these inflammatory harangues, were parts of a scheme for making that the occa- 
sion for inaugurating a counter-revolution in the West, tlie first act to bo the 
liberating and arming of 8,000 Confederate prisoners then in Camp Douglas, 
near Chicago, and at Lidianapolis. These schemes were frustrated by the vigi- 
lance and energy of Colonel B. J. Sweet, then in command over Camp Douglas.' 

' In those resolutions the noble services of the soldiers apd sailors were recognized ; the 
employment of freedmen in the public service was recommended; the duty of the ftovernment to 
give equal protection to all its servants was asserted ; and the rigid inviolability of the National 
faith plcdiTL'd lor the redemption of the public debt, was enjoined as a solemn dut}^ 

" Already there had been a convention at Cleveland [May 31, 1SG4], composed, as the call for 
it directed, of "the radical men of the nation." About :i;iO delegates were present, and after 
adopting a series of thirteen resolutions, they nominated Ocneral John C. Fremont for President, 
and John Cochrane of New York, for Vice-President. When, at a later period, it was seen that 
these nominations might make divisions in the Union ranks, both candidates withdrew. 

^ Mr. Greeley, in his American Conflict, ii. GG7, gives specimens of speeches by two clergymen 
belonging to the Peace Faction, at outside meetings in Cliicago. One of them, named Chauncey 
C. Burr, said that Mr. Lincoln " had stolen a good many thousand negroes ; bnt for every negro 
he had thus stolen he had stolen ten thousaud spoons. It had been said that if tlie South would 
lay down their arms, they would be received back into the Union. The South could not honor- 
ably lay down their arms, for she was fighting for licr honor. Two millions of men had been 
sent down to the slaughter-pens of the South, and the army of Lincoln could not again be filled, 
either by enlistments nor conscription " The other clergyman alluded to, named Henry Clay 
Dean, exclaimed; "Such a failure has never been known. Such destruction of human life had 
never been seen since the destruction of Sennacherib by the breath of the Almighty. And still the 
monster usurper wants more men for his slaughter-pens. . . . Ever since the usurper, traitor, 
and tyrant had occupied the Presidential chair, the Republican party had shouted ' War to tlie knife, 
and the knife to Iho hilt!' Blood has flowed in torrents; and yet the thirst of the old monster 
was not quenched.'' 

■* Mr. Gree\ev says ( American Conflict, ii. 6G8, note 19): " Weeks later, with larger means and a 
better organization, the Conspirators liad prepared for an outbreak on the day of the Presidential 
election ; but Sweet, fully apprised of their designs, pounced upon them on the night of Novem- 



1864.] 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



711 




4LLAXDIGIIAM. 



• In the Coavention there prevailed a decidedly anti-war feeling. C. L. Val- 
landigham" had come boldly from his exile in Canada,' and was the master- 
spirit of that body. He was the most 
active man on the committee appointed 
to prepare a platform or declaration of 
principles for the coming canvass, 
whereof James Guthrie, of Kentucky, 
was chairman. This was in the form 
of si.Y resolutions, the second of which 
declared tlie war to be a failure, and 
that "humanity, liberty, and the pub- 
lic welfare," demanded its immediate 
cessation. The last resolution tendered 
the " sympathy of the Democratic par- 
ty " for the soldiers in the field, and 
assured them that if that party should 
obtain power, they should " receive all 
the care and protection, regard and 
kindness," which they deserved. 

The Convention then proceeded to nominate General George B. McClellan 
for President, and George H. Pendleton for Vice-President. The lattei-, next 
to VallandighaTii, had been the most bitter opponent of the war, in Congress. 
The former had once been general-in-chief of the armies for crushing the rebel- 
lion. He accepted the nomination, and, with such candidates and such plat- 
forms, the two parties went into tlie canvass. The voice of the Convention, 
declaring the war a failure, had scarcely died away, when a shout went over 
the land, announcing the victories of Sherman and Farragut, and great guns 
thundered a joyful accompaniment to anthems of thanksgiving chanted by 
the loyal people. Mr. Lincoln was re-elected by an unprecedented majority, 
McClellan securing the electoral vote of only the two Slave-labor States of 
Delaware and Kentucky, and the State of New Jersey. The offer of sympathy 
and protection to the soldiers in the field, by the Chicago Convention, was 
answered by the votes of those soldiers in overwhelming numbers against the 
nominee of that Convention. They did not regard the war they had so nobly 
waged as " a failure," and they required no " sympathy and protection " from 
any political party.^ 



ber 6, makinor prisoners of Colonel G. St. Leger Grenfell. who liad been John Morgan's adjntant: 
Colonel Vincent Mannaduke [brother of the rebel general of that name] ; Captain Cantrill, of 
Morgan's old command, and several Illinois traitors, thus completely crushing out the conspiracy, 
just as it was on the point of inaugurating civil war in the North." 

' See page 656. " See note 1, page 657. 

' On account of the secret operations of the Peace Paction, in giving " aid and comfort 'j^ 
the enemies of the Republic, those who belonged to it were called, by the Unionists, Copperheads, 
in allusion to the habit of the venomous American snake of that name, which, unlike its equally 
venomous but more magnanimous fellow-reptile, that gives warning of danger to its intended vic- 
tim, .always bites from a hidden place and witliout any notice. The epithets ,of "Copperhead" 
and '■ Black Republican " (the latter in allusion to the desire of the Republican party to gjve 
freedom to the negro slaves), were rife among pohtieians during a greater portion of the Civil 
"War. 



1^12 THE NATION. [18G4. 

Let us now return to the consideration of military events. 

General Sherman gave his army more than a month's rest at Savannah, 
when he began his memorable march northward through the Carollnas. Gen- 
eral Blair was sent, with the Seventeenth Corps, by water to Port Royal, and 
then to Pocotaligo, to menace Charleston, while the bulk of the army crossed 
the Savannah River, into South Carolina, at diifercnt points at about the first 
of February [1865], the extreme left imder General Slocum, with Kilpatriek's 
cavalry, passing it at Sister' Ferry. These forward movements at widely 
separated points, distracted the Confederates, and prevented their concentrating 
a large force anywhere. Incessant rains had flooded the whole low country 
by the overflow of rivers, and Wheeler's cavalry, hovering around the National 
advance, had felled trees everywhere in their path. 

Steadily and irresistibly the entire army moved nearly due north in the 
direction of Columbia, the capital of South Carolina, which was surrendered 
to Sherman on the ITth of February. There had been, thus far, no formid- 
able resisting force in front of the National armv ; and that which opposed it 
in the vicinity of Columbia, being under the command of the incompetent 
Beauregard,' was easily swept away. The flag of the Republic was raised 
over the old State House, and also the unfinished new one. Wade Hampton, 
in command of the Confederate rear-guard, had ordered all the cotton in the 
city to be piled in the public sti'eets, and fired, notwithstanding the wind was 
blowing a gale. The consequence was that the city was set on firo, and a 
large portion of that beautiful town was laid in ashes. 

The fall of Columbia was the signal for the Confederates to evacuate 
Charleston, which Sherman's army had now flanked. Hardee fled, and on the 
18th [February, 1865], colored Union troops marched in and took possession 
of the city, which they found in flames, the torch having been applied by the 
Confederates when they left. Then the National flag was raised over Fort 
Sumter, where it was first dishonored by the Conspirators,' and on the fourth 
anniversary of the evacuation of that fortress. General Anderson,^ with his 
own hand, raised over the? fort the identical flag which he had been compelled 
to pull down, but not to surrender. 

Sherman moved onward into North Carolina, making a track of almost 
absolute desolation, forty miles in width, across South Carolina. The chief 
obstacles to his march, for some time, were the cavalry of Wheeler and Hamp- 
ton, with whom Kilpatrick had some sharp skirmishes. The whole army 
reached Fayetteville, in North Carolina, on the 12th of March, and there 
Sherman communicated with the troops under General Schofield, on the coast. 
And now Johnston was on his front with a concentrated force drawn from 
the west and the coast region, together with Hardee's from Charleston, and 
cavalry, making an aggregate of not less than 40,000 men, mostly veterans. 

' Beauregard was placed iu command of Hood's shattered army. [See page 107], and he 
was afterward succeeded by General Joseph E. Johnston, its old commander. At the time we 
are considermg, the bulk of that army was pressing forward, under General Cheatham, to gain 
Sherman's front. 

' See page 5.53, ° See page 550. 



1865.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. ^;^3 

In view of this formidable obstruction to liis northward progress, and the 
necessity for giving rest to his army, Sherman halted at Fayetteville three 
days. 

While Sherman was moving through the interior of South Carolina, there 
had been efficient and important co-operative movements on the coast of North 
Carolina. When it was determined to close up the harbor of Mobile' it was 
also determined to seal up that of Wilmington, the more difficult one to 
blockade efl'ectually. An expedition was fitted out against the fortifications 
that guarded the entrance to it, in the autumn of 1804, compos^jd of a powerful 




IKTERIOR OF FORT FISHER. 



fleet under Admiral D. D. Porter, and land troops under the immediate 
command of General Godfrey Weitzel. This expedition, accompanied by 
General Butler, the commander of the Department, appeared ofl' Fort Fisher 
late in December [1864], and made a combined movement against that work, 
the main fortification, on Christmas day. The fleet opened a terrible bomljard- 
ment of the fort ; and at the middle of the afternoon, a little over 2,000 
troops were landed upon the narrow tongue of land on which the fortress 
stood ; but its many guns, with one exception, liaving been untouched by the 
shells from the fleet, and being ready to sweep the peninsula with murderous 
efiect, it was thought jjrudent not to make an attack ; so the troops withdrew. 
The fleet remained, and General Grant promptly sent another land force, under 
General A. H. Terry, to co-operate with it in an attack on the fort. 

Profiting by the experience of Christmas-day, Porter took a position for 
more effii-ctual work on the fort, and under cover of a fire from the fleet, Terry 
landed, with 8,000 men on the 13th of January. A bombardment of more 
than thirty hours silenced a greater portion of the guns which commanded the 
peninsula, when the army, skillfully handled, and bravely acting in conjunction 
with 2,000 sailors and marines, assaulted and carried the works on the 15th. 
There Terry, who was too weak to advance, was joined on the 9th of February 
by General Schofield, who had been called from Tennessee, by Grant, and sent 
down the coast in steamers, from the Potomac. This re-enforcement raised 
the number of the land troops to about 20,000 men. Schofield, the senior 
officer, took command. Throwing a portion of the troops across the Cape 
Fear River, the Nationals advanced on Wilmington, the Confederates abandon- 

' See page 709. 



714 THE NATION. [1865. 

ing Fort Anderson, and burning tlie pirate steamers Tallahassee and Chichu- 
maiuja^ lying in the river. Tlicy also fled from AVilmington, after burning 
cotton, and naval military stores there ; and on the 22d of February [18G5], the 
victorious Nationals entered that city. Soon after this an army tug and a gun- 
boat went up the Cape Fear, from Wilmington, and opened communication 
between Shei-man and Schofield." 

At the end of three days of rest, Sherman's array advanced from Fayette- 
ville, where they had destroyed the goverinnent armory, and the costly 
machinery which liad been taken there from Harper's Ferr}-.' The army 
moved, as before, in a deceptive and distracting way, a portion of the left 
wing covered by Kilpatriek, marching in the direction of Raleigh, while the 
remainder of the left, with the right wing, moved eastward toward Goldsboi'o', 
the real destination of the army. Rains had made the roads almost impassable, 
yet the troops moved steadily forward, and on the morning of the IGtli [March, 
1865], not far from Averysboro', Confederates under Hardee, about 20,000 
strong, were encountered by Slocum. A severe battle ensued, which lasted until 
night, when the Nationals were victorious. Each, party lost about four hundred 
and fifty men. The Confederates retreated toward Smithfield, under cover of 
darkness, when Slocum moved on toward Goldsboro'. He was soon attacked 
[Marcli 18], near Bentonville, by nearly the whole of Johnston's army. That 
able leader fully expected to crush Sloenm, before he could receive support ; 
but he was mistaken. Six desperate assaults made bj- Johnston were repulsed, 
and when night fell, Slocum held his ground firmly. That night he was 
re-enforced, and the next day Johnston's forty thousand men were confronted 
by sixty thousand Nationals, who, in endeavoring to gain the flank and rear 
of their antagonist, frightened him away. Johnston retreated [March 21] 
rapidly on Raleigh.'' Sherman then moved on to Goldsboro', where he met 
Generals Schofield and Terry, who had fought their way from Wilmington, 
driving the Confederates before them, and entered that town on the 20th of 
March. Sherman now went in a swift steamer from New Berne to City Point, 
where he held a consultation [March 27] with the President, and Generals 
Grant and Meade, and returned to Goldsboro' three days afterward. 

Let us now turn our attention to the Gulf region again. There we have 
seen Farragut and Granger, preparing the way for the capture of Mobile. 
After that, arrangements were made for securing the repossession of all Ala- 
bama. For this purpose General Canby, in command of the Gulf Department, 
moved [March, 1865] over twenty-five thousand troops against Mobile: while 
General Wilson, of Thomas's army, with fifteen thousand men, whereof thirteen 
thousand were mounted, swept down into Alabama, at about the same time, 
from the Tennessee River, with sixty days' supplies carried by a train of two 
hundred and fifty wagons. Wilson left Eastport, on the Tennessee, late in 
February, and pushed rapidly into Nortliern Alabama, across the head-waters 
of the Tombigbee River, and by quick movements menaced simultaneously 

' Sec page 708. " See page 713. ' Pee page 557. 

* III the engagement near Bentonville, the Nationals lost 1.643 men, of whom 191 were killed. 
They buried 2CT of their foes, left on the field, and took 1.625 prisoners. 



18C5.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 7I5 

Columbus, in Mississippi, and Tuscaloosa, and Selma, in Alabama. He iirst 
encountered Confederates in force, under Roddv, on the banks of the Cahawba. 
Forrest was in chief command in thaS region, and strained e\'ery nerve to 
cover Selma, on tlie Alabama River, where the Confederates had an arsenal 
and armory, and very extensive founderies. His efforts were vain. He was 
there with a motley force of about seven thousand horsemen, when Wilson 
arrived [April 2, 1865], with nine thousand cavalry. A sharp eontlict ensued, 
but Wilson soon took the city, and the public works of the Confederates there 
were utterly destroyed.' 

Wilson moved toward Montgomery on the 10th, and reached that city, the 
capital of Alabama, on the r2tli, when he found that the Confederates had 
just burned 125,000 bales of cotton. The city was instantly surrendered, and 
was spared. Then the raiders moved eastward [April 14], destroying rail- 
ways and other public property, all the way to the Chattahoochee ; and near 
ColumlKis, Georgia, they had a severe fight, captured the place and twelve 
hundred prisoners, and destroyed a large amount of property.'' On the same 
day a part of Wilson's force captured Fort Tyler, a strong work commanding 
the railway crossing of the Chattahoochee at West Point. On the following 
moi'ning, nearly the whole of his command were across that stream, on their 
way toward Macon, in Georgia, .where they arrived on the 21st [March, 1865]. 
The remainder, under Cu.vton, reached there on the 30th, after a destructive 
raid over a route of si.-c hundred and fifty miles, in the space of thirty days. 
This march through Alabama and Georgia, so slightly resisted everywhere, 
made Wilson readily believe the assurance of General Howell Cobb, in com- 
mand at Macon, that the war was virtually ended.^ 

While Wilson was on his triumphant ride, Canby was busy in the reduc- 
tion of Mobile. The Seventeenth Corps reached Dauphin Island on the 1 2th 
of March, when Canby moved his entire disposable force against the Confed- 
erate defenses of that city. The Thirteenth Corps, General Granger, moved 
up from Mobile Point, to strike the post from the east, and General Steele, 
moved from Pensacola, with a division of colored troops, on Blakely. At the 



' Wilson's loss in tlie encounter, was about 5t)0 men. He captured .32 guns, and 2,700 
prisoners, with vast stores of every kind. Tlie Confederates had just burned 25.000 bales of 
cotton, and Wilson burned 10,000 "more. The arsenal, foundries, and workshops of every kind 
were destroyed, and the town was sacked. When the writer was there a year later the place 
presented a scone of great desolation. 

■■' The Confederate '• ram " Jackson, vras destroyed; 15 locomotives, 250 cars, 115,000 bales of 
cotton, were burnt, and a vast amount of stores were consiprned to destruction. With the 
prisoners were captured 52 field guns. AVilson's loss was ouly 24 killed and wounded. 

" Tliere had been some important raids in Mississippi three or four months earlier than this, 
designed, chieHv, to attract attention from General Sherman's march through Georgia. One of 
these, under General Dana, went out from Vicksburg. to Jackson, fouglit a Confederate force on 
the Big Black River, and destroved the railway [November 25, 1804], and a great deal of other 
property. Anotlier, under Geneftil Davidson, went out from Baton Rouge, domg simdar work, 
and alarming tlie garrison at Mobile. Another, led by General Grierson, went out from Memphis, 
[Dec. 21]. and sweeping sonthcasterlv through Nortliern Alabama to Tupelo, broke up the 
Mobile and Ohio railway some distance soutliward from Okolona. and destroyed a large quantity 
of stores. At the little railway station of Egypt he liad a sharp tight, in which he routed his 
foes, and then went raiding through Mississippi. The expedition finally made its way to \ icks- 
biirg with 500 prisoners, SOO beeves, and 1,000 negroes. A great amount of property had been 
destroyed. 



Yl6 THE NATION. [1865. 

same time a brigade was transported to Cedar Point, on tte west side of the 
bay, under a heavy fire of sliells from tlie National iron-clad vessels. After a 
preliminary struggle, a siege was begun [March 25] in front of Blakely and 
Spanish Fort, the chief defenses of Mobile, in which the land troops and the 
fleet co-o])erated. These posts fell on the 9th of April. General Maury, in 
command at Mobile, now saw that the works immediately around the city 
were no longer tenable, and on the 10th and 11th, he fled up the Alabama, 
with nine thousand troops, leaving five thousand prisoners in the hands of 
the victors, with one hundred and fifty guns. The victory had cost the 
Nationals about twenty-five hundred men.' 

General Grant's chief business throughout the winter of 18G4-65, was to 
hold the Confederate army and "Government" in Virginia, and jirevent the 
former joining forces with Johnston in North Carolina, to crush Sherman. 
So, while Sherman was making his way from the Savannah, around to the Cajjc 
Fear and the Neuse rivers, Grant was holding Lee and his fifty thousand 
men, with a tight grasp, upon the James River. The Confederates well knew 
the reason of Gi'ant's comparatively defensive attitude during the winter 
months, but were powerless either to strike him a damaging blow, or to compel 
him to be an aggressor. Only twice, during the winter, did he show a 
disposition to attack. Early in December Warren was sent out [Dec. 7, 1864] 
by Meade to destroy the Weldon road near the North Carolina line, which the 
Confederates were using to advantage ; and again in February two cor])s, with 
cavalry, were sent [Feb. 5, 1865] across that road, to Dinwiddle Cqurt-House, 
apparently for the purpose of feeling the strength of the Confederates in that 
direction, which resulted in a severe action, with a loss of about 2,000 men on 
the part of the Unionists, and 1,000 by the Confederates. The National gain 
was the extension of their line, permanently, to Hatcher's Run. In the mean 
time, the Confederates, perceiving the withdrawal of a large part of the naval 
force on the James River, for service against Fort Fisher," sent a squadron' 
down that stream, under cover of darkness [January 23, 1865], to do what mis- 
chief they might. They gained notliing, and lost one of their wooden gun-boats. 

The Confederate horsemen, under Mosby, Rosser, McNeil, and others, were 
somewhat active in West Virginia, and in tlie vicinity of the Baltimore and 
Ohio railway, during the winter. Sheridan was then at Winchester, in the 
Shenandoah Valley. He easily brushed away these annoyances on his flank, 
and at the close of February, he left head-quarters with 10,000 mounted men 
for a grand raid, ordered by Grant, on Lee's communications generally, and 
against Lyncliburg, his great store-house of supplies, especially. Sheridan 
swept through Staunton [March 2], scattered Early's forces at Waynesboro',^ 
and proceeded to Charlottsville, destroying the railroad on the way. There 

' Before he evacuated the city, Maury sunk two powerful rams which had been built there. 
In addition to tlie loss of men, the Nationals had four gun-boats, and one transport sunk by 
torpedoes. ^ See page 713. 

' The squadron consisted of three iron-clad, and five wooden gun-boats, ,and three torpedo 
boats. 

' Early had 2,500 men. Sheridan captured 1,600 of them, with 11 guns, 17 battle-flags, and 
200 loaded wagons. 



1S65.J 



LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. 



Yir 



he demolished manufactories, bridges, and other property, when, satisfied that 
Lynchburg was too strong for him, he divided his forces, one coUimn for the 
destruction of the railway in tlie direction of Lynchburg, and the other for the 
demolition of the James River Canal. Then he passed around Lee's left to 
White House, and joined the Army of the Potomac on the 27th of Marcli. 

Sheridan's raid was most destructive, and it thorouglily alarmed Lee, who 
clearly perceived that he must break through the armies encircling him, and 
form a junction with Johnston, or his own army, and with it the Confederacy, 
must perish. F'or that purpose he concentrated his forces near Grant's center, in 
front of Petersburg, and ^ f„ ^ ^ 

made a desperate attack 
on Fort Steadman, for the 
purpose of cutting in two 
the Army of the Potomac. 
They carried that work, 
but were no further suc- 
cessful, and the assault 
was not only repulsed, 
with heavy loss to the 
Confederates,' but it re- 
sulted in the gain to the 
Nationals of a portion of 
their antagonists' line. 
Lee's chance for escape 
into North Carolina was 

made more remote, by this movement. Grant had now prepared for a gen- 
eral advance by his left, and for that purpose, large bodies of troops were 
called from the Army of the James on the north side of the river. The grand 
movement was begun on the 29th [March, 1865], when Sheridan, with 10,000 
cavalry, was on the extreme left of tlie Union army, joined on his right 
by the Second and Fifth Corps, under Humphreys and Warren, while General 
Parke held the extended lines. Lee perceived the imminent peril of his army, 
and hastened to attempt to avert it. Leaving Longstreet with 8,000 troops to 
hold llichmond against the depleted Army of the James, he massed his forces 
on his endangered riglit. A desperate struggle ensued, chiefly by Warren, on 
the Union side, in which, at one time, Lee was almost victorious. Meanwhile 
Sheridan was vigorously co-operating, but was driven at Five Forks, to Din- 
widdle Court-House [April 1, 1865], where he held his position until his foe 
withdrew under cover of night. The heavy fighting in that vicinity resulted 
in final success for the Nationals. 

On the evening of the first of April, Grant ordered the guns all along the 
front of Petersburg to open upon the Confederate works and the city. It was 
done, and an awful night it was for the Confederate troops in the trenches, and 
the few inhabitants in the town. At dawn [April 2, 1865], the works were 




INTERIOR OF FOBT STEADMAN. 



Each anny lost about 2,500 men in the struggle. 



718 



THE NATION. 



[1SG5. 



assailed by infantry, and some of them were carried. Equal success was 
attending similar efforts on the extreme left. Longstreet had come down 
from Richmond to help, but it was too late. Lee held Petersburg, but his 
right was too much crushed to hope to retrieve disasters in that direction. 
He had lost 1 0,000 men ; and he now saw but a narrow door through which 
there was any possibility for his army to escape into North Carolina, and that 
was liable to be shut any moment. So he telegraphed to Davis, at Richmond, 
in substance : " My lines are broken in three places ; we can hold Petersburg 
no longer ; Richmond must be evacuated this evening." ' 

A scene of wildest confusion appeared in the Confederate Ca])ital that 
afternoon, when it became known that the city was to be evacuated by the 
troops. Consternation filled the minds and hearts of all friends of the Con- 
spirators, and hundreds fled from the doomed town. Davis and his " Cabinet " 
were speedily on the wing to secure their personal safety; and, at midnight, a 
lurid glare shot uj) fi-om the brink of the river. The Confederate authoiities, 
in disregard of the danger to the city, had ordered the burning of warehouses 
containing military stores. These were then in flames; and before suniise a 
greater portion of the principal business part of Richmond was a crumbling, 
smoking ruin. At an early hour. General Weitzel (who was in command 
of the troops on the north side of the river), with his staff, entered the aban- 
doned and burning city, followed by colored troops ; and then Lieutenant J. L. 
De Peyster, of Weitzel's military family, raised the flag of the Republic over 
the State Capitol. General G. F. Shepley was appointed Military Governor 
of Richmond, and Lieutenant-Colonel Manning was made Provost-Marshal.* 

Davis and his " Cabinet " — his more immediate associates in the Great 
Crime — fled to Danville, whither Lee hoped to follow with his army. But 
--- ,- ;-^ _ loyal men, with trusty 

arms, stood in his way. 
Petersburg had also been 
evacuated, and the Army 
of Northern Virginia, re- 
duced to about 35,000 
men, was concentrated 
at Chestei-ficld. They 
moved rapidly westward, 
but were confronted by 
Sheridan not far from 
Amelia Court - House. 
There were active move- 
ments and considerable 
fiGjhting for three or four 




THE CAPITOL AT RICHMOND. 



' This was on Sunday forenoon, April 2, 1865. The message found Davis in the honse of 
■worship he was in tlie habit of attending. He left the church immediately, without saying a 
word to any one. but nobody misinterpreted his e.\it. 

'■' Weitzel took 1.000 prisoners in the city, besides 5,000 sick and wounded, in the hospital. 
Also 500 srims, full 5,000 small-arms, 30 locomotives, 3tro cars, and a large amount of other pub- 
lic property. 



1865.] LINCOLN'S ADMINISTRATION. ^19 

days afterward, while Lee was making desperate efForts to escape. Finall}-, 
near Appomatto.v Court-IIouse, ttie last cliarge of the Army of Northern Vir- 
ginia, with the hope of breaking through the National lines, was made on the 
morning of the 9th of April. It was unsuccessful; and on that day, Grant 




m'lean's house. 

and Lee met at the house of W. McLean,' near the Court-House, where terms of 
surrender on the part of Lee, were agreed upon. These terms were very 
generous.' 

' It is a curious fact that Mr. McLean, wliose residence at the beginning of the war was on a 
portion of the battle-field of Bulls Run, and had left that region for another tliat promised more 
quiet, was again disturbed by the clash of arms at the close of the war. 

' Tha Confederate army, officers and nieu, were paroled on the condition that-lliey were not 
to take up arms .ngainst their government until properly exchanged. '" The arms, artillery, and 
public property," ran Grant's letter to Lee [.\pril 9. ISG.t], "to be parked and stacked, and turned 
over to the officers appointed by me to receive them. This will not embrace the side-arms of the 
officers, nor their private horses or baggage. This done, each officer and man will be allowed to 
return to liis home, not to be disturbed by United States authority so long as they observe their 
paroles and the laws in force where they may reside.'' 

This generous offer of full amnesty for Lee and his companions-in-arms, who had been 
waging war for four years against their government, was gladly accepted by them ; and on the 
following day [April 10, 1S65] Lee, regardless of that generosity, and under the shield of that 
sacred promise, issued an address to his troops, commendatory of their devotion to the cause of 
the Conspirators in the following words: — 

" After four years of arduous service, marked by unsurpassed courage and fortitude, the Army 
of Northern Virginia has been compelled to yield to overwhelming numbers and resources. I 
need not tell the brave survivors of so many hard-fought battles, who have remained steadfast to 
the last, that I have consented to this result from no distrust of them ; but feeling that valor and 
devotion could accomplish nothing that would compensate for the loss that must have attended a 
continuance of the contest, I determined to avoid the useless sacrifice of those whose past ser- 
vices have endeared them to their countrymen. By the terms of agreement, officers and men can 
return to their homes and remain until e-\-changed. You will take with you the satisfaction that 
proceeds from the consciousness of duty faithfully performed, and I earnestly pray that a merci- 
ful (iod will extend to you liis blessing and protection. With an increasing admiration of your 
constancy and devotion to your country, and a grateful remembrance of your kuid and generous 
consideration for myself, I bid you all an affectionate farewell." 



720 "^^^ NATION. [1865. 

President Lincoln had been at City Point several days previous to the 
evacuation of Richmond, and two days after that event [April 4] he was con- 
veyed to that city in a gun-boat, and with Admiral Porter and a small escort 
went to the head-quarters of General Weitzel, in the house lately occupied by 
Jefferson Davis, where he received a large number of array officers and 
citizens. He afterward rode around the city in an open carriage, and then 
returned to City Point. This visit was repeated two days afterward [April 5,] 
■when Mr. Lincoln returned to Washington City, full of joy because of the 
prospect of a speedy return of peace. There was gladness throughout 
the Republic ; and the sounds of rejoicing were swelling louder and louder 
everywhere, when they were suddenly hushed into silence by the awful 
tidings that the hand of an assassin had taken the life of the good President. 
While Mr. Lincoln was seated, with his wife, in a private box in a theater 
at Washington City, on the evening of the 1-lth of April, a man named John 
"W^ilkes Booth crept stealthily behind him, and shot hhn through the head with 
a pistol-ball. Then leaping upon the stage with the cry of " Sic semper 
ii/rannis'''' — the legend of Virginia's State seal — Booth turned to the audience, 
brandishing a dagger, and exclaimed, " The South is avenged /" and imme- 
diately fled out of the theater by a back passage. The murderer was soon 
afterward mortally wounded in an attempt to capture him ; and several of 
his confederates, one of whom attempted to assassinate the Secretary of 
State, the same evening, were arrested, tried by a military commission, and 
hung.- 

Mr. Lincoln expired on the morning of the 15th of April, and less than six 
hours afterward, his constitutional successor, Andrew Johnson, the Vice-Presi- 
dent, took the oath of office as President of the Republic.- Thoughtful people, 



' There appears to liave been a conspiracy for assassinating not only the President, bnt other 
members of tlie E.xeciitive Department of the government; also General Grant? and distingnished 
leaders of the Republican party. The object seems to have been to put out of the ivay men in 
high places opposed to the Conspirators who. on the death of the President, might administer t!ie 
governniAt, hoping thereby to produce anarchy which in some way might lead to the accession 
to power of tlie leaders of the rebellion. By a strange oversight in the managers of the scheme, 
the Vice-President, who would legally succeed the murdered President, seems to iiave been 
omitted in their list of victims, there being no evidence tliat any attempt was made to take his 
life. He immediately assumed the reins of government without any disturbance of its functions ; 
and on the 2d of May he issued a proclamation which was countersigned by William Hunter, 
"acting Secretary of State," charging that the crime of Booth and his associates had been 
" incited, concerted, and procured, between Jefferson Davis, late of Richmond, Va., and Jacob 
Thompson, Clement 0. Clay, Beverly Tucker, George N. Sanders, W. C. Cleary, and other rebels 
and traitors against the government of the United States, harbored in Canada.'' He offered a 
reward of .$100,000 for the arrest of Davis, and from $10,000 to $25,000 each for the arrest of the 
other persons named. 

' Mr. Johnson requested Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet ministers (see note 2, page 551) to remain, and 
they did so. At that time tliey consisted of William H. Seward, Secretary of State : Hugh 
McCullough, Secretary of the Treasury; Edwin M. Stanton, Secretary of War; Gideon Welles, 
Secretary of the Navy; Jolin P. Usher, Secretary of ihe Interior; James Speed, Attorney- 
General ; and William Dennison, Postmaster-General. Mr. Chase, the former Secretary of tho 
Treasury, had been elevated to tho seat of Chief-Justice of tlie United States, on the death of 
Judge Taney. Mr. Stanton had succeeded Mr. Cameron in tlie War Department, early in 1862; 
and President Lincoln, satisfied that the pulilic good required the removal of Montgomery Blair, 
the Postmaster-General, had asked him to resign. The request was granted, and Mr. Dennison 
was put in his place. Caleb Smith had died, and Mr. Usher had taken liis place. 




i' 



,^_yy^i/^uaju^ 



!■&... 



1SC5] 



JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



721 




who logarded private virtue as tlie basis of public integrity, and who sadly re- 
membered the conduct of the Vice-President at his inauguration only a few weeks 
before, wliich shocked the moral sense of 
right-minded citizens, were filled with 
gloomy forebodings concerning the fu- 
ture of the Republic, for the most pro- 
found wisdom and exalted virtue in the 
Chief Magistrate were needed at that 
critical time. But the new incumbent 
of the chair of Washington made the 
most satisfactory jjromises with so Tnucli 
apparent sincerity, that the people 
trusted him. How that confidence was 
requited, the history of his administra- 
tion reveals.' 

On the surrender of Lee, the Con- 
federacy fell, and the war was speedily 
ended. Sherman, immediately on hear- 
ing the glad news, moved from Golds- 
boro' against Johnston. Stoneman, meanwhile, had been making a successful 
raid in the rear of Johnston, and in aid of Slierman. He proceeded from 
Knoxville, in East Tennessee, late in March, to destroy the railway in the 
direction of Lynchburg, from Wytheville. There he turned southward, and 
swept down into North Carolina, where he struck and destroyed the railway 
between Danville and Greensboro', and then pushed on toward Salisbury, 
where a large number of Union prisoners had been confined. He was met ten 
miles from that town by a Confederate force, which he routed, capturing all 
their guns (14) and 1,.364 prisoners. Li Salisbury he destroyed a vast amount 
of public property. Sherman ordered him to remain oiierating in Johnston's 
rear, in aid of his own movement against the Confederate front, but Stoneman 
refused to do so, and returned to East Tennessee. 

On the 10th of April, Sherman moved upon Johnston at Smithfield. The 
latter burned the bridge over the Neuse, and retreated on Raleigh, destroying 
the railway behind him. Sherman followed him sharply. The pursued and 
pursuers pushed on, in heavy rains, in the direction of Hillsboro', where the 
chase was ended by a note from Johnston to Sherman [April 14], inquiring 
whether the latter was willing, for the purpose of stopping the further effusion 
of blood, to agree to a temporary suspension of hostilities until General Grant 



' Andrew John?oii was born in Raleigh, North Carolina, on the 29th of December, 1807. He 
■was taui,'lit the business of a tailor at an early age. During liis apprenticeship he learned to 
read_, but was not able to write or cipher until, at the age of twenty years, he was taught by his 
young wife, when he was settled in Greenville, in East Tennessee, in the business of garment- 
maliing. He became an Alderman of that village, and was Mayor for three years. He was 
chosen a member of the Tennessee Legislature, and was a Presidential elector in 1840. In 1843 
he was elected to Congress, and in 1S.53, was cliosen Governor of Tennessee. In 1857 he was 
elected a National Senator. In 18H3 he was appointed Military Governor of Tennessee, and in 
the autumn of 1864, was chosen to be Vice-President of the United States. He arose to the 
Prosi-lency on the death of Mr. Lincoln. His career in tliat office is noticed m the text. 

46 



722 



THE NATION. 



[1865. 



should be asked to take action in regard to the other armies, similar to that 
had in tlie case of general Lee's. Sherman pronxptlj' complied witli Johnston's 
wishes, and met that general at Durham Station on the IVth. On the follow- 
ing day an agreement was signed by the two generals, which would, in eft'ect, 
instantly restore to all persons who had been engaged in the rebellion every 
right and privilege, political and social, they had enjoyed before they rebelled, 
without any liabilitj' to punishment. It proposed an utter forgetfulness, prac- 
tically, of the events of the war, and made it a hideous farce with the features 
of a dreadful tragedy. The government, of course, rejected it, and sent Grant 
to Sherman to direct an immediate resumption of liostilities. This Avas fol- 
lowed by the surrender of Johnston's army to Sherman, on the 26th, on the 
generous terms accorded to Lee. The surrender of other bodies of troops 
speedily followed, and early in May the armed Rebellion was ended.' 

Expecting Lee and his army at Danville, the fugitive " President of the 
Confederacy " attempted to set up a government there, but when lie heard of 
the surrender of Lee and his army, he and his "cabinet," fled in the direction 
of Mississip])i. Difficulties lay in their way, and they turned southward with 
a daily diminishing cavalry escort. The " government" soon dissolved, each 
member seeking safety as best he might. Davis, accompanied by his family, 
and by Reagan, his "Postmaster-General," pushed on toward the Gulf of 
''~-^~ ~- Mexico, over whose waters he hoped to 

escape from the country. His flight had 
been made known to tlie vigilant Wilson, 
at Macon,'-' who sent out cavalry forces in 
quest of him. Lieutenant Pritchard, of the 
Fourth Michigan, leading one of these de- 
tachments, found the fugitive encamped 
near L'winsville, the capital of Irwin County, 
in Georgia, and captured him on the 11th 
of May.^ Pritchard conveyed Davis and 
his party, to Macon, whence the follen 
chief was sent to Fortress Monroe.'' There 
he was confined in one of the casemates — 
a most comfortable prison — and treated 
DATis's PEisoN, FORTRESS MONROE. yy\x\^ marked kindness during a long cap- 
tivity, when he was admitted to bail, charged with the crime of Treason. 

The armies of the Republic, whose fortitude, valor, and skill had saved 

' E. Kirby Smith, coramandina; in Texas, wa.s disposed to longer resistance. On hearing of 
the surrender of Lee, he issued an address to liis troops, urging tliem to a contiimance of tlie 
struggle in tliat region The last fight of the Civil 'War occurred not far from Brazos Santiago, in 
Texas, on the l:;th of May. Soon after that, Smith and others were fugitives in Mexico. 

'^ See page 716. 

° Davis was found in a disguise, composed of a wrapper, and a woman's shawl thrown over 
his head, and was making his way, with a bucket, toward a spring where liis horses and arms 
were. In this disguise, and seeming avocation, he appeared like a woman, but it did not save 
him. 

* Alexander H. Stephens, the ■' Vice-President of the Confederacy " (who was arrested at 
about this time, at his home in Crawfordsvillo). and '■ Postmaster-General " Reagan, were sent to 
Fort 'Warren, in Boston Harbor. They were release ' in the autumn. 




1865.] JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 1^23 

its life, and achieved the freedom of an enslaved race, were now seen making 
their way homeward, everywhere i-eceived with the warmest demonstrations 
of affection. The military prisons were opened, and the captive Confederate 
soldiers were set free and kindly sent to tiieir homes at the expense of the 
government.' On the 2d of June General Grant issued a stirring farewell 
address to the "Soldiers of the Armies of the United States f"* and by mid 
autumn [1865], the wonderful spectacle was exhibited of vast armies of soldiers, 
surrounded by all the paraphernalia of War, transformed, in the space of one 
hundred and fifty days into a vast army of citizens, engaged in the blessed 
pursuits of Peace.' No argument in favor of free institutions, and a repub- 

' The luimbor of Confederate prisoner.^ released, after the close of hostilities, was 63,442. 
Tlie number surrendered and paroled in the several Confederate armies, was 174,223. It is a 
fact, s\isceptible of the clearest proof, that the treatment of Confederate prisoiier.s. as a rule, was 
humane, and even generous, while the treatment of Union prisoners was exactly the reverse. 
Tlie sufferings of captives at Richmond, Salisbury in North Carolina, Danville in Virginia, and 
especially at Andersonville. in Georgia, were an-i"ul, and without excuse. It is plainly evident 
that a system of treatment, intended, if not actually to murder, surely to permanently disable 
the Union prisoners of war, by unwholesome and iusufficient diet, was jaaugurated and carried 
out. The records of .indersonville show this. There the prisoners were actually tortured, and 
starved to death, in the midst of plenty, as the march of Sherman through that State in the 
autumn of 1864, developed. See note 2. page 703. It may be well to note, in this connection, 
the fact, shown by the records of the War Department, that 220,000 Confederate soldiers were 
captured during tlie war, of whom, 26,4:i6 died of woiuids or diseases, during their captivity, 
while of 126.940 Union soldiers captured, nearly 2:!,000 died while prisoners. It is estimated 
that the whole number of Union captives was about 196,000, of whom 41,000 died while 
prisoners. 

In this connection it is also proper to speak of the glorious work of two benevolent organiza- 
tions: The United Stales Sanitary Comiiiinson, and the United States Christian Commission. The 
first was organized at the beginning of the war ; the second soon afterward. We can only 
allude to their work here. They were orgaui/.ed and earned on for tlie temporal and spiritual help 
of the soldiers who were lighting for the Republic. Their resources found their springs in the 
hearts of the loyal people of the land, who contributed supplies to the United Stat-x Sanitary 
Commission, valued at S15.0u0,000, and cash to the amount of almost S5,000,000. The receipts 
of the United States Ch^iit.'an Commis-^ion. amounted in value to over .$6,000,000. This organi- 
zation not only gave temporal relief to tlie soldieis. in the way of food and clothing, but dis- 
tributed iitimense nnmljers of useful books, and ])auiplilets, for the intellectual, moral and religious 
tomfort of the soldiers in the field, the camp, and the hospital. It is safe to estimate the money 
value of tlie free gifts of the loyal people, to the soldiers of the armies, during the war, at 
$500,000,000. 

" The following is a copy of General Grant's address : " Soldiers of the Armies of tlie United 
States: By your patriotic devotion to your country in the hour of danger and alarm, your 
magnificent fighting, bravery and endurance, you have maintained the supremacy of the Union, 
and tlie Constitution, overtlirown all armed ojiposition to the enforcement of the laws, and of 
the proclamation for ever abolishing slavery — the pause and pretext of the Rebellion — and opened 
the way to the rightful authorities to restore order, and inaugurate peace on a permanent and 
enduring basis on every foot of American soil. Your marclies, sieges, and battles, in distance, 
duration, resolution, and brilliancy of results, dims the luster of the world's past military achieve- 
ments, and will be the patriot's precedent in defense of liberty and right, in all time to come, 
lu obedience to your country's call, you left your homes and families, and volunteered in her 
defense. Victory has crowned your valor, and secured the purpose of your patriotic hearts ; 
and, with the gratitude of your countrymen, and the Iiighest honors a great and free nation can 
accord, you will soon be permitted to return to your homes and families, conscious of having 
discharged the highest duty of American citizens. To achieve these glorious triumphs, and 
secure to yourselves, your fellow-countrymen, and posterity, the blessings of free institutions, 
tens of thousands of your gallant comrades have fallen, and sealed the priceless legacy with their 
blood. The graves of these, a grateful nation bedews with tears, honors their memories, and will 
ever cherish and support tlieir stricken families." 

' The records of the War Department show that, on the first of March, 1865, the muster-rolls 
of the army. exhibited an aggregrate force of 965,591 men; of whom, 002,593 were present for 
duty, and i:i2,538 were on detached service. By the middle of October following, 785,205 were 
mustered out of the service. 

The whole number of men called into the service during the war, was 2,628,523. Of these. 



734 THE NATION. [1865. 

lican form of government, so conclusive and potential as this, was ever before 
presented to the feelings and judgment of the nations of the earth. The great 
political problem of the nineteenth century, was solved by the Civil War. Our 
Republic no longer appeared as an experiment but as a demonstration. 

After the terrible convulsion of the Civil War — the paralysis of State 
governments, and the entire disruption of the industrial and social system of 
a large portion of the Republic — came the business of reorganization, not of 
reconstruction, for no institution worthy of preservation had been destroyed. 
No State, as a component part of the Republic, had been annihilated. Those 
in which rebellion had e.Kisted were simply in a condition of suspended 
animation. They wore all equal, living members of the Commonwealth, 
incapacitated by derangements for healtliful functional action, and awaitino- 
resuscitation at the hands of the only healer, the National Government. To 
that resuscitation — that reorganization, and fitting for active life, the govern- 
ment was now called upon to employ its powers. 

A preliminary step toward reorganization was taken by the President on 
the 29th of April, 1805, when he proclaimed the removal of restrictions on 
commercial intercourse with the inhabitants of States in which rebellion had 
existed. A month later [May 29], he issued a proclamation, stating the terms 
by which the people of the paralyzed States, with specified exce[)tions, might 
receive full amnesty and pardon, and be reinvested with the right to exercise 
the functions of citizenship. This was followed by the appointment by the 
President of provincial governors for seven of those States,' clothed with 
authority to assemble citizens in convention, who had taken the amnesty oath, 
with power to reorganize State governments, and secure the election of repre- 
sentatives in the National Congress. The plan was to restore to the States 
named, their former position in the Union without any provision for securing to 
the freedman the right to the exercise of citizenship, which the amendment to 
the National Constitution, then before the State Legislatures, would justly 
entitle them to.' The reorganized State governments were bound only to 
respect their freedom. 

about ], 490,000 were in actual service. Of tills number, nearly 60,000 were killed on the field, 
and about 35,000 were mortally wounded. Disease in camps and hos|iitals slew 184,000. It is 
estimated that 300,000 Union soldiers perished during the war. Full that number of the Confed- 
erate soldiers perished; and tlie afrgrep;ate number of men. including both armies, who were 
crippled, or permanently disabled by disease, was estimated at 400.000. Tlie actual loss to the 
country, of able-bodied men, in consequence of the Rebellion, was full 1.000.000. 

' These were North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Alabama, Mississippi, and 
Texas. 

" On the 3 1st of January, 18G5, tha House of Representatives passed a joint resolution, already 
adopted by the Senate at a previous session, for an amendment to the National Constitution, in 
the following words ; — 

"Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any 
place subject to their jurisdiction. 

"Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." 

This amendment was adopted by a vote of 119 yeas, against 56 nays. Eight members did 
not vote. Senator Wilson, one of tlie most earnest and able of the public men of the country, 
in labors for this consummation, says, in his Anli Slavery Mewfures in Congress, page 393. that 
when the Speaker announced that the required two-thirds majority had voted in favor of the 
joint resolution, the House and the spectators gave expression to their satisfaction by an outburst 
of applause. " The RepubUcan members," he says, " instantly sprang to their feet, and applauded 



1865.] JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. ^25 

This total tlisregard of the highest interests of the freedmen, and the fact 
that the President was making haste to pardon a large number of those who 
had been active in the rebellion, and would exercise a controlling influence in 
the States which he was equally in haste to reorganize on his plan, startled 
the loyal men of the country, and made them doubt the sincerity of his 
vehement declarations of intention to punish traitors and to make treason 
odious.' They felt that Justice, not Expediency, should be the rule in the 
readjustment of tjie attairs of the Republic ; and it was demanded, as an act of 
National honor, that the freedman, when made a citizen by the Constitution, 
should have equal civil and political rights and privileges with other citizens, 
such as the elective franchise. 

It soon became evident that the President was willing to take issue, upon 
vital points of principle and policy, with the party which had carried the 
country triumphantly through the great Civil War, and had given him the 
second office in the Republic' And, at the close of the year, it was plain to 
sagacious observers that tlie Chief Magistrate was more friendly to the late 
enemies of Iiis country than consistency with his profession, or the safety of 
the Republic, would allow. As a consequence of that friendliness, it was per- 
ceived that tlie politicians who had worked in the interest of the rebellion, and 
newspapers which had advocated the cause of the Conspirators, had assumed a 
belligerent tone toward Congress and the loyal people, which disturbed the 
latter by unpleasant forebodings. Meanwhile measures for perfecting peaceful 
relations throughout the Republic had been taken. The order for a blockade 
of the Southern ports was rescinded [June 23, 1865] ; more of the restrictions 

with cheers and cl.ippiiisr of liands. The spectators in the crowded galleries waved their hats, 
and made the chambers rinfc with entluisiastic plaudits. Hundreds of ladies, gracing the galleries 
with their presence, rose in tlieir seats, and, by waving their handkerchiefs, and participating in 
the general demonstration of enthusiasm, added to the intense excitement and interest of a scene 
that will long be remembered by those who weie fortunate enough to witness it." 

When this crowning act of" Emancipation was aeeomplislied. Mr. Ingersqll of lUinoi-s, said : 
"In honor of this immortal and sublime event, I move that the House adjourn." The motion 
was carried by 121 to 21. On the following day, it was resolved to send tlie Act to the State 
legislal\ires for" ratiiieation ; and on tlie ISth day (if December following, the Secretary of State, by 
proclamation, certified that tlirce-fourths of the legislatures had ratified it. 

' Tlie fiery zeal witli whic-li tlie new President denounced treason and traitors, made moderate 
men fear that he would deal too hanshly with them. To a delegation from New Hampshire, who 
waited upon him soon after his inauguration, ho said : '■ Treason is a crime, and must be pimished 
as a crime. It must not be regarded as a mere difierence of political opinion. It nuist not be 
excn.sed as an unsuccessful rebellion, to be overlooked and bo forgiven. It is a crime before which 
all other crimes siuk into insignificance." Similar, and even severer language toward those who 
had lately tried to destroy the Republic, was used by him at that time. 

■■■ So early as August, or about four months after his accession to the Presidency, Mr. Johnson 
manifested an unfriendly feeling toward the most earnest men of the Republican party, and who 
had been most zealous- supporters of the government during the war. In a telegraphic dispatch 
to Mr. Sharkey, whom he had appointed provisional governor of Mississippi, he recommended 
[August 15, 1865] the extension of the elective franchise to all persons of color in that State, who 
could read the National Constitution or possessed property valued at $'250. This would affect but 
very few people of that class, who, in that State, were kept enslaved and poor by the laws. Ilis 
sole motive for the recommendation, as appears in tlie dispatch, was expressed in these words: 
" Do this, and, as a consequence, the radicals, who are wild upon negro franchise, will be com- 
pletely foiled in tlieir attempt to keep the Southern States from renewing their relations to the 
Union." More tlian a year before, Mr. Lincoln had suggested similar action to the Governor of 
Louisiana, but with a different motive. " They would probably help," he said, almost propheti- 
cally, " in some trying time to come, to keep the jeioel of Liberty in tlie/amily of Freedom." — Letter to 
Michael Hahn, March 13, 1864. 



726 T'l^'" NATION. [18G5. 

on internal commerce were remo\e(l [August 29] ; State prisoners were ])arole(i 
[October 12]; anil tlie act suspending the privilege of the writ of Habeas 
Corpus was annulled [December 1]. 

The provisional governors appointed by the President were diligent in 
carrying out his policy of reorganization, and before Congress met, in Decem- 
ber, conventions in five of the disorganized States had ratified tlie Amendment 
of the Constitution concerning slavery ; formed new constitutions for their 
respective States, and caused the election of representatives in Congress. The 
President had hurried on the work by directing the provisional governors of 
the five States to resign their power into the hands of others elected under the 
new constitutions. Some of these had been active participants in the rebellion, 
and some of the Congressmen elect, in those States, had been hard workers, it 
was said, in the service of the enemies of the Kepublic. The loyal people 
were filled with anxiety because of these events, and tlie assumptions of powers 
hy the President in doing that which, as prescribed by the Constitution, 
belongs exclusively to the representatives of the people to do. Yet they 
waited, with the quieting knowledge that Congress had a riglit to judge of the 
qualifications of its members, and with the belief that disloyal men would not 
be allowed to enter that body over the bar of a test oath prescribed by law.' 

When Congress assembled [Dec. 4, 1865], the subject of reorganization 
was among the first business of tlie session, and by a joint resolution a com- 
mittee of fifteen was appointed ^ to make inquiries and report. This was 
known as the " Reconstruction Committee." This action offended the Presi- 
dent, It was an interference of the representatives of the people with his 
chosen policy of reorganization, and hostility to Congress was soon 0])enly 
manifested by him. This was vehemently declared by the President in a 
speech to the populace in front of the Presidential Mansion on the 22d of Feb- 
ruary [1866] — a speech which Americans would gladly blot from the record of 
their country — in which, forgetting the dignity of his position and the gravity 
of the questions at issue, he denounced, by name, leading members of Con- 
gress, and the party which had given him their confidence. The American 
people felt liumiliated by this act ; but* it was a small matter when compared 
with what occurred later in the year [August and September, 1866], when the 

' By an Aet passed on tlie 22d of July, 18G2, Congrei^s prescribed that every member should 
make oath tliat he had not " voluntarily borue arms against the United States since he had been 
a citizen thereof," or " voluntarily given aid, countenance, counsel, or encouragement to persons 
engaged in hostility thereto," and had never "yielded voluntary support to any pretended gov- 
ernment, authority, power, or constit\ition within the United States, hostile or inimical tliereto." 

" Oil the first day of the session, the House of Representatives, by a vote of 133 against 36, 
proposed, and agreed to a joint resolution to appoint a joint committee, to be composed of nine 
members of the House and six of the Senate, to "inquire into the condition of the States which 
formed the so-called Confederate States of America, and report whether they, or any of them, are 
entitled to be represented in either House of Congress, with leave to report at any time, by bill 
or otherwise ; and until sucli report shall have been made and finally acted upon by Congress, no 
member shall Ije received in either House from any of the so-called Confederate States ; and all 
papers relating to the representatives of the said Slates, shall be referred to the said committee." 
The resolution was adopted by the Senate on the 14th. The House appointed Messrs. Stevens, 
■\Vasliburne, Morrill Grider, IJingham, Conkling, Boutwell, Blow, and Rogers, as its representa- 
tives in the committee, and the Senate appointed Messrs. Fessenden, Grimes, Harris, Howland, 
Johnson, and AVilliams. 



18G6.] JOHXSON'S ADMINISTRATION. ^27 

President and a part of his Cabinet, with tlie pretext of honoring tlie deceased 
Senator Douglas by being present at the dedication of a monument to his 
memory at Chicago, on the 0th of September, made a journey to tliat city and 
beyond. He harangued the people in language utterly unbecoming the chief 
magistrate of a nation, and attempted to sow the dangerous seeds of sedition, 
by denouncing Congress as an illegal body, deserving of no respect from the 
people, and the majority of its members as traitors, " trying to break wp the 
government." That journey of the President, so disgraceful in all its features 
— its low partisan object, its immoral performances, and its pitiful results — 
forms a dark paragrapli in the history of the Kepublic' 

Having laid aside the mask of assumed friendship for those wlio had 
labored most earnestly for the suppression of tlie rebellion and for the freed- 
men, the President used his veto power to the utmost in trying to tliwart the 
I'epresentatives of the people in their efforts to reorganize tiie disorganized 
States, and to quickly secure a full and permanent restoration of the Union on 
the basis of equal and exact justice.- He made uncompromising war upon the 
legislative branch of the government, and caused members of his cabinet, whO' 
could not agree with him, to resign, with the exception of the Secretary of 
War. The friends of the Republic urged that officer to remain, believing his 
retention of his bureau at that critical period in the life of the nation would 
be for the public benefit. He did so, ajid became tlie object of the President's 
hatred. 

On the 2d of April, the President, by proclamation, declared the Civil 
War to be at an end. Congress, meanwhile, was working assiduously in per- 
fecting its plans for reorganization. Tennessee was formally restored to the 
Union by that body on the 23d of July; and on the 29th of that month, after 
a long and arduous session. Congress adjourned. Meanwhile notable events in 
the foreign relations of the government had occurred. The Emperor of the 
French had been informed that the continuation of French troops in Mexico 
was not agreeable to the United States, and on the 5th of April [1S6U], Napo- 
leon's Secretary for Foreign Affairs gave assurance to our gDvernment that 

' A convention Iiad just been held [Aug. 14] in Pliiladelpliia, composed cliiefly of men who 
had been engaged in the rebellion, and the enemies of the Republican part}-, for the purpose of 
organizing a new party, with President Johnson as its standard-bearer. So discordant were the 
elements there gathered, that no one was allowed to debate questions of public interest, for fear 
of producing a disruption and consequent failure of the scheme. It utterly failed. A convention 
'of loyal men from the South was held in Philadelphia soon afterward, in which representatives 
of the Republican party in the North participated. The President's journey being wholly for a 
political purpose, members of the latter convention followed in his track, making speeches in 
many places in support of the measures of Congress for effecting reorganization. 

So disgraceful was the conduct of the President at Cleveland and St. Louis, in the attitude of 
a mere demagogue making a tour for partisan purposes, that the common council of Cincinnati, 
on his return jonrnev, refused to accord him a public reception. The common council of Pitts- 
burg, in Pennsylvania, did the same. When, on the 15th of September, the erring President and 
Ilia traveling party returned to Washington, the country felt a relief from a sense of deep 
mortification. 

" On the 19th of February, 1S66, lie vetoed the act for enlarging the operations of the Freed- 
man's Bureau, established for the relief of freedmen, refugees, and abandoned lands. On the 27th 
of March hi: vetoed the act known as the Civil Rights Law, which was intended to secure to all 
citizens, without regard to color or a previous condition of slavery, equal civil rights in the 
Rep\iblic. This Act became a law. after it was vetoed by the President, by the vote of a constitu- 
tional m.ijoritv. on the 9th of April. 



ljr28 ^^^' NATION. [I8G6. 

those troops should be withdrawn within a specified time.' A railitaiy organ- 
ization of Irish residents of the United States, known as the Fenian Brotlier- 
hood, with the ostensible aim of procuring the independence of Irehmd from 
England, made movements in May and June [1866] for a formidable invasion 
of the neighboring British provinces. Our government interfered, and the 
effoi't was a failure. With England, at about the same time, a peaceful bond 
of Union was formed, by the successful laying of a telegraphic cable between the 
two countries. The first dispatch, announcing tlie conclusion of a treaty of 
peace between Prussia and Austria, passed over it on the 29th of July, and on 
the following day the President of the United States received by it, from 
Queen Victoria, a message of congratulation because of the completion of tlie 
great work, which she hoped "might serve as an additional bond between the 
United States and England." So early as October, 1S6'2, telegraphic commu- 
nication had been opened across this continent between the coasts of the 
Atlantic and Pacific oceans ; and wliile the great Civil War was in progress, 
our government cordially promoted an enterprise having for its object a line 
of telegraphic communication around the world, by connecting Asia and 
America, with the delicate cord, at Behring's Str.aits. 

The State elections held in the autumn of 1866 indicated the decided 
appi'oval by the people, of the reorganization plans of Congress as opposed to 
that of the President, who was now openly affiliated with the Democratic party 
and the late enemies of the government in the South and elsewhere. The 
majority in Congress felt strengthened by the popular approval of their course, 
and went steadily forward in perfecting measures for the restoration of the 
Union. They took steps for restraining the action of the President, who, it 
was manifest, had determined to carry out his own policy in defiance of that 
of Congress. And as an indication of the general policy of the latter, con- 
cerning suftrage, a bill was passed [December 14] by a large majority of 
both Houses for granting the elective franchise in tlie District of Columbia, 
over which Congress has direct control, to persons, " without any distinction 
on account of color or race." The President vetoed the bill [January 7, 1867], 
when it was re-enacted by the constitutional vote of two-thirds of tlie mem- 
bers of both Houses in its favor. On the same day [January 7], Mr. Ashley, 
Representative from Ohio, arose in his seat, and charged "Andrew Johnson, 
Vice-President and Acting-President of the United States, with the commis- 
sion of acts which, in the estimation of the Constitution, are high crimes and 
misdemeanors, for which he ought to be impeached." He offered s])ecifications 
and a resolution instructing the Committee on the Judiciary to make inquiries 
on the snljject." The resolution was adopted by a vote of one lumdred and 
thirty-seven to thirt^'-eight, forty-five members not voting. This was the first 

' This was done, and tlie Archduke Maximilian, of Austria, whom Louis Napoleon had placed 
on a throne in Me.xico, with the title of Kmperor, was deserted by the perlidious ruler of France, 
and after struirglino; against tlie native Republican government for awliile, was captured and shot. 

' Mr. Ashley pj'esented the following: "1 do impeach Andrew Johnson, Vice-President and 
acting President of the United States, of high crimes and misdemeanors. I charge him with 
usurpation of power and violation of law: (1) In that he has corruptly used tlie appointing 
power ; (2) In that he has corruptly used the pardoning power ; (3) In that he has corruptly used 



1867.] JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. ^29 

public movement in the matter of tlie impeachment of the President, wliicli 
resulted in his trial in May, 1 868. 

At a former session of Congress, bills were .passed for the admission of the 
Territories of Colorado and Nevada as States of the Union. The President 
interposed. Now similar bills were passed, prescribing as a preliminary to 
admission a provision in their constitutions granting impartial suffrage to their 
citizens, and the ratification of the Amendment to the Constitution. The 
President • vetoed them ; when that for the admission or Nevada was passed 
over his veto. That Territory became a State on the first of jNIarch, making the 
thirty-seventh. A bill limiting the authority of tlie President in making official 
appointments and removals from office, known as the " Tenure-of-Offiee Act," 
was passed, and was vetoed by the President, when it was passed over tiie 
veto.' Another bill was passed, vetoed, and passed over the veto, repealing so 
much of an Act of July 17, 1862, as gave the President power to grant amnesty 
and pardon to those who had been engaged in the rebellion. A bill was also 
passed, with the same opposition from the President, for the military govern- 
ment of the disorganized States.- The Thirty-ninth Congress closed its last 
session on the 3d of March, and the Fortieth Congress began its first session 
immediately thereafter. In view of the conduct of the President, which 
threatened the country with revolution, this action of the National Legislature 
was deemed necessary for the public good. It adjourned on the 31st of March, 
to meet on the first Wednesday in July. 

Congress assembled on the 4th of July, and on the 20th adjourned to meet 
on the 21st of November. The chief business of the short session was to 
adopt measures for removing the obstructions cast by the President iu the way 
of a restoration of the disorganized States. A bill supplementary to the one 
for the military government of those States was passed over the usual veto of 
the President, and it was believed that the Chief Magistrate would refrain 

the veto power; (4) In that he has corruptly di.'iposed of public property, of the United States; 
and (5) In that lie has corruptly interfered in elections, and committed acts which, in contempla- 
tion of the Constitution, are high crimes and misdemeanors." 

On the 14th of January, Representative Loan, from Missouri, in the course of a debate con- 
cerning the duty of the House to proceed to the impeachment of the President, said that the 
leaders of the rebellion comprehended the advantages of having such a man as the then incum- 
bent, iu the Presidential chair. " Hence," he said. '• the assassination of Mr. Lincoln. The crime 
was committed. The way was made clear for the succession. An assassin's hand, wielded and 
directed by rebel hand, and paid for by rebel gold, made Andrew Johnson President of the 
United States of America. The price that he was to pay for his promotion was treacliery to the 
Republic and fidelity to the party of treason and rebellion." Mr. Loan was called to order. "Qie 
Speaker decided that he was not out of order, the subject of debate being the charges against the 
President of " high crimes and misdemeanors." a member having the right, on his own responsi- 
bility, to malce a specific charge. This decision was appealed from, when the Speaker was sus- 
tained by a vote of 101 to 8. 

' It took from the President, among other things, the power to remove a member of his 
cabinet, e.\cepting by permission of the Senate, declaring that they should hold office '• for and 
during the term of the President by whom they may have been appointed, and for one month 
thereafter, subject to removal by and witli tlie consent of the Senate.'' The act was passed over 
the veto by a vote iu the Senate of 35 to 11, and in the House of KU to 37. 

'' Those States were divided into five military districts, and the following commanders were 
appointed: Fint District, Virginia, General J. M. Schofield; Second District, North and South 
Carolina. Geperal D. E. Sickles ; Third District. Georgia, Florida, and Alabama, General J. Pope ; 
Fourth District, Mississippi and Arkansas, General E. 0. C. Ord ; Fifth District, Louisiana and 
Te.\as, General P. H. Sheridan. 



730 



THE NATION. 



[1867. 



from further acts calculated to disturb the public peace. Not so. Immedi- 
ately after the adjournniciit of Congress, he proceeded, in defiance of that 
body, and in violation of the Tenure-of-Office Act, to remove the Secretary of 
War [Mr. Stanton], and to place General Grant in his ])lace. The President first 
asked [August 5, 1867] the Secretary to resign. Mr. Stanton refused.' A 
week later the President directed General Grant to assume the duties of Secre- 
tary of War. Grant obeyed. Stan- 
ton retired, imder protest, well satisfied 
that his office was left in the hands of 
a patriot whom the President could 
not corrupt nor nnlawfuUy control." 

The removal of the Secretary of 
War w.as followed by the removal of 
General Slieridan from the command 
of the Fifth District, and General 
Sickles from that of the Second Dis- 
trict, by which the country was notified 
that the most faithful officers, who 
were working with the rcpi"esentatives 
of the people for the proper and speedy 
restoration of the Union, woidd be 
deprived of power to be useful. Gen- 
eral Grant protested against these acts, but in vain. The country was greatly 
e.xcited, and the loyal people waited with imp.atience the reassembling of Con- 
gress, upon which they relied in that hour of seeming peril to the Kejjublic. 
That body met at the appointed time, and on the r2th of December the Presi- 
dent sent to the Sen.ate a statement of his reasons for removing the Secretarj- 
of War. They were not satisfactory, and on the 13th of January the Sen.ate 
reinstated ^Ir. Stanton, and General Grant retired from the War Department. 
Already Congress had made much progress toward the restoration of the dis- 
organized States, to the Union, bj- providing for conventions for framing con- 
stitutions and electing members of Congress ; and a few days after the restora- 
tion of Mr. Stanton, a new bill for the further reorganization of those States 
was passed by the House of Representatives, in which larger powers were 




\ 



EDWIN M. STANTOK. 



. ' The President addressed a note to the Secretary, in whicli lie said : " Grave public consider- 
ations constrain me to request your resignation as Secretary of War." The Secretary replied : 
"Grave public considerations constrain nie to continue in the office of Secretary' of War until the 
next meeting of Congress." It was believed that the President was then contemplating a revo- 
lutionary scheme, in favor of the late enemies of the country, and was seeking to use the army 
for that purpose. 

" The President was angry with General Grant for quietly giving up the office to Stanton, at 
the bidding of the Senate, and he charged the General-in-Chief with having broken his promises, 
and tried to injure liis reputation as a soldier and a citizen. A correspondence ensued, which 
speedily found its way to the public. It assumed the form of a question of veracity between the 
President and the General-iu-Chief. Finally, Grant felt compelled to say to the President : 
"When my honor as a soldier and integrity as a man have been so violently assailed, pardon me 
for saying that I can but regard this whole matter, from beginning to end. as an attempt to involve 
me in the resistance of law, for which you hesitated to assume the responsibility in orders, and 
thus to destroy my character before the country." The President did not deny this charge. 



1808.] JOHNSON'S A13 Jr I N I S T R A T I N. ^3] 

given to the General-in-Cliief of the armies, in their military government, and 
depriving the President of all power to interfere in the matter. 

On the 21st of February, tlie President caused a new and more intense 
excitement throughout the countrj-, by a bolder step in opposition to the will 
of Congress than he had hitherto ventured to take. On that day he issued an 
order to Mr. Stanton, removing him from the office of Secretary of War, and 
another to Lorenzo Thomas, the Adjutant-General, appointing him Secretary 
of War, ad interim. These orders were officially communicated to the Senate, 
whereupon that body passed a resolution that the President had no authority 
under the Constitution and laws to remove the Secretary of War. In the 
mean time Thomas had a])poared at tlio War Department and demanded the 
position to which the President had assigned him, when Mr. Stanton, his supc- 




i I'M : I jliiniiiiiiiiiiii; 



THE NATIOMAL CAPITOL. 

rior, refused to yield it, and ordered him to return to his proper office. The 
President being satisfied that he would not be permitted to use military fQrce 
in the matter, did not attempt to eject Mr. Stanton by force, and so that officer 
retained his place. This action of the President was so manifestly in violation 
of law, that on the following day [February 22, 1868], the House of Repre- 
sentatives, by a vote of 126 to 47,' " Ptesolved that Andrew Johnson, President 
of the United States, be impeached of high crimes and misdemeanors." ' On 
the 29th [February, 1868], a committee of the House, appointed for the pur- 

' Tliis was an almost strictly party vote. Only two Republicans (Gary of Ohio, and Stewart 
of New York) voted in the nesative, while all the Democrats voted against the resohitinu. 

■' We have seen (page 728) that the subject of the impeachment of the President was referred 
to the Committee on the Judiciary. That committee submitted reports (Nov. 25, 1867) which 
were acted upon on the 7th of December, when the House of Representatives, taking into con- 
sideration the gravitv of such a proceeding, and indulging a hope that the President would cease 
making war upon Congress and attend to his legitimate duties as simply the Executijr of the 
poep!e"s will, expressed by their representatives, refused, by a large majority, to entertain a pro- 



732 



THE NATION. 



[If 



pose,' presented articles of irajicachment, nine in number, and these, with slight 
alterations, were accepted on the 2d of March.'^ The House then proceeded to 
the appointment of Managers, to conduct the business before the Senate,' when 
the Democratic members of the House, to the number of forty-five, entered a 
formal protest against the whole proceedings. 

On the 5th of March [1868], the Senate was organized as a jury for the 
trial of the President. Chief-Justice Salmon P. Chase presided.'' On the 7th 
the President was summoned to appear at the bar ; and on the l.Oth, when the 
Senate was formally opened for tlie inquest, he did so appear, by his counsel, 
who asked for a space of forty days wlierein to prepare an answer to the 
indictment. Ten days were granted, and on the 23d the President's counsel 
presented an answer. The House of Representatives, the accuser, simply 
denied every averment in the answer, when the President's counsel asked for a 
postponement of the trial for thirty days. The Sen.ite allowed seven days, 
and on Monday, the 30th of March, the trial began. The examination of 

position for impeachment. Now, so flagrant was the act of the President, that tlie Republican 
members were eager to place him upon trial, and several who were not present when the vote 
recorded in the te.xt was taken, afterward entered their votes in favor of impeachment. 

' The committee consisted of Messrs. Boutwell, Stevens (who made the motion for im- 
peachment), Bingham, Wilson, Logan, Julian, and Ward. Messrs. Stevens and Bingham were 
appointed a committee to annoiuice to the Senate the action of tlie House. This they did on tlie 
25th (Feb.), when the Senate, by unanimous vote, referred the subject to a select committee of 
seven, to consider it. 

'•' The following is a brief summary of the charges in the Articles of Impeachment : — Article 1 . 
Unlawfully ordering the removal of Mr. Stanton as Secretary of "War, in violation of the 
provisions of the Tenure-of-OfBce Act. Article 2. Unlawfully appointing General Loren;:o 
Thomas as Secretary of War, ad interim. Article 3. Substantially the same as Article 2, with the 
additional averment that there was at the time of the appointment of General Thomas, no 
vacanSy in the ofBce of Secretary of War. Article 4. Conspiring with one Lorenzo Thomas, and 
other persons to the House of Representatives unknown, to prevent, by intimidation and threats, 
Mr. Stanton, the legally appointed Secretary of War, from holding that office. Article 5. Con- 
spiring with General Thomas and others to hinder the execution of the Tennre-of-Oftiee Act; and 
in pursuance of this conspiracy, attempting to prevent Mr. Stanton from acting as Secretary of 
War. Article 6. Conspiring with General Thoma.s and others to take forcible possession of the 
property in the War Department. Article 7. Repeated the charge of conspiring to hinder the 
e.xecution of the Tenure-of-Office .'\ot, and prevent Mr. Stanton from executing the office of Secre- 
tary of War. Article 8. Repeated the charge of conspiring to take possession of the War 
Department. Article 9. Charged that the President called before him the commander of the 
forces in the Department of Washington and declared to him that a law, passed on the 30th of 
June, 18C7 (see page 729), directing that "all orders and instructions relating lo military.opera- 
tions, issued by the President or Secretary of War, shall be issued through the General of the 
Army, and in case of his inability, through the next in rank," was unconstitutional, and not bind- 
ing upon the commander of the Department of Washington; the intent being to induce that com- 
mander to violate the law. and to obey orders issued directly from the President. 

On the 3d of March, the managers presented two additional articles, which were adopted by 
the House. The. /icsi charged that the President had, by intlammatorv speeches, during his jour- 
ney from Washington to Cliicago, already mentioned (page 727). attempted, with a design to set 
aside the authority of Congress, to bring it into disgrace, and to e-xcite the odium and resentment 
of the people against Congress and the laws it enacted. The second charged that in Augusl, 
1S66, the President, in a public speech at Washington City, declared that Congress was not a 
body authorized by the Constitution to exercise legislative powers'; and then went on to specify 
his offenses in endeavoring by unlawful mean!!, to prevent the execution of haws passed by Con- 
gress. These formed the 10th and 11th Articles of Impeachment. 

' The following members of the House of Representatives were chosen to be the managers, 
on its part, of the impeachment case: Th.addeus Stevens, of Pennsylvania; Benjamin F. Butler, 
of Mass.ichusetts ; John A. Bingham, of Ohio; George S. Boutwell, of Miissachusetts ; James 
P. Wilson, of Iowa; Thomas Williams, of Pennsylvania, and John A. Logan, of Illinois. The 
chief management of the case, on the part of the House, as prosecutor, was intrusted to Mr. Butler. 

* See clause 6, section 3, of Article I., of the National Constitution, in the Supplement. 



18GS.] 



JOHNSON'S ADMINISTRATION. 



733 



witnesses was closed on the 22cl of April, and on the following day the argii- 
ments of counsel began. These closed on the afternoon of Wednesday, the 
6th of May, when the case was submitted to the judgment of the Senate. 
Its decision was given on the 26th of the same month. Every member of 
the Senate was present and voted. Thirty-five pronounced the President 
fuiltv, and nineteen declared him not guilty. So he escaped conviction by 
one vote.' 

At this important period in tlie history of our riepublic, we will close the 
record. Purified and strengthened by the operations of the Civil War, it then 




/ >-->-; 



THE NATIONAL SENATE CIIAJIBEE. 



entered upon a new era in its career, with the most abundant promises of pros- 
perity and usefulness. In its dealings with its domestic enemies, the Govern- 
ment, conscious of its strength, had been lenient beyond all precedent, and 
thereby won the applause and admiration of mankind." The developed and 
undeveloped resources of the country, and its actual, visible wealth, were evi- 

' The vote of tlio Senate w;\g as follows ;— „ , ^ , ,. ^ ^ 

Fm- C'ort/n'c/ion— Messrs. Anthony, Cameron, Cattell, Chandler, Cole, Conkhng, Conncss, Cor- 
bett, Cragin. Drake. Edmunds, Ferrv, Frelin-hnysen, Harlan, Howard, Howe, Morgan, Morrill of 
Vermont, Morrill of Mahie, Morton. Nye, Patterson of New Hampshire, Pomeroy, Ramsey, 
Sherman, Spragne, Stewart, Snmner, Thayer, Tipton, Wade, WiUey, Williams, Wilson, andlates. 
These were all '-Republicans." ,. , „ j t. i r. • 

Fur ^o/Mtt/i—Messrs. Bayard, Buckalew, Davis, Dixon. Doolittle. Fessenden, Fowler. Grimes, 
Henderson; tiendricks, Johnson. Mci'reery, Norton. Patterson of Tennessee. Ross, baiilsbnry, 
TriimbiiU, Van Winkle, and Viokers. Ei-ht of these, namely, Bayard, Buckalew Davis, Hen- 
drieks, Johnson MeCreery, SanUbnry. and Viokers, were elected to the Senate as Democrats. 
The remainder were elected as '• Republicans." _ 

' Of the thousands of the citizens of the Republic who consciously and willingly committed 



734 1''I^ N ATI ox. [1SG8. 

deiitly so abundant and available,' that the enormous debt created by the Civil 
War was not regarded as a very serious burden upon the national industry. 
It amounted, in round numbers, to a little less than $2,500,000,000'' — a debt 
not nearly so large, in proportion to the population, as the inhabitants of the 
original thirteen States were burdened with at the close of the old war for 
independence, when the resources of the countiy were mostly undeveloped 
and unknown. Immigrants wore flocking to our shores, with strong arms, in 
unprecedented numbers, not less than six million having come within the 
space of tifty years. Population was rapidly increasing, and numbered, in 
the States and Territories, at the time we are considering [May, 1868], not 
less, probably, than fortj' million souls. 

For years new Territories had been rapidly springing up in the great wil- 
dernesses of the Republic, and these, in time, had become the more mature and 
stately edifices of populous States. The pioneer is still at work, preparing the 
sure foundations for other eomnjpnwealths; and statesmen and gospel-bearers, 
brave soldiers and gentle women, join with the rougher toilers in the glorious 
work, while the children of tlie forest, becoming fewer and fewer with each 
revolution of the sun, look on in sorrow, for they hear in the ring of the ham- 
mer upon every corner-stone of the structures of civilization, the knell of their 

" trea.son against the United States," according; to the prescription of the National Constitution 
(see clause 1, section 3, article III.), not one had been pimislied for the crime, and only one 
offender had been indicted when this record was closed. That one was Jefferson Davis, tlie acting 
head of the Rebellion, whose trial was ordered to take place in June, 1S68. 

' In 1791, when the Government, under the Constitution, had just got into working order, 
the estimated value of the taxable property in the Republic, then onlj' 820,680 square miles in 
extent, was S75."), 000,000. According to the last census (1860), the estimated value of tlie taxa- 
ble property of the Republic was a little more tlian than SI 0,000.000.000. In this estimate is not 
included the public property of the Government, and that of religious and benevolent institutions. 
The mineral wealth in this vast domain not included in the above estimate of value, is enormous. 
And now, including a recent pureliase from Russia, for the sum of §7,200,000, of an immense 
territory bordering on the North Pacific and the Frozen oceans, the area of our Republic is, in 
round numbers, about 3,000,000 square miles. 

In the year 18G0 tlie aggregate value of articles manufactured in this country was nearly 
$1,900,000,000 ; the tonnage of tlie commercial marine was nearly 5,400,000, and the value of the 
vessels representing it was .$250,000,000. The value of articles exported w^as $400,000,000, 
more than one lialf of which went from the port of New York. The value of farms was esti- 
mated at more than $6,500,000,000, and of domestic animals about SI, O00,000.0ii0. In 1863, 
while the great Civil War was at its height, and hundreds of thousands of the able-bodied men 
of the countrj- were in the army, moretlian 830,000,000 bushels of corn, and 171,000,000 bushels 
of wheat were produced. In 1860, more than 30,000 miles of railway had been put in operation 
in the United States, at an expenditure of .§850,000,000. These few items are given to indicate 
the material prosperity of the Republic. 

" The following is an official statement of the public debt on the first of May, 1868 : — 

Debt bearing coin interest. — Five per cent, bonds, $215,947.40(1; Six percent, bonds of 1867 
and '68, $8,628,241; Six per cent, bonds of 1881, $283,677,200; Six per cent. 5-20 bonds, 
$1,442,065,450; Navy pension fund, $13,000,000. Total, $1,963,318,291. 

Debt bearing currency interest. — ?ix per cent, bonds, $23,9.'<2,000; Tliree year compound 
interest notes. $44,573,680; Three-year 7-30 notes. $163,490,250; Three per cent, certificates, 
$28,330,000. Total, $260,375,930. 

Matured debt not presmted ft/r payment. — Three-year 7-30 notes, due August 15, 1867, 
Si, 075,950; Compotuid interest notes matured June 10, July 15, .August 15, October 15,and 
December 15, 18G7, $4,745,280; Te.xas indemnity bonds, $256,000; Treasury notes, acts of 
July 17, 1S61, and prior thereto, $155,461; Bonds of April 15, 1842, $6,000; Treasury notes, 
March 3, 1863, $616,192; Temporary loan, §1,032,400; Certificates of indebtedness, $18,000. 
Total. S7. 905. 283. 

Debtharinq nointerett.—Vmtei States notes, $356,144,727 ; Fractional currency, $32,450,489 ; 
Goldccrtificates of deposit, $19,357,900. Total, $407,953, 1 IB. Grand total of debt, $2,639, 552,620. 



■^ aA^'^ iv:v . '^ 
















Founding Xkw States. 



1868.] JOHNSoX'ri ADMINISTRATION. 737 

own final extermination. Over them the fi'ee eagle may perch as the emblem of 
their former sovereignty in the land they are leaving to others, but the setting 
sun just above the peaks of the great western hills, or overthe liillows of tlie 
Pacific Ocean, more truly symbolizes their present and their future. 

Never was a State gifted by God with better opportunities than ours at 
this moment. AVe are the heirs and stewards of a magnificent inheritance ; 
and if we, as individuals, and as a nation, shall be lliithful and true to the 
requirements of Justice and Mercy, we may become rich in all the manifold 
and precious results of well-doing, and be the almoners of a thousand blessings 
to the posterities, which flow out of the rich treasures of Civil and Religious 
Liberty. 

Amount of coin in the Treasurj', $106,909,658; and of currency. SS2.n4,I26. Total, 
S139.0S3.794. Deduct this from the grand total of debt, leaves the actual debt of the Govern- 
ment, on the first of May, 1868, g2,560,468,826— full nine-tenths of which is held by citizens of 
the United States. 

47 



SUPPLEMENT. 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. 



So early as July, \T15, Doctor Franklin submitted to the consideration of Congress a sketch 
of articles of confederation between'the colonies,' limiting the duration of their vitality to the 
time when reconciliation with Great Britain should take place ; or, in the event of the failure of 
that desirable result, to be perpetual. At that time. Congress seemed to have no fixed plans for 
the future — tlie teeming present, with all its vast and novel concerns, engrossed tlieir whole 
attention — and Dr. Franklin's plan seems not to have been discussed at all in the National Council. 
But when a Declaration of Independence was proposed, that idea alone suggested the necessity 
of a confederation of the States to carry forward the work to a successful consummation. Con- 
gress, therefore, on the 11 th of June, 1776, resolved that a committee should be appointed to 
prepare, and properly digest, a form of confederation to be entered into by the several States. 
The committee appointed under the resolution consisted of one delegate from each State." John 
Dickenson, of Pennsylvania, was chosen chairman, and through him the committee reported a 
draft of Articles, of Confederation on the 12th of July. Almost daily debates upon the subject 
ensued until the 20th of August, when the report was laid aside, and was not taken up again for 
consideration until the 8th of April, 1777. In the mean while, several of the States had adopted 
Constitutions for their respective government, and Congress was practically acknowledged the 
supreme head in aU matters appertaining to the war, public finances, kc. It emitted bills of 
credit, or paper money, appointed foreign ministers, and opened negotiations with foreign govern- 
ments. , 

From the 8th of April until the 15th of November following, the subject was debated two or 
three times a week, and several amendments were made. As the confederation might be a per- 
manent bond of union, of course local interests were considered prospectively. If the union liad 
been designed to be temporary, to meet the exigences arising from the state of war in which the 
colonies then were, local questions could hardly have had weight enough to have elicited debate ; 
but such was not the case, and of course the sagacious men who were then in Congress looked 
beyond the present, and endeavored to legislate accordingly. From the 7th of October until the 
15th of November the debates upon it were almost daily, and the conflicting interests of the sev- 
eral States were strongly brought into view by the different speakers. On that day the following 
draft, cont;iining all of the amendments, was laid before Congress, and after a spirited debate 
was adopted: — 

Article 1. The style of this confederacy shall be, "The United States of America." 

o' rlT.-nn.m-.it,, ™n.i,i..,l of M,»i.r!i- Uarll.ll. Samuel Ailnma, Hopkiiis, Slierimin, H. R. Lh ingslon, Dickenson, McKenn, Slooe, NeUon, 



740 SUPPLEMENT. 

Article 2. Each State retains its sovereignty, freedom, and independence, and every power, 
jurisdiction, and right, which is not by this confederation expressly delegated to the United States 
in Congress assembled. 

Article 3. The said States hereby severally enter into a firm league of friendship with each 
other for their common defense, the security of their liberties, and their mutual and general wel- 
fare ; binding themselves to assist each other against all force offered to, or attacks made upon 
them, or any of them, on account of religion, sovereignty, trade, or any other pretense whatever. 

Article 4. The better to secure and perpetuate mutual friendship and intercourse among the 
people of the different States in this Union, the free inhabitants of each of these States, paupers, 
vagabonds, and fugitives from justice excepted, shall be entitled to all privileges and immunities 
of free citizens in the several States ; and the people of each State shall have free ingress and 
regress to and from any other State, and shall enjoy therein all the privileges of trade and com- 
merce, subject to the same duties, impositions, and restrictions, as the inhabitants thereof respect- 
ively, provided that such restrictions shall not extend so for as to prevent the removal of property 
imported into any State to any other State, of which the owner is an inhabitant; provided, also, 
that no imposition, duties, or restriction shall be laid by any State on the property of the United 
States, or either of them. 

If any person guilty of or charged with treason, felony, or other high misdemeanor, in any 
State, shall flee from justice, and be found in any of the United States, he shall upon demand of 
tlie Governor or executive power of the State from which he fled, be delivered up and removed 
to the State having jurisdiction of his offense. 

Full faith and credit shall be given in each of these States to the records, acts, and judicial 
proceedings of the courts and magistrates of every other State. 

Article 5. For the more convenient management of the general interests of the United States, 
delegates shall be annually appointed in such manner as the Legislature of each State shall direct, 
to meet in Congress on the first Monday in November in Svery year, with a power reserved to 
each State to recall its delegates, or any of them, at any time witliin the year, and to send others 
in their stead for the remainder of the j-ear. 

No State shall be represented in Congress by less tlian two, nor by more than seven members ; 
and no person shall be capable of being a delegate for more than three years in any term of si.": 
years ; nor shall any person, being a delegate, be capable of holding any office tmder the United 
States, for which he, or another for his benefit, receives any salarj', fees, or emoluments of any 
kind. 

Each State shall maintain its own delegates in a meeting of the States, and while they act as 
members of the committee of the States. 

In determining questions in the United States, in Congress assembled, each State shall have 
one vote. 

Freedom of speech and debate in Congress shall not be impeached or questioned in any court 
or place out of Congress ; and the members of Congress shall be protected in their persons from 
arrests and imprisouments, during the time of their going to and from, and attendance on Con- 
gress, except for treason, felony, or breach of the peace. 

Article 6. No State, without the consent of the United States, in Congress assembled, shall 
send any embassy to, or receive any embassy from, or enter into any conference, agreement, 
alliance, or treaty, with any king, prince, or State ; nor shall any person holding any office of 
profit or trust under the L^nited States, or any of them, accept any present, emolument, office, or 
title of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign State; nor shall the United States 
in Congress assembled, or any of them, grant any title of nobility. 

No two or more States shall enter into any treaty, confederation, or alliance whatever between 
them, without the consent of the United States, in Congress assembled, specifying accuratelj' the 
purposes for which the same is to be entered into and how long it shall continue. 

No State shall lay any imposts or duties which may interfere with any stipulations in treaties 
entered into by the United States, in Congress assembled, with any king, prince, or State, in pur- 
suance of any treaties already proposed by Congress to the courts of France and Spain. 

No vessel of war shall be kept up in time of peace by any State, except such number only a.i 
shall be deemed necessary by the United States, in Congress assembled, for the defense of such 
State' or its trade ; nor shall any body of forces be kept up by any State in time of peace, except 



ARTICLES OF CO X F K D K R A TI X. Y4 I 

such number only as in the judgment of the United States, in Congress assembled, shall bo 
deemed requisite to garrison the forts necessary for tlie defense of such State; but every State 
shall always keep up a well-regulated and disciplined militia, sufficiently armed and accoutered. 
and shall provide and have constantly ready for use, iu public stores, a due number of field-pieces 
and tents, and a proper quantity of arms, ammunition, and camp equipage. 

Xo State shall engage in any war without the consent of the United States in Congress assembled, 
unless such State be actually invaded by enemies, or shall have received certain advice of a reso- 
lution being formed by some nation of Indians to invade such State, and the danger is so imminent 
as not to admit of a delay till tlie United States, in Congress assembled, can be consulted ; nor 
shall any State grant commissions to any sliips or vessels of war, nor letters of marque or reprisal, 
except it be after a declaration of war by the United States, in Congress assembled, and then 
only against tlie kingdom or State, and the siibjects thereof, against which war lias been so 
declared, and imder such regulations as sludl he established by the United States, in Congress 
assembled, unless such State be infested by pirates, iu v.-hich case vessels of war may be fitted 
out for that occasion, and kept so long as the danger shall continue, or until the United States, 
in Congress assembled, sliall determine otherwise. 

Article 7. When land forces are raised by any State for the common defense, all officers of or 
under the rank of Colonel shall be appointed by tlie Legislature of eacli State respectively by 
whom sucli force's shall be raised, or iu such manner as such State shall direct, and all vacancies 
shall be filled up by the State wliieh first made the appointment. 

Article 8. All cliarges of war, and all other expenses tliat shall be incurred for the common 
defense or general welfiire, and allowed by the United States in Congress assembled, sliall bo 
defrayed out of a common treasury, which sliall be supplied by the several States in proportion 
to the value of all land within each State granted to or surveyed for any person, as such land and 
the buildings and improvements thereon shall be estimated, according to sucli mode as the United 
States, in Congress assembled, shall from time to time direct and appoint. 

The taxes for paying that proportion shall be paid and levied by the authority and direction 
of the Legislatures of the several States, within the time agreed upon by the United States, iu 
Congress assembled. 

Article 9. The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have the sole and exclusive right 
and power of determining on peace and war, except in the cases mentioned iu the sixth article ; 
of sending and receiving embassadors ; entering into treaties and alliances — provided that no 
treaty of commerce shall be made wliereby the legislative power of the respective States shall be 
restrained from imposing such imposts and duties on foreigners as their own people are subjected 
to, or from prohibiting exportation or importation of any species of goods or commodities what- 
soever; of establishing rules for deciding in all cases what captures on land or water shall be 
legal, and in what manner prizes taken by land or naval forces in the service of tlie United States, 
sliall be divided or appropriated; of granting letters of marque and reprisal in times of peace ; ap- 
pointing courts for the trial of piracies and felonies committed on the high seas, and establishing 
courts for receiving and determining finallf appeals in all cases of captures; provided that no 
member of Congress shall be appointed a judge of any of the said courts. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also be the last resort, on appeal, in all dis- 
putes and differences now subsisting, or that hereafter may arise between two or more States 
concprning boundaryi jurisdiction, or any other cause whatever ; which authority shall always be 
exercised in the manner following: whenever the legislative or executive authority or lawful 
agent of any State in controversy with another shall present a petition to Congress, stating 
the matter in question, and praying for a hearing, notice thereof shall be given by order of 
Congress to the legislative or executive authority of the other State in controversy, and a day 
a.ssigned for the appearance of the parties, by their lawful agents, who shall then be directed to 
appoint, by joint consent, commissioners or judges to constitute a court for hearing and determin- 
ing the matter in question ; but if they can not agree. Congress shall name three persons out of 
each of the United States, and from the list of such persons each party shall alternately strike 
out one, the petitioner's beginning, until the number shall be reduced to thirteen ; and from that 
number not less than seven, nor more than nine names, as Congress shall direct, shall, in the 
presence of Congresij, be drawn out by lot; and the persons wliose names shall be so drawn, or 
any five of them, shall be commissioners or judges, to hear and finally determine the controversy, 



tf^2 SUPPLEMENT. 

so always as a major part of the judges, who sliall hear the cause, shall agree in the determina- 
tion : and if either party shall neglect to attend at the day appointed, without showing reasons 
which Congress shall judge sufficient, or, being present, shall refuse to strike, the Congress shall 
proceed to nominate three persons out of eacli State, and the Secretary of Congress shall strike in 
behalf of such person absent or refusing; and the judgment and sentence of the court, to he 
appointed in the manner before prescribed, sliall be final and conclusive ; and if any of the parties 
shall refuse to submit to the authority of such court, or to appear, or to defend their claim or 
cause, the court shall nevertheless proceed to pronounce sentence or judgment, which shall in 
like manner be final and decisive — the judgment or sentence and other proceedings being in either 
case transmitted to Congress, and lodged among the acts of Congress for the security of the 
parties concerned ; provided that every commissioner, before he sits in judgment, shall take an 
oath, to be administered by one of the judges of the Supreme or Superior Court of the State, 
where the cause sliall be tried, "well and truly to hear and determine the matter in question, 
according to the best of his judgment, without favor, affection, or hope of reward ;" provided, also, 
that no State shall be deprived of territory for the benefit of the United States. 

All controversies concerning the private right of soil, claimed under different grants of two or 
more States, whose jurisdiction as they may respect such lands, and the States which passed 
such grants are adjusted, the said grants or either of them being at the same time claimed to have 
originated antecedent to such settlement of jurisdiction, shall, on the petition cf either party to 
tTie Congress of the United States, be finally determined, as near as may be. in the same manner 
as is before prescribed for deciding disputes respecting territorial jurisdiction between different 
States. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall also liave the sole and BKclusive right 
and power of regulating the alloy and value of coin struck by their own authority or by that of 
the respective States ; fixing the standard of weights and measures throughout the United States ; 
regulating the trade and managing all affairs with the Indians not members of any of the States — 
provided that the legislative right of any State within its own limits be not infringed or violated: 
establishing and regulating post-offices from one State to another throughout all the United 
States, and exacting such postage on the papers passing through the same as may be requisite in 
defray the expenses of the said office ; appointing all officers of the land forces in the service of 
the United States, excepting regimental officers ; appointing all the officers of the naval forces, 
and commissioning all officers whatever in the service of the United States ; making rules for the 
government and regulation of the said land and naval forces, and directing their operations. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall have authority to appoint a committee to sit 
in the recess of Congress, to be denominated "a Committee of the States," and to consist of one 
delegate from each State ; and to appoint such other committees and civil officers as may be 
necessary for managing the general affairs of the United States under their direction ; to appoint 
one of their number to preside, provided that no person be allowed to serve in the office of 
President more than one year in any term of three years ; to ascertain the necessary sums 
of money to be raised for the service of the Uni*cd States, and to appropriate and apply the 
same for defraying the public expenses ; to borrow money or emit bills on the credit of the 
United States^transmitting every half year to the respective States an account of the sums of 
money so borrowed or emitted ; to build and equip a navy ; to agree upon the number of land 
forces, and to make requisitions from each State for its quota, in proportion to the number of 
white inhabitants in such State, which requisition shall be binding, and thereupon the Legis- 
lature of each State shall appoint the regimental officers, raise the men, and clothe, arm, and 
equip them, in a soldier-like manner, at the expense of the United States ; and the officers and 
men so clothed, armed, and equipjied, shall march to the place appointed, and within the time 
agreed on by the United States, in Congress assembled: but if the United States, in Congress 
assembled, shall, on consideration of circumstances, judge proper tliat any State should not raise 
men, or should raise a smaller number than its quota, or that any other State should raise a 
greater number of men than the quota thereof, such extra number shall be raised, officered, 
clothed, armed, and equipped, in the same manner as the quota of such State, unless the Legis- 
lature of such State shall judge that such extra number can not be safely spared out of the 
same ; in which ease they shall raise, officer, clothe, arm, and equip, as many of such extra num- 
ber as they judge can be safely spared. And the officers and men so clothed, armed, and 



ARTICLES OF CONFEDERATION. ^43 

equipped, shall march to the place appoiuted, and within the time agreed on by the United 
States, in Congress assembled. 

The United States, in Congress assembled, shall never engage in a war, nor grant letters of 
marque and reprisal in time of peace, nor enter into any treaties or alliances, nor coin money, nor 
regulate the value thereof, nor ascertain the sums and expenses necessary for the defense ^nd 
welfare of the United States, or any of them, nor emit bills, nor borrow money on the credit of 
the United States, nor appropriate money, nor agree upon the number of vessels of war to 
be built or purchased, or the number of land or sea forces to be raised, nor appoint a commander- 
in-chief of the army or navy, tmless nine States assent to the same ; nor shall a question on any 
other point, except for adjourning from day to day, be determined unless by the votes of 
a majority of the United States, in Congress assembled. 

The Congress of the United States shall have power to adjourn to any time within the year, 
and to any place within the United States, so that no period of adjournment be for a longer 
duration than the space of six months; and shall publish the journal of their proceedings 
monthly, except such parts thereof relating to treaties, alliances, or military operations, as 
in their judgment require secresy; and the j'eas and nays of the delegates of each State on any 
question, shall be entered on the journal when it is desired by any delegate ; and the delegates of 
a State or any of them, at his or their request, shall tie furnished with a transcript of the said 
journal, except such parts as are above excepted, to lay before the Legislatures of the several 
States. 

Aettcle 10. The committee of the States, or any nine of them, sliall be authorized to execute, 
in the recess of Congres.s, such of the powers of Congress as the United States, in Congress 
assembled, by the consent of nine Stat9S. shall from time to time think exjiedient to vest them 
with; provided that no power be delegated to the said committee, for the exercise of which, by 
the articles of confederation, tlio voice of nine States, in the Congress of tlie United States 
assembled, is requisite. 

Article 1 1. Canada, acceding to this confederation, and joining in the measures of the United 
States, shall be admitted into, and entitled to, all the advantages of this imion: but no other 
colony shall be admitted into the same, unless such admission be agreed to by nine States. 

Article 12. All bills of credit emitted, moneys borrowed, and debts contracted, by or under 
the authority of Congress, before the assembling of the United States, in pursuance of the present 
confederation, shall be deemed and considered as a charge against the United States, for 
payment and satisfaction whereof the said LTnited States and the public faith are hereby solemnly 
pledged. 

Article 13. Every State shall abide by the decision of the United States, in Congress 
assembled, on all questions which, by this confederation, are submitted to them. And the 
articles of tliis confederation shall be inviolably observed by every State, and the Union shall be 
perpetual ; nor shall any alteration at any time hereafter be made in any of them, unless such 
alteration be agreed to in a Congress of the United States, and be afterward confirmed by the 
Legislature of every State. 

Congress directed these Articles to be submitted to the Legislatures of the several States, and, 
if approved of by them, they were advised to authorize their delegates to ratify the same 
in Congress, by affixing their names thereto. 

Notwithstanding there was a general feeling that soinethimj must be speedily done, the StatJ 
Legislatures were slow to adopt the Articles. In the first place, they did not seem to accord witli 
the prevailing sentiments of the people, as set forth in the Declaration of Independence ; and in 
many things that Declaration and the Articles of Confederatioa were manifestly at vari.anee. The 
former was based upon declared riijht; the foundation of the latter was asserted power. The 
former was based upon a superintending Providence, and the inalienable rights of man ; the lat- 
ter resting upon the '• sovereignty of declared power ; one ascending from the foundation of 
human government, to the laws of nature and of nature's God, written upon the heart of man ; 
the other resting upon the basis of human institutions, and prescriptive law, and colonial char- 
ters."' Again, the system of representation proposed was highly objectionable, because each 



1U 



SUPPLEMENT. 



State was entitled to the same voice in Congress, whatever might be the difference in population. 
But the most objectionable feature of all was, that the limits of the several States, and also in 
whom was vested the control or possession of the crown-lands, was not only unadjusted, but 
wlioUy unnoticed. These and other defects caused most of the States to hesitate, at first, to 
adopt the Articles, and several of them for a long time utterly refused to accept them. 

On the 22d of June, 1778, Congress proceeded to consider the objections of the States to the 
Articles of Confederation, and on the 27th of the same month, a form of ratification was adopted 
and ordered to be engrossed upon parchment, wilh a view that the same should be signed by 
such delegates as were instructed so to do by their respective Legislatures. 

On the 9th of July, the delegates of New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ehode Island, Connecti- 
cut. New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and South Carolina signed the .\rticlcs. The delegates 
from New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland were not yet empowered to ratify and sign. Georgia 
and North Carolina were not represented, and the ratification of New York was conditioned that 
all the other States should ratify. The delegates from North Carolina signed the Articles on the 
21st of July; those of Georgia on the 24th of the same month; those of New Jersey, on the 26th 
of November; and those of Delaware, on the 22d of February and 5th of May, 1779. Maryland 
still firmly refused to ratify, until the question of the conflicting claims of the Union and of the 
separate States to the crown-lands shouffl be fully adjusted. This point was finally settled by • 
cessions of claiming States to the United States, of all unsettled and unappropriated lands for the 
benefit of the whole Union. This cession of the orown-lands to the L'nion originated the Terri- 
torial system, and the erection of the Northwestern Territory into a distinct government, 
similar to the existing States, having a local legislature of its o^vn. The insuperable objection 
of Maryland having been removed by the -settlement of] this question, her delegates signed the 
Articles of Confederation on the first day of I.Iarch, 178L four years and four months after they 
wore adopted by Congress." By this act of Maryland, they became the organic law of the Union, 
r.t'A on the 2d of March Congress assembled imder the new powers. 

!. The followins nre Ih^ names of Uic delegates from thftEsver.il Stales ap;>e:i lei t> tlie Artitle* ..( " "(.nfedemtion :— 

-Veu? namjuhlrt, Jostah Dartlett, John Wentworth. Jr. 

ilaasachuittti Baij, John Hancock, Samuel Adams. Elbridgc Gerry, FrnncU Pntia J:(:nes Li^re 1. S:im-i«I Hoiten. 

J?4<«J« Ulaitd, William El:erj-, Henry Marchaiit, John Collins. 

Cunnttticut, Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, Oliver Wolcott, Tilns Hosmer, An.lTL-w Ada-ns. 

.V*K> Yurk, James Dnane, Fraacis Lewis, William Duer, Goltvernenr Morris. 

Kfir Jtrtt'i, John Withcrspoon, Xnthaniel Scndder. 

PtnniyUnnia, Robert Morris, D.iniel Roberdean, Jonathan Bayard Smith, William Cliii_-n. Joseph Reed. 

J*fla<rart, Thomas McKean. John Dickenson, Nicholas Van Dyke. 

Marr/hnd, John H:inson, Daniel Carroll. 

r^r^inia. Richard Henry Lee, John Banister. Thomas Adams, John Ha; vie, FraiuU Llflilfoot Lee. 

yoHk Carolina, Joha Penn. Cornelina Harnett. John Williams, 

Suulh Carolina, Henry Lanrens. William Henry Drayton. Jonathan Motthews. Richar.l Hjtsin, T:io:na3 Heyward, Jr. 

Ceoryio, John Walt-.n, Edwrtr I Telf.ir, Elw:trd Ling.vorthy. 



11. 



THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION.' 




^h/^y^lJ^'^^^y^ 



"We the People of the ITnited States,^ in order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justicej- 



1. la 1853. Ihe writer made n very careful copy of the Constittition of the United Stnles, from tbe original in 
WRshingtoQ City, together with the auto^aplis of the members of the Convention who signeil it. In orthop-npbv, 
tiintion, the copy here given may be relied upon as correcl, it having been subBertuenlly carefully coinpar-rd with 
Ilickey, in his useful little volume, entitled The CantHtulion of ihe United States of America, etc., and attested, on 
Nicholas P. Trist. i hief Clerk of the Slate Departm-nf. • 

The most prominent American writers upon constitutional law. are the late Justice Story and Chancellor Kent 
Marblehead, Ma^avhusetts, in September, 1779, and was educated at Harvard University. He studied law ; and i 
practice, took a proinine:it positi 'n. He was a member of his State Eiegislaturo, and of the National Congress, nnd w 
efiFecting the repeal of the Ernbar-o .\ct (page 403). He was only thrty-iwo years of age when President Madison 
the Supreme Court of the United States. From that lime he discarded polices. In commercial and con&titutioual 
Commentariea on the Conalitution of the United Stales, published in three volumes, in IS^SS, will ever be a standard w 
Cambridge, Massachusetts in September, 1^5, at the age of sixty-six years. Ili^ own words, applied to ai^ther, u 
of him : ''Whatever subject he touched was touched with a master's hand and spiriL He employed hia eloquence 
his learning t • give solid weight to his eloquence. Me was nlways instructive and interesiing, and rarely without pn 
conviction. A lo'ty ambition of excellence, that stirring spirit which breathes the breath of Heax-en, and panta for ii 
genius in iU perilous course. 'V 

2. rrcvl.-a; tJ the r.-va'ution, Ijltc were tliree for:n3 of gwcrn^iBnt i i t:ie Cobnlei, na-oely C\arter, Proprteta 



the State Department at 
capital letters, and punc- 
a copy published by Mr. 
the 20th of July, 1SJ6, by 

Joseph Story was bom nt 
(oon.on entering upon his 
as chiedy instrumental in 
made him an associate of 
law he was pt^erless. His 
ork. Judge Story died at 
nay be appropriately aaid 
to adorn hia learning, and 

umortality, sustaioeil his 

rij, and Proiiincial The 



746 



SUPPLEMENT. 



insure domestic Tranquility, provide for tlie common defence, promote 
Ohjecta. the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves 

and our Posterity,' do ordain and establish this Constitution for the 
United States of America. 

ARTICLE I. 

Section 1. All legislative Powers herein granted shall be vested in a Con- 

LesiiHlative Powers, gress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of 

Representatives." 

Section 2. The House of Representatives shall be composed of Members chosen every second 

Year by the People of the several States, and the Electors in each State 

Home o/nepreainta- ^^igW have the Qualifications requisite for Electors of the most numerous 

Branch of the State Legislature.' 

No Person shall be a Representative who shall not have attained to the Age of twenty-live 

Years, and lieen seven Years a Citizen of the United States, and who shall 

^''"'mentuUvei'"'^' not, when elected, be an Inhabitant of that State in which he shall l.e 

chosen.* 

Representatives and direct Taxes shall be apportioned among the several States which may 

be included within this Union, according to their respective Numbers, 

yl')/)or^/o«Hi?n<o/'/.'f/i- which shall be determined by adding to the whole Number of free Persons, 

re-Miitiitives. including those bound to Service for a Term of Years, and excluding Indians 

not tiKed. three-fifths of all other Persons.' The actual Enumeration shall 

be made within three Years after tlie first Meeting of the Congress of the United States, ami 

within every subsequent Term of ten Years, in such Manner as they shall by Law direct. T.ho 

Number of Representatives shall not exceed one for every thirty Thousand; but each State shall 

have at Least one Representative ; and until such enumeration shall be made, the State of Nev/ 

Hampshire shall be entitled to cluise three, Massachusetts eight, Rhode Island and Providence 

Plantations one, Connecticut five. New York six. New Jersey four, Pennsylvania eight, Delaware 

one, Maryland six, A'irginia ten, North Carolina five. South Carolina five, and Georgia three.' 

When vacancies happen in the Representation from any State, the Execu- 
' ' live Authority thereof shall issue Writs of Election to fill such Vacancies. 

.S/-e«/.vr, /mw The House of Representatives shall chuse their Speaker and other Offi- 

(ipjiointed. ggrg . ajj(j siiaii ]iave the sole Power of Impeachment. 

Section 3. The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two 
''^Trom'eM/fsia'T^ Senators from each State, chosen by the Legislature thereof, for six Years ; 
and each Senator shall have one Vote.' 



clmrter g'lvertiments were MHSsacIiiisetts, Con lecticut, nnd Rhode Island. They had power to make laws not incoD^steiit with those of Eng- 
land. The pn.pricUry g..vernmentB were Maryliind, Pennsylvania, and Delaware. Their go\er(iors were appointed by their liroprielorfl,awd 
these and the i<r<iprietors tis lally made the laws. The provincial were New Hampshire, New York, New Jersey, Virginia, Nortli Carnlina, 
South CnWilin.i, and Georg a. In these the govern >r and his council were appointed by the crown, and these, with chosen representatives of 
the people, ni:ide the laws. 

The L'niou is Oder than the Conslitution. It was formed in the first Continental Congress (page 028), by the representatives of thirteen 
separate but not independent nor sovereign provinces, for they had ever been subject to the British crow n. Then the inhabitants of those 
coloiiies were solemnly leagued as one i>eo]p|e, and two years laler (sie jage -JS^) they declared themselves collectively independent of 
Ore.tt Britain, and recognized the supremacy of the Continental Congress as a central government. See Curtis's //iVorj/ f>f llu Conatitkilion, i. 
Z9, 40. The plan of imlependent Sta e goveinnients then adopted having failed, a national one was formed, and the framers of Ihe Constitu- 
tion, to give empha-is to the fact, said in the preamble of the instrument, '* We the people of the UniUd SUitet," instcaii of " We the people 
of Massachusetls, New York," et cetera. So argued the Supreme Court. See WJieaton'a S. C. Reports, i. 304. 

1. Six objects, it is seen, were to be obtained, each having a national breadth of purpose. 

3. The members of the House of Representatives are elected tj seaU therein f t two years, and they hold twi regular sessions or silt:ii-s 
during that time. Each ful I term is called a Congress. Sen itors are elected by the State legislatures, to serve for s x years. 

3. There is a Senate and House of Representatives, or Assembly, in each State. Any person quilihed to vote for a member uf his Stale 
Assembly, may vote for a member of the National House of Representatives. 

4. A person born in a foreign country, msy be elected a representative aUer he has been for seven years a citizen of lie Un ted States. 

5. It has been deiided that this does not restrict the power of imposing direct taxes, t > States only. The C ingress of tlie United Slates 
has power to do s ■, but only for tlie purpose of paying the national debts nnd providing for the national welfare. See Kent's CoiiiwinitaritJ 
on Me Coiistidttion, abridged edition, page 330. Direct taxes had been laid three times by the National Congress, previous to the threat Civil 
War that broke out in ISfil, namely, in 1798, 1813, nnd 181.\ The "other persons" here mentioned were slaves. In making the npporlion- 
ment, every five slaves were accounted three persons. The Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution (see page 756) renders this sentence a 
dead letter. • 

6. The apportionment is made as soon as practicable after each enuinen 
sus of nilO, was one Representat ve for every 31,000 persons. The ratio aci 

7. This gives perfect equality to the States, in one portion of the legislal 
and Delaware have as much pow r i:i the National Senate as tlie large onei 



he inbabitauli is c 


ompleted. The ratio based on the cen- 


iliio census of IS* 


n, was one f.>r everv U'7.3ll> persmi-. 


ch of the Oovemn 


lent. The small Suites of Rhode Island 


York and Ohio. 


• 



THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. I'^*' 

Immediately after they shall be assembled in Consequence of the first Election, they shall be 
divided as equally as may bo into three Classes. The Seats of the Senators 
of tlie first Class shall be vacated at the E.xpiration of the Second Year, of ciaMifiaiiiim of 
the second Class at the Expiration of the fourth Year, and of the third Class SenuiarH. 

at the Expiration of the sixth Year, so that one third may be chosen every 
second year;' and if Vacancies happen by Resignation or otherwise, during the .Recess of the 
Legislature of any State, the Executive thereof may make temporary Appointments until the next 
Meeting of the Legislature, which shall then fill such Vacancies. 

No person sliall be a Senator who shall not have attained to the age of 
thirty Years, and been nine Years a Citizen of the United Stales,' and who Qmiliticiition of 
shall not, when elected, be an inhabitant of that State for which he shall he SeuntoiK 

chosen. 

The Vice-President of the United States shall be President of the Senate, 
but shall have no Vote, unless they be equally divided.' 

The Senate shall choose their other Officers!,' and also a President pro 
tempore, in the absence of the Vice-President, or when he sliall e.xercise the 
Office of President of the United States. 

Tlie Senate shall have the sole Power to try all Impeachments:' When . Sevatea vomt for 
sitting for that Purpose, they .shall be on Oath, or Affirmation. When ' ' 
the President of the United States is tried, the Chief-Justice shall preside : 
and no Person shall be convicted without tlic Concurrence of two thirds of tlie Jlembcrs 
present. 

Judgment in Cases of Impeachment shall not extend further than td Jidtgineiit In cise.of 
removal from Office, and Disqualification to hold and enjoy any Office of 
Honor, Trust, or Profit under the LTnited States : but the party convicted 
shall nevertheless be liable and subject to Indictment, Trial, Judgment, and Punishmeut, accord- 
ing to Law." 

Section 4. The Times, Places, and Manner of holding Elections for Sen- 
ators and Representatives, shall be prescribed in each State by the Legis- Electimis ofSeudUim 
lature thereof; but the Congress may at any time by Law make or alter such "'"' HtpresentdtitfH. 
Regulations, except as to the places of chusing Senators.' 

The Congress shall assemble at least once in every Year, and such 
meeting shall be on the first Monday in December, unless they shall by Law Meeting i<f i \»i(;rrsn. 
appoint a different da}'.' 

Section' 5. Each House shall be the Judge of the Elections, Returns, and Qualificntions of its 
own Members, and a Majorit)' of each shall constitute a quoruto to do 
Business; but a smaller Number may adjourn from day to day, and may Ortjaniziition i,f 
06 authorized to compel the Attendance of absent Members, in such man- Congn'KX. 

ner, and under such Penalties as each House may provide. 

Each House may determine the Rules of its Proceedings, punish its 
Members for disorderly Behaviour, and, with the Concurrence of two thirds^ i?ui«« o/jiroreecHng. 
expel a Member. 

Each House shall keep a Journal of its Proceedings, and from time to Journal of CongreM. 
time publish the same, ° excepting such Parts as may in their Judgment 

1. This is a >viae provision. It leaves representatives of tile peoplr in tliat branrh, at all times, faniil ar ivilll tile leeislati in thereof, and 
tlieref.,re more effltienl than if an entirely new d.-lecation shonid be ehosen at the en.l of six years. 

■1. This was to allow a f..reign-born citiien to make himself familiar with oar ii.stilutious. befor,- he shoul.l be eligible t.. a sea- in that 
highest legislative ball. 

3. He is not a representative of any State. By this arrangement, the equality of tlie SUIes is preserved. 

4. Secretary, cle-k, aergeant-at-arms, door-keeper, and postmaster. 

5. The House of Representatives, it will be observed, ai'cuse the alleged offender, and the Senate constitutes the court wherein he is trird, 

6. This was a mcdiOcation uf the British Coastitulion, giv ing greater eiclusivc jurisdiction to the National Judiciary, lii Great Britain, 
the House of Commons accuses, and the House of Lords (answering to our Senate) tries the offender. The latter is also invested with power 
to punish in every form known to the laws, by ordering the infliction of lines, imprisonmenU, forfei are of goods, banishment, and death. 

^. This provision was to prevent the mischief that might arise at a lime of intense party excitement, when the very existence of the 
• National Congress might be al the mercy of the SUte Legislatnrea. The place of choosing the Senators is where the State I.egislatu e shal 1 
be in session at the tlmv. 

^. This secured an annual meeting of the National Legislature beyond the control of Stale legislation. The second or last session of every 
Congress (note 3. page 3t>6>, expires at twelve n'elnck at noon on the 4lh of March. 

9. The object is to prese-ve, fjr the use of the sovereign people, and make public for their benefit, every act of Congress. 



7-1.8 SUPPLKMKNT. 

require Secresy;' and the Teas and Nays of the Members of either House on any question shall. 

at the Desire of one fifth of those Present, be entered on the Journal." 

Neither House, during the Session of Congress, shall, -without the Con- 
Aajourn7n€nf of ,. , , ,. n ... . .»^. 

CongreK.:. sent of the other, adjourn for more tlian three days, nor to any other Placo 

than that in which the two Houses shall be sitting.^ 
Section 0. The Senators and Representatives shall receive a Compensation for their Services, 
to be ascertained by Law, and paid out of the Treasury of the United States.* 
CompenHatloii (mil They shall in all cases, except Treason, Felony, and Breacli of the Peace, be 
privileges o/ memlien. privileged from Arrest during their Attendance at the Session of their re- 
spective Houses, and in going to and returning from the same; and for any 
Speech or Debate in either House, they shall not be questioned in any other place.^ 

No Senator or Representative shall, d\iring the timo for which he was elected, be appointed 

• to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States, which shall have 

Pluraliti/ nfoffieen been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during 

proliibited. gypij j;„jg . g^j ,jq Person holding any office under the United States, shall 

be a Member of either House during his Contmuance in office." 

Section 7. All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of 
Bi «,iiiiir origiiiiiiri.. Representatives: but the Senate may propose or concur with Amendments 
as on other Bills.' 
Every Bill wliich shall liave passed the House of Representatives and the Senate, shall, before 
it become a Law, be presented to the President of the LTnited .States: if he 
"unn"'"""' approve he shall sign it, but if not he shall return it, with his Objections, to 
that House in which it shall have originated, who shall enter the Objections 
at large on their Journal, and proceed to reconsider it.' If, after such Reconsideration, two thirds 
of that House shall agree to pass the Bill, it shall be sent, together with the Objections, to the 
other House, by which it shall likewise be reconsidered, and if approved by two thirds of that 
House, it shall become a Law. But in all such Cases the Totes of both Houses shall be deter- 
mined by Teas and Nays, and the Names of the Persons votin* for and against the Bill shall be 
entered on the Journal of each House respectively. If any Bill shall not be returned by the 
President within ten Days (Sunday excepted) after it sliall have been presented to liini, tliu 
Same shall be a Law, in like Manner as if he had signed it, unless the Congress by tlieir Adjourn- 
ment prevent its Return, in which Case it shall not be a Law. 

Every Order, Resolution, or Vote to which the Concurrence of the Senate and House of 
Representatives may bo necessary (except on a question of adjournment). 
Approval and veto shall be presented to the President of the United States; and before the 
powers of Pmident. gg^ie sliall take Effect, shall be approved by him, or being disapproved by 
him, shall be repassed by two thirds of the Senate and House of Representa- 
tives, according to tlie Rules and Limitations prescribed in the Case of a Bill." 
Section 8. The Congress shall have power — 
Pmoera vested in To lay and collect Taxes, Duties, Imposts, and Excises; to pay the Debts 

Congress. gjj^ provide for the common Defence and general Welfare of the United 

States; but all Duties, Imposts, and Excises shall be uniform throughout the United States; '" 



I the public good requires secret legiBlatioii, nntl n withholrling fr uu tile peojjle n knowledge <i 
cuased itnd adopted in Congress, as in n time of war, of insurrection, or of very important diplomatic negotintiiuis. 

5. The object of this is to maite a permanent record of the votes of members, bo that llie constituents of each may iino«' 
important questions. It is a salutary regulation. 

3. This is to prevent n njajority, in either House, from interruptin;;, for n 

4. Formerly the members were paid a certain amoun t per dnv, with u» n 
from the National capital. The present compensation is a Axed sum for each Congress, with mileage. 

5 This was to prevent the interrnplion of their duties, during the session of Congress, nnd to give them perfect freedom of speech. 

6. This serves us a check to the Increase of the power of the executive over the legislative department • f the Government, by the 
of appointment to office. It prevents wide-spread political corruption. A pe sou hoidiu^ an oflice, when electe 1 to Congress, is comp 
resign it before he can t.ike his scat. 

7. The members of the House of Representatives are more immediately elected by the people, and are supposed to bette- understi 
wishes and wants of their constituents, than those of the Senate. Tile Senate, being the representative of tiie equality of the States, 
as a check to legislation that might impose too heavy taxation on the smaller States. 

8. This power is given to tile President to arrest hasty or unconstitutional legislation, and to operate as a check on the encroachmem 
rights nnd powers of one department over another, by legislation. It is not absolute, ns the context shows, ns it may be set aside hy a 
two thirds of the members ■ f the Senate nnd House of RepresenUitives. who passed it. 

9. This requirement is made that Congress may not puss, with the name of order, resolution, or vote, whiit, as a tiiU, th..- Presid 
already I'cfocrf. as bis metho.l of relurninc a bill, with his objections, is called. 

10. The p-wer ( f CiiLrrcsi to (,/j and tolltct ilMia, &,:, for national purposes. e.-:lci.ds to the B strict of Columid ., and I ■ the Tei 



THE NATIOXAL CONSTITUTION. ^^.C) 

To borrow Money on the credit of the Uuiteil States ;' 

To regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the 
Indian tribes;" 

To establish an uniform Rule of Naturalization,^ and uniform Laws on the subject of Bankrupt 
eies* throughout the United States ; 

To coin Money, regulate the Value thereof, and of foreign Coin, and fix: the Standard of 
Weights and Measures ; ^ 

To provide for the Punishment of counterfeiting the Securities and current Coin/of the United 
States ; 

To establish Post Offices and Post Roads ; 

To promote the progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors 
and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries; " 

To constitute Tribunals inferior to the Supreme Court ; 

To define and punish Piracies and Felonies committed on the high Seas, and OlTences against 
the Law of Nations ; ' 

To declare War, grant Letters of Marque and Reprisal, and make Rules concerning Captures 
on Land and Water ; 

To raise and support Armies ; but no Appropriation of Money lo that Use shall be lor a longer 
Term than two Years ; • 

To provide and maintain a Navy ; 

To make Rules for the Government and Regulation of the Land and Naval Forces ; 

To provide for calling fortli the Militia to execute the Laws of the Union, suppress Insm-ree- 
tions. and repel Invasions; 

To provide for organizing, arming, and disciplining the Militia, and for governing such Part 
of them as ma_y be employed in the Service of tlie United States — reserving to the States respect- 
ively, the Appointment of the Officers, and the Autliority of training the Militia according to the 
Discipline prescribed by Congress : " 

To exercise exclusive Legislation in all Cases whatsoever, over such District (not exceediug 
ten Miles square) as may, by Cession of particular States, and the Acceptance of Congress, become 
the Seat of the Government of the United States,' and to exercise like Authority over all Places 
purchased by the Consent of the Legislature of the State in which the Same shall be, for the Erec- 
tion of Forts, Magazines, Arsenals, Dockyards, and otlier needful Buildings ; — And 

To make all Laws which shall be necessary and proper for carrying into Execution the fore- 
going Powers, and all other Powers vested by this Constitution in the Goveruraent of the United 
States, or in any Department er Officer thereof 

Section 9. The Migration or Importation of such Persons as any of the Imiiiii/riiutii, how 
States now existing shall think proper to admit, shall not be prohibited by 

of the United Suites, as well ns to the States; but Confess is not b'lunil to extend n direct tux to the District nnd Territories. Tlie stipuliL- 
tion thiit the taxes, iScc, shall be uniform ihroughout the United States, is to pieveni lavors beins shown to one? late orsection of the Repub- 
lic, and not to imolher. 

1. This WHS to enable the Government to provide for its expenses at a time of dumestie ii surrection or a forei|;n war, w ben the sources c f 
revenue by taxation and impost, mi^ht be obstructed. 

S. This power was lacking, under the Articles v/ Confedfratton, It is one of the most impurtant powers delegated by the people to tbetr 
representatives, for it involves national development nnd pr"sperity. 

3. Tile power of tmturalisHtioa was possessed by each State under the Confederation. There was such want of unilormity of laws on the 
subject, that confusion was already manifested, when the people, by the Constitution, vested the power exriusively in Congress. Thus a 
State is prohibited from discouraging emigration, or casting hlndernnces in tlie way of obtaining citizenshii,. By a recent decision of the 
Attorney-Genernl of the Republic, every person bnrn within its borders is entitled to the rigliu of citizenship, [t is a birthright. 

4. Since the adoption of the Constitution of the United States, a State has authority to pass a bankrupt law, provided B'lch law does not 
impair the obligations of contracts within the meaning of the Constitution (art. i., sec. 10), an.i provided there be no act of Congress in force 
to establish a uniform system of bankruptcy conflicting with such law. 

5. This was to insure uniformity in the metallic currency of llie Republic, nnd of weights and measures, for the benefit of the pe'iple in 
commercial operations. ' 

6. The first copy-right law was enacted in 17!»0, on the petition of David Ramsay, tlie historian. and otiieis. A copy-right, or patent-right 
to an invention, is given for a specified time. A copy-right is granied for 2S years, and a renewal for i J years. Patents are granted for 17 
years, without the right of extension. 

7. Congress lias power to provide for the punishment of ofTences committed by persons on board of an American ship, wherever tliat shiji 
may be. 

8. Clauses 1 1 to' 16 inclusive, define the war powers of the Government, such as granting licenses to privateers (see page .177, and note 5, 
page 641), raising and supporting armed forces on land and sea, calling out the militia, iStc. See Article U. of the Amendments to this Ci<n- 
stitution. These powers, used by the hand of an efficient and judicious Executive, are quite sufficient. The President cannot exercise any of 
them, until the power is given him by Congress, when ho is bound by his oath to take care that all the laws shall be execu ed. 

9. Congress has an hority to impnse a direct tax on the District of Columbia (note 1, page ZS% in proportion t ) the census directed by the 
Constitution to be taken. 



750 



SUPPLKM ENT. 



IhlhettK Coi'/n 



Taxes, 



liegulaiionn reyiir 
in/j duties. 



Money^ hmc Or 



the Congress prior to the Year one tliousand eiglit liundred and eight, but a Tax or Duty may be 
imposed on such Importation, not exceeding ten dollars for each Person.' 

The Privilege of the Writ of Habeas Corpus' shall not be suspended, 
unless when in Cases of Rebellion or Invasion the public Safety may 
require it. 

No Bill of Attainder' or ex post Facto law shall be passed.' 
No Capitation, or other direct. Tax shall be laid, unless in Proportmn to 
the Census or Enumeration herein before directed to be taken.' 

No Tax or Duty shall be laid on articles exported from any State. ■ 
No Preference shall be given by any Regidation of Commerce or 
Revenue to the Ports of one State over those of another ; nor shall Vessels 
bound to, or from, one State, be obliged to enter, clea>, or pay Duties in 
another." 

No Money shall be drawn from the Treasury, but in Consequence of Ap- 
propriations made by law; and a regular Statement and Account of tlie 
Receipts and Expenditures of all public Money shall be published from time 
to time.' 

No Title of Nobility shall be granted by the United States : And no 
Titlen r/nohilitij Person /lolding any Office of Profit or Trust under them, shall, without tlie 
prohihited. Consent of the Congress, accept of any Present, Emolument, Office, or Title, 

of any kind whatever, from any King, Prince, or Foreign State.' 
Section 10. No State shall enter into any Treaty, Alliance, or Confederation; grant Letters 
of Marque and Reprisal; coin Money; emit Bills of Credit; make any Thing 
rnwerg of Stittes hut gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts; pass any Bill of 
(tefintd. Attainder, ex post facto Law, or Law impairing the Obligation of Contracts, 

or grant any Title of Nobility. 
No State shall, without the Consent of the Congress, lay any Imposts or Duties on Imports or 
Exports, except what may be absolutely necessary for executing its inspection Laws : and the 
net Produce of all Duties and Imposts, laid by any State on Imports or Exports, shall be for the 
Use of the Treasury of tlio United States ; and all such Laws shall be subject to the Revision 
and Controul of the Congress. 

No State shall, without the Consent of Congress, lay any Duty of Tonnage, keep Troops, or 
Ships-of-War in time of Peace, enter into any Agreement or Compact with another State, or witli 
a fbreign Power, or engage in War, unless actually invaded, or in sucli imminent Danger as will 
not adSnit of Delay." 



ARTICLE II. 



ExKMtiiyf, power An SECTION' 1. The executive Power shall be vested in a President of the 



u'lMin venteiL 



United States of America. He shall hold his Office during tlie Term of 



1. The object of this clause wna to end the sUvo-lrnde, or 
Bfter the first of January, 1S08, Tlie Arliclca of Confe.leroti 
pendent of each other, and the organic law was silent on the 



undei 



nalties by ihe Act of March ^ 



declared the r>>rcign s'ave-t 
the suppression of the slavi 
largest source of revenue. 

S. This is a writ for deli 
pending the privilege of th 



trade. 



be iinportniinn of negroes from Africa, to hecoint slaves in the United States, 
«i allowed any State to continue the traffic indefiuilely, for the States were inde- 
snbject. The importation of slaves after the beginning of ISO?, wns prohibited 
the subject have since been passed by Congress from time to time. That of IdCO 
Teas made provisions for carrying into effect a treaty with Great Britoin for 
liept up until the begnming of the Civil War, in 1861. It was Virginias 



', Co 



person from false impris< 
1st he done by the Execul 

3. A deprivation of power to inheint or transmit p operty 

4. Declaring an act criminal or penal, which was innoceni 

5. This was to secure uniformity in taxes laid on persons ( 

6. T'< secure free trade between the States, that one mighl 

7. This gives to Congress the control of the money belong 
8- This wns to secure equality of rights and privileges air 

aristocratic distinctions. 

9. By this section the people of the several States who, In 
menl wilh tile supreme attributes of sovereignly exclusively, 
peculiar to the municipal authority of a Slate, which are esse 
llisttutions from interference by another State, or by the Nat 
Is hereby empowered to act for the people of ihe who'e Repu 
on the Conttitutifiv, chapter xxsv. 



meat, or for i 

'e, in the cases Bpecifieil, i 

I loss of civil riglus, ic 



; a pes 



from 



The 



tof s 



not have an ndvnntage over another, was the object of these two clauses. 

ng to the Republic, and places it beyond the reach of the Executive. 

ong the citizens, and to checit the bad effects of foreign induencet in the firm 

conventions, ratified the Xation^l Constitution, invesle I the Ge lernl Cover 
while reserving to themselves, or iher respective commonwealths, the pow 

innal Government in a time of domestic tranquillity. The National Governm 
)lic as a nation. Having no superior, it is sovereign. See Story's Comnentar 



TIIL NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. 751 

four Tears,' and together with tlie Vice PresiJent, cliosen for the same Term, lie elected, ;..s 
follows : 

Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of 
Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to 
which the State may be entitled in the Congress : but no Senator or Reprc- Presidentinl electors. 
sentative, or Person holding an OflSce of Trust or Profit imder the United 
States, shall be appointed an Elector. 

[The electors sliall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for two persons, of 
whom one at least shall not be an inhabitant of the same State with them- 
selves. And they shall make a list of all the persons voted for, and of the ^'''^^"ff"'^''',J'i'''' 
number of votes for each; which list they shall sign and certify, and trans- electr.J. 

mit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, directed to 
the President of the Senate. The President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate 
and House of Representatives, open all the certificates, and the votes shall then be counted. The 
person having the greatest number of votes shall be the President, if such number be a majority 
of the whole number of electors appointed; and if there be more than one who liave such 
majority, and have au equal number of votes, then the House of Representatives shall immedi- 
ately chuse by ballot one of them for President ; and if no person have a majority, then from 
the five highest on the list the said House shall in like manner chuse the President. But in 
chusing the President, the votes shall be taken by States — the representation from each State 
having one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall consist of a member or members from two 
thirds of the States, and a ranjority of all the St;ites sliall be necessary to a choice. In every 
case, after the choice of the President, the pe»son having the greatest number of votes of the 
electors shall be the Vice-President. But if there should remain two or more who have equal 
votes, the Senate shall choose from them by ballot the Vice President."] 

The Congress may determine the Time of chusing the Electors, and the Time, nfi-hoiMinu 
Day on which they shall give their Votes; which D-iy shall be the same 
throughout the United States.^ / 

No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States at the time of the 
Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President; 
neither shall any person be eligible to that Office who shall not have at- Qualifiaiiimi/i <•/ the 
tained to the Age of thirty-five Years, and been fourteen Years a Resident PremJent. 

within the United States. 

In Case of the Removal of the President from Office, or of his Death, Resignation, or 
Inability to discharge tlie Powers and Duties of the said office, the same 
shall devolve on the Vice President' and the Congress may by Law provide Resort in ctite of his 
for the Case of Removal. Death, Resignation or Inability, both of the Presi- , dimUhtu. 
dent and Vice President, declaring what Officer shall then act as President, 
and such officer shall act accordingly, until the Disability be removed, or a President shall be 
elected.' 

The President shall, at stated Times, receive for his Services, a Compen- 
sation, which shall neither be increased nor diminished during the Period for Sulory of the, fresi- 
which he shall have been elected, and he shall not receive within that ' '"'■ 

Period any other Emolument from the United States, or any of them." 

Before he enter on the Execution of his Office, he shall take the follow- f'""' "/ 'V"-^- 
ing Oath or Affirmation : 

1 The Execulive is a co-otcjiimte but Dot coequal branch of tbe Governm.nt with Iho lezis alivo, for be Is lb« agent provlje.l i i the Coa- 
stitutloQ for executing the laws of a superior, the Conjiress or legislature. 

!. This clause n-as afterward annulled, »nd Article XII. of the Amendments to l!.l. Constitution was s.,bslitule.l for it. Originally the 
electors voted by ballot, for two persons, one of whom, at leas', should not be an inhabitant of the same Stale with themselves. The one who 
received tbe highest number of votes was declared to be President, and the one receiving the next highest number was declare! to be Vice- 
PresidenL For an example, see page ^Sd. 

3. See A.nendraenls lo the Constitution, Article XII. By an Act passed in 1S45 (January -'3). the electors most be chosen, in each Slate, on 
the Tuesday next after the lirst Monday in the month of November of tl.e year in which they are lo be elected. In the preceding portion of 
this history, when the election of a President ll spoken of, it is meant that electors f.vorable to such onndidatea were chosen at that time. 

4. For examples, seepages 476, 501, and 7'Jl. 

5. Provision haa been made for the President of the Senate, for the time being, or if there shall be no such officer, the Speaker of the House 
of Representatives, shall perform tbe executive functions. ' 

t. The salary of the President was fixed by the first Congress at »25,00O a year, and that of the Vlce-P-esident at »9,0(», and such they ara 
at present The salary fur each entire term was so fixed, that tbe executive might be independent of the legislative department for IL 



752 



SUPPLKMEXT. 



'■I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the 
United States, and will to the liest of my Ability, preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution 
of the United States." 

Section 2. The President shall be Commander in chief of the Army and 
Dutieaofthe Presi- Navy of the United States, and of the Militia of tlic several States, when 
dent. called into the actual Service of the United States ; ' he may require the 

Opinion, in writing, of the principal Officer in each of the executive Depart- 
ments, upon any Subject relating to the Duties of their respective Offices, and he shall have 
Power to grant Reprieves and Pardons for Offences against the United States, except in Cases of 
Impeachment/ 

He shall have Power, by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, to make Treaties, 
provided two thirds of the Senators present concur ; and he shall nominate, 
/Tis poirer to mate ^■i'^ by and with the Advice and Consent of the Senate, shall appoint Am- 
treuites, appoint an- bassadors, other public Ministers and Consuls, Judges of the supreme Court, 
' ' ' and all other Officers of the United States, whose appointments are not herein 

hitherto provided for, and which shall be established by Law :' but the Con- 
gress may by Law vest the Appointment of such inferior Officers, as they think proper, in the 
President alone, in the Courts of Law, or in the Heads of Departments. 

The President shall have Power to fill up all Vacancies that may happen 
Mayfill vacanciei. (iuYmg the Recess of the Senate, by granting Commissions which shall ex- 
pire at the End of their next Session.* 
Section" 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress Information of the State of the 
Union, and recommend to their Consideration such Measures as he shall 
Power to convene .ii"'ge necessary and expedient ;' he may, on extraordinary Occasions, con- 
Vongrem. ve-as both Houses, or either of them," and in Case of Disagreement between 

them, with Respect to the Time of Adjournment, he may adjourn them to 
such Time as he shall think proper; he shall receive Ambassadors and other public Ministers;" 
he shall take Care that the Laws be faithfully executed, and shall Commission all the officers of 
the United States. 

Section 4. The President, Vice President, and all civil Officers of tho 

now officers may be ijnited States, shall be removed from Office on Impeachment for, and Con- 
re moved, ' ^ * 

viction of. Treason, Bribery, or other high Crimes or Misdemeanors. 



ARTICLE III. 

Section 1. The judicial Power of the United States, shall be vested in one supreme Court, 
•and in such inferior Courts as tlie Congress may from time to time ordain and 
establish. The Judges both of the supreme and inferior Courts, sliall holil 
Judieial^pmcer, how ^j^^,^ Q^g^^g ^^^5,,^ ^^^^^ Behaviour, and sliall, at stated Times, receive for 
their Services, a Compensation, which shall not be diminished during their 
Continuance in Office." 

]. This was to insure unity nnd efficiency in action, when foreign wnr or domestic insurrection slioutil call for tiie services of tho iirmy and 
navy. His inr^ powers as Executive are directed by constitutional provisions He is the arm of the nation to execute its l^id>lia<;. 

i. It is presumed that the Executive is Above the personal, local, irr sectional influences that mi^ht be Ijronght to bear, in these cases, on 
the courts or on legislative bodies. The Executive, according to a decision of the Supreme Court, has power to grant a pardon before trial or 
conviction. See Bri^ihtley's Anali/tieal I>igeat o/ the Lawt of tht Unittd Slalfs, page 7, note (c). 

3. Tho President is presumed to be more fully informed concerninif the foreign rel«-.ione of the Republic, nnd the fitness of men for the 
highest offices. The Seriate represents the legislative department of the Government in treftty-mukiag and the appointment of high otHcers. 
and is a chr-clc on the Executive Against nny encroachments on the eights of Congress in the matter. 

4. This limitation to executive Appointments is to prevent tlie President from neutralzing the action of the Senate as A co-ordinate power. 
6. It is the pract ce of the President to submit to Congress, at the opening of each session, A filAteineiit of national ntfairs. This is cnlleil 

his Annual Message. Washington And John .\dnms read tlieir messages in person to tlie assembled Congress. Jellersoa first sent his message 
to them, by his private secretary. That practice is still kept up. 

6. The President, with his better informAtion concerning national atT.kirs, caa best judge whea Aa extraordinary session of Congress may be 
necessary. 

"•. He may also refuse to receive them, and thereby annul or prevent diplomatic relaliona between the Un ited States an.l any country. 

8. See page 3SS, and note 1, page 369. This section provides tliat the Supreme Court shall be a Co ordinate brancli of tlie National Gov- 
ernment, yet independent of and distinct from both the legislntive And execative departments. The powers of the National Government, it 
will be seen, are threefold, nnmel\\ teffiflaltvt, judif tat, and exeeutive. The first enacts laws, the eecouii interprets them, and the third 
enforces them. The Supreme Court consists of one chief-just Co and several rssociato justices, who hold an annual session at the national 
capital, commencing oa the day when Congress meets— first Wednesdiy in Itc-jmber. 



THE XATION'AL CONSTITUTION. 753 

Section 2. The judicial Poveer shall extend to all Cases, in Law nnd Equity, arising under 
this Constitution, the Laws of the United States, and Treaties made, or wliich 
shall be made, under their Authority ; — to all cases affecting Ambassadors, To what aises it 
other public Ministers and Consuls ; — to all Cases of admiralty and mari- extMds. 

time Jurisdiction ; — to Controversies to which the United States shall be a 
Party; — to Controversies between two or more States; — between a State and Citizens of another 
State; — between Citizeus of diU'ereut States;' — between Citizens of tlie samfe State claimiufj 
Lands under Grants of different States, and between a State, or tlie Citizens thereof, and foreign 
States, Citizens or Sulyects. 

In all Cases affecting Ambassadors, otlier public Ministers and Consuls, and tliose iu wliich a 
State shall be a Party, the supreme Court shall have original Jurisdiction. In 
all tlie otlier Cases before mentioned, the supreme Court shall have appel- 
late Jurisdiction, lx)tli as to Law and Fact, with such Exceptions, and under 
such Regulations as the Congress shall malce. 

The Trial of all Crimes, except iu Cases of Impeachment, shall be by 
Jury ; and such Trial shall be held in the State where the said Crimes shall 
liave been committed ; but when not committed witliin any State, the Trial 
shall bo at such Place or Places as the Congress may by Law have 
directed.' 

Section 3, Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levy- 
in,g War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Treason dtfned. 
Comfort.' 

No Person shall he convicted of Treason, unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the 
same overt Act, or on Confession in oiien Court. 

The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, 
but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture How punUhed. 
except during the Life of the Person attainted.* 



ARTICLE IV. 

Section 1. Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and 
judicial Proceedings of every other State.' And the Congress may by general 
Laws prescribe tlie Manner in which such Acts, Records and Proceedings ^""''''illlnai"'^''^ 
shall be proved, and the Effect thereof." 

Section 2. The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges m^Ufge^ of eiti^ent. 
and Immunities of Citizeus in the several States,' 

A person charged in any State with Treason, Felony, or other Crime, who 
shall flee from Justice, and be found in another State, shall on Demand of 'Executiee requislU,on. 
the executive authority of the State from which he fled, be delivered up, to 
be removed to the State having .Turisdiction of tlie Crime.' 

1, A citizen of the District of ColmnWa (note 1, paga 3SS) is not a citizen of a State, witliin tlie meaning of this Conatitiition. Tlie Dis- 
trict IB under tlie immediate control of Congress, and has neither a le'ialature or governor. 

2, See Amendments to the ConBtitution,^rlicles V.. VI., VII., VIII. 

3, At the trial of Aaron Bnrr (see pa^e 39S), Chief- Justice Marshall said: "Any cnmhinntion to suhvert by force the GoTernment of the 
United States; violently to dismember the Union ; to compel A change in the adminis'ration, to coerce the repeal or adoption of ii gencriil 
law, is t» con«ptr«CJ/ lo levy war. And if conspiracy be carried into effect by the actual employment of force, by the embodying and 
assembling of men for the purpose of execuiing the treasonable design which was previously conceived, it amounts to levying war," 

4, The limit as to forfeiture applies only to the real estate of the criminal, which, at bis death, must be reatored to bis heirs oraeEii;os 
The dower right of his wife also remains untouched. See Kent's CiiuimetUarifli an American Law, u. iM. This is more humane than the 
English law of treason. It does not punish the innocent wife and children of a criminal on account of his 

5, A-judgment of a State court baa the same credit, validity, and effect, in O' 
court where it w'aa rendered ; and whatever pleas would be good to a suit thei 
court within the United Stales.— Htimj-tan v. UcConnelt, 3 Wheaton, 234. 

6, On the 26th'of May, 1790, Congress, by act. gave effect to thia section. 

7, This Is a recognition of nationality— the supreme rights of the people as citizens of the United States, It decrees the right to all fiitido- 
mental privileges and immunities which any State grants to its citizens, excepting those granted to corporations, or conferred by sperial 
local legislation. It is intended to secure aud perpetuate a friendly intercourse throughout the Republic, it sets aside the erroneous as- 
sumption that National citizenship is subordinate to State citizenship. 

8, This is to aid the claims of justice, by preventing one portion of the Republic becoming as asylum for the criminals of another 



754 SUPPLEMENT. 

No Person Iielcl to Service or Labour in one State, under tlie Laws thereof escaping to anotUor, 
sliall, m Consequence of any Law or Regulation therein, be discliarged from 
siicli Service or Labour, but shall be deUvered up on Claim of the Party to 
whom such Service or Labour may be due.' 

Sectiok 3. New States may be admitted by the Congress into this 

Jfew States, limn Union ;° but no new State shall be formed or erected within the jurisdiction 

fnrmed and admMe,d. of any other State; nor any State be formed by the Junction of two or more 

States, or Parts of States, without the consent of the Legislatiux-s of the 

States concerned as well as of the Congress." 

The Congress shall have Power to dispose of and make all needf\d Rules 
Power of Contirem ^^^ Regulations respecting the Territorj" or other Property belonging to the 
over public lands. United Stated; and nothing in this Constitution shall be so construed as to 
Prejudice any Claims of the United States, or of any particular State.' 

Section 4 The Constitution shall guaranty to every State in this Union 
MepiMiaan ffovem- ^ Republican Form of Government,^ and shall protect each of them against 
ment guarantied. Invasion ; and on Apphcation of the Legislature, or of the Executive (wlieu 
the Legislature can not be convened) against domestic violence. ° 

ARTICLE T. 

The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose 
Amendments to tliis Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures 
Constittttion^hoiotobe of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing 
amended. Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Pur- 

poses, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three 
fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other 
Mode of Ratification maybe proposed by the Congi-ess;' Provided that no Amendment which may 
be made prior to the Year one thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the 
first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article ; ° and that no State, without its 
Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate." 

ARTICLE VI. . 

All Debts contracted and Engagements entered into, before the Adoption 
Validity of Debts "f ''^'^ Constitution, shall be as valid against the United States under' this 
recognhed. Constitution, as under the Confederation.'" 

1. This IB the clause of the Constitution, on wliich was based the provisions of the Fugitive Slave Law of 1850. See page 501. It ftpplie.i 
to runaway slaves and apprentices. Congress gave etfect to it by an act on the l-ith of February, 1793, and another on the ISlh of September, 
KS50. tki tlie time when the Conetitution was framed, slavery existed in all the States of the Union, excepting MassarhiiselU. By the 
operation of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution (which see on page 156) this clause has no relation to any other [persons exreptiiig 
fugitive indentured apprentices. 

■2. The Congress is not compelled to admit a new State. It is left to the option of that body, whether any new State shall be admitted. 

3. States have been admitted in three ways : I. By joint action of the Congress and a State, by which a portion of a State has been made 
R separate commonwealth, as in the case of Vermont, Kentucky, Maine, and Virginia. S. By an act of Congress, creating a State directly 
from a Territory of the United States, as in the case of Tennessee. 3. By a joint resolution of Congress and a foreign State, such State may be 
admitted, as in the case of Texas. 

4. This provides for the establishment, under the authority of Congress, of Territorial governments, which is the first step toward the for- 
mation of a State or States. The first government of the kind was that of the Northwestern Territory (see page 360), established in 1787, 
and adopted by Congress under the National Constitution of the 7th of August, 1 739. 

5. No other form of government could exist within the United St;»tes, withont peril to the Republic By this section, the National 
Government is empowered to assume positive sovereignty as to the fundamental character of the State Government, leaving to the State terri- 
torial sovereignty, as to its municipal laws and domestic institutions, so long as they are consonant with n republican form of government. 

6. The States are prohibited from keeping troops as a standing army, or ships of war, in time of peace, individually ; therefore it is mode 
4h6 duty of the sovereign power of the United States to protect the States against invasion and " domestic violence," sueh as treason, rebel- 
lion, or insurrectloj(. When these exist in any State, it is the duty of the Naiional Government to use iu power in suppressing it. 

7. This article effectnally checks any fundamental change in the Constitution, excepting in a way which recognizes the source of all true 
sovereignty, the Pkoplb, unless it be bysudden and violent revolution. 

8. See section 9, page 747. The adoption of the Thirteenth Amendment of the Constitution (see page 756) renders this section a dead 
letter. 

9. Here, again, is a provision for securing the smaller States from encroachments on their rights hy the larger States. 

10. This was for the security to the creditors of the United States, of the payment of debu incurred during the Revolution. It was a 
national and positive recognition of the postulate in international law, that " Debts due to foreigners, and obligatioaa to other creditors, sur- 



THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. ^gg 

This Constitution, and the Laws of the United States which shall be made in Pursuance 
thereof; and all Treaties made, or which shall be made, under the authority 
of the United States, shall be the supreme Law of tlie Land; and the Judges Supreme law of the 
in every State shall be bound thereby, any thing in the Constitution or Laws '""^ defined. 
of any State to the Contrary notwithstanding.' 

Tlie Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the Members of the several State 
Legislatures, and aU executive and judicial OfBcers, both of the United States 
and of the several States, shall be bound by Oath or Affirmation, to support oatk, qfwhom requir- 
this Constitution ; " but no religious Test shall ever be required as a Qualill- "^i ""^ whatjor, 
cation to any Office or public Trust under the United States. ' 

ARTICLE VII. 

The Ratification of the Conventions of nine States shall be sufficient for 
the Establislmient of this Constitution between the States so ratifying the Ratification. 
Same.* 

Done in Convention by the Unanimous Consent of the States present, the Seventeenth Day of 
September, in the Tear of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and Eighty-seven, and of 
the Independence of the United States the Twelfth. In "Witness whereof We have hereunto 
subscribed our Names. 

Geo. 'Washinoton, 
President, and deputy from Virginia. 



NEW HAMPSHIRE. 
John Langdon, 
Nicholas Oilman. 

MASSACHUSETTS. 
Nathaniel Goeham, . 
RuFus King. 

CONNECTICUT. 

William Samuel Johnson, 
Roger Sherman. 

NEW YORK. 
Alexander Hamilton. 

NEW JERSEY. 

William Livingston, 
David Brearlet, 
William Paterson, 
Jonathan Dayton. 



PENNSYLVANIA. 

Benjamin Franklin, 
Thomas Mifflin, 
Robert Morris, 
George Clymer, 
Thomas Fitzsimons, 
Jared Ingersoll, 
James Wilson, 
GonvERNEUR Morris. 

DELAWARE. 
George Reed, 
Gunning Bedford, jr., 
John Dickinson, 
Richard Bassett, 
Jacob Broom. 

MARYLAND. 
James M'Henry, 
Daniel of St. Thos. Jenifer, 
Daniel Carroll. 

Attest: 



VIRGINIA. 
John Blair, 
James Madison, jr. 

NORTH CAROLINA. 
William Blount, 
Richard Dobbs Spaight, 
Hugh Williamson. 

SOUTH CAROLINA. 
Charles C. Pinckney, 
Charles Pinckney, 
John Rutledge, 
Pierce Butler. 

GEORGIA. 
William Few, 
Abraham Baldwin. 



William Jackson, Secretary. 



I. a clear and po 

S. State officers ai 

"Btipreme iaw of the 

3. Thin ie to preve 

4. S«e Dot« 1, pngi 



ve declaration of the Bupremacy of the National Government, resistance to which i 

ound to support the Coosfltution because they may he required to perform soui 

id," in other words, of the E*poblic. 

1 political Dnio;i of Church and State, which is always prejudicial to the beet interests of both. 

50. 

48 



in givlDg eSect to that 



756 



SUPPLEMENT. 



AMENDMENTS' 



TO THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES, RATIFIED ACCORDING TO THE 
PROVISIONS OP THE FIFTH ARTICLE OF THE FOREGOING CONSTITUTION. 



ARTICLE I. 

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or 
Freedom, in reHgion prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or 
press. ' of the press ; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to peti- 

tion the Government for a redress of grievances." 

a'rTICLE II. 

. . A well-regulated Militia being necessary to the security of a free State, 

the right of the people to keep and bear Arras, shall not be infringed. 

ARTICLE III. 

No Soldier shall, in time of peace be quartered in any house, without the 
Soldiers. consent of the Owner, nor in a tune of war, but in a manner to be prescribed 

by law." 

ARTICLE lY. 

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers and effects, against 
unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants 

Search-warrants. shaU issue, but upon probable cause, supported byOath or affirmation, and 
particularly describing the place to be searched, and the person or things to 
be seized.' 



1. At the first session of the First Congress, bej»un and held in the city of New Yorli, OQ Wednesday, the 4th of March. 1789, many 
amendments to the National Constitution were offered for consideration. The Conffresa proposed ten of them to the legiaiatnros of the seve- 
ral states. These were ratified by the constitutional number of s^tato Legislatures in the middle of December, 1191. Another was proposed, 
on the 6th of March, njtj, and was ratified in 179S; and still another on the 12lh of December, ISOa, which was nilified in 1S04. These, 
with the other ten, became a part of the National Constitution. A thirteenth amendment waa proposed by Congress on the Ist of May, ISIO, 
but has never been ratified. It was to piohibit citizens of the United Stales accepting, claiming, receiving, or retaining any title of nobility 
or honor, or any present, pension, office, or emolument of any hind whatever, from any " person, king, prince, or foreign Power," without 
the consent of Congress, under the penalty of disfranchisement, or ceasing to be a citizen of the United Slates. 

The Thirteentll Amendment was adopted by Congress on the 31st of January, 1865, and its ratification by the requisite number of State 
Legislatures waa announced on ihe 18th of December following. A Fourteenth Amendment was proposed by a joint resolution adopted on 
the 13th of June, 1866, the object of which was to complete tho worli done by the Thirteenth Amendment, liy guaranteeing to of/ citizena 
an equality of civil and political rights, aud the payment <ff Ihe public debt , also to forbid the payment, by the general or any State govern- 
ment, of any debt or obligation incurred in aid of the rebellion, or any claim for the los^ or emancipation of any slave. This amendment 
was ratified by twenty-two States (five less than the reqnired number), when this record cloaed, in May, 1868. 

The Amendments to the Constitution, excepting the Twelfih, are auihoritntive declarations securing to the people and the several Stifcles 
ccrlain rights, agaiust any possible encroachments of Congress. They foroa a Bill of Rights, 

2. This article gives an additional assurance of religious freedom. See clause 3d, Article VL, of the Constitution. It also secures the 
invaluable right of the freedom of speech and of the press; and the privilege for the people of mailing their grievances known to the 

e of peace, from the oppressions of military power, and to secure uniformity in the rules for quartering 



THE NATIONAL CONSTITUTION. >^57 

ARTICLE T. 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a pre- 
sentment or indictment of a Grand Jury, except in cases arising in the land 

or naval forces, or in the MUitia, when in actual service in time of War or „ ., , . 

' ' Capital crimes. 

public danger ; ' nor shall any person be subject for the same offence to be 

twice put iu jeopardy of life or limb ; nor shall be compelled in any Criminal 

Case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due 

process of law ; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.' 

ARTICLE TI. 

In ah criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by 
an impartial jury of the State and district wherein the crime shall have been 
committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained bylaw, t-' Ih T 
and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation ; 1,0 bo con- 
fronted with the witnesses against him ; to have Compulsory process for 
obtaining "Witnesses in his favour, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defence. 

ARTICLE VII. 

In Suits at common law, where the value in controversy shall exceed twenty dollars, the right 
of trial by jury shall be preserved, and no fact tried by a jury, shall be other- 
wise re-examined in any court of the United States, than according to the S^iUatcoi^onloM. 
rules of the common law. 

ARTICLE VIII. 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor ^^^_ 

cruel and unusual punishments inflicted." 

ARTICLE IX. 

The enumeration, in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be con- (,^^^^^^^ ,,;^;,(, defined. 
strued to deny or disparage others retained by the people.'' 

ARTICLE S. 



Righta reserved. 



The powers not delegated to the United States, by the Constitution, nor 
prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to 
the people.' 

ARTICLE XI. 

The judicial power of the United States shah not be construed to extend 
to any suit in law or equity, commenced or prosecuted against one _of the Judicial power 
United Slates by Citizens of another State, or by Citizens or Subjects of limited. 

any foreign State." 



1. In such cases offenses are within the juri.diclion of Uiciiulilnrynndnnv. , ,. c i-„ ,« 

2. These prohibitions do not relate to State Eovernments, but to the National Government, according to a decision of the Supreme Court. 
The several states make their own laws on these subjects. ,. , v . ii ■ . j .i i. .»,... <!.. 

3. These several amondracnts. concerning the operations of law through the inetrnmental.ly of the court., are .11 intended to secore the 

""r Trt'rto't;,tlTirrdrrighran7po'werro'f' theteopH'arnot enumerated in the Constitution, it i, not to be inferred that they 

""tntu simply an enunciation of the broad democratic principle, that the people are the true sources of all political power 

6 This I to l"t the judicial power of ,he National courta. Previous to the adoption of this amendment, the Supreme Court had decided 
thHl'th. power of the National judiciary ertended to suit, brourtt by or against a State of the Republic. Now, no person haa a right to com- 
mence a personal suit agaimt a State, In the Supreme Court of the Uaitod States, for the recovery of property seized and sold by a Slate. 



1^53 SUPPLEMENT. 

ARTICLE XII. 



The Electors shall meet in their respective States, and vote by ballot for President and Vice 
President, one of whom, at least, shall not be an inhabitant of the same State 
ing the election of with themselves; they shall name in their ballots the person voted for as 
President and Vice President, and in distinct ballots the person voted for as Vice President, and 
they shall make distmct lists of all persons voted for as President, and of all 
persons voted for as Vice President, and of the number of votes for each, which lists they 
shall sign and certify, and transmit sealed to the seat of the government of the United States, 
directed to The President of the Senate; — The President of the Senate shall, in the presence 
of the Senate and House of Representatives, open all the certificates and the votes shall 
then be counted; — the person having the greatest number of votes for President, shall be the 
President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of electors appointed ; and if no 
person haye such majority, then from the persons havmg the highest numbers, not exceeding 
tlu-ee on the Ust of those voted for as President, the House of Representatives shall choose imme- 
diately, by ballot, the President. But in choosing the President, the votes shall be taken by 
states, tlie representation from each state havmg one vote ; a quorum for this purpose shall con- 
sist of a member or members from two thirds of the States, and a majority of all the states shall 
be necessary to a choice. And if the House of Representatives shall not choose a President 
whenever the right of choice shall devolve upon them, before the fourth day of March next fol- 
loising, then the Vice President shall act as President, as in the case of the death or other con- 
stitutional disability of the President. The person having the greatest number of votes as Vice 
President shall be the Vice President, if such number be a majority of the whole number of 
Electors appointed, and if no person have a m.ajority, then from the two highest numbers on the 
list, the Senate shall choose the Vice President ; a quorum for the purpose shall consist of two 
thirds of the whole number of Senators, and a majority of the whole number shall be necessary 
to a choice. But no person constitutionally ineligible to the office of President shall be ehgible 
to that of Vice President of the United States. 

ARTICLE XIII 

Section 1. Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime, 
whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the 
United States, or in any place subject to their jurisdiction. 

Sectios 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this Article by appro- 
priate legislation. 



I N" DE X. 



Aienat:es Indians, Trthes of, 17, 22. 
Abkrcromrie, Gf neral. his expedition, 191. 
A boriglnalu of A meHca^ 9. 33. Taken to Enjiand. 5S. 
Acadia^ settlement of, 80, 121. Annexed to the British 
realm, 1-56. The name of, changed to Nova Scotia, 132. 
Expedition against, 18.5. 

Accohannock Indians^ 20. 

Accomac Tndiaiui. 20. 

Act of Supremacy, 75. 

Ad.^ms John, defends Capt Preston, 2-2. Member of 
the first Continental Congress, 5S8. Sng^ests the 
appointment of Wjishington as Conimander-in-Chief, 
2.'ja On the Committee to dr.aft the Declaration of 
•Independence, 251, 2.')2, 539. Signer of it, 602. Chair- 
man of the Board of War, 294. On the Committee to 
confer with Lord Howe, 257. Commissioner of the 
lYeaty of Peace, 848. First Minister to Great Britain, 
849. Vice-President, 864. Ee-electcd, 377. President 
of United States, 882, 88-3. Death of, 457. Notices of, 
88.3, 589. 

Adams, Joun Quincy, his letter to Jefferson on the 
embargo, 403. Enrov, 419. Commissioner at Ghent, 
44.3. SccretarT of State, 447. His treaty with Spain, 
451. President of the United States, 454. Notice of, 
451. 

Adams, Samuel, 219, 221,227, 284. 

Adams, William, British Commissioner, 44.3. 

Addison, R. C, Commissioner at Panama. 

Adjniralty, Massachusetts Boai-d of, 807, Continental 
Board or, 80S. • 

Agud Nueva, 485. 

AiX-la-ChapeUe, Peace of^ 188. Conference at, respcct- 
ingCuba, 622, 

Alabama, Stale of, 448. 

Alabama Indiana, In the Creek Confederacy, -30. 

Alabama, Confederate pirate, 641. 

Alabama, Secession of, 547. In possession of Union. 
Army, 605. 

Albany, 141. Dutch Fort and Store Honee at, 72,140, 
Walloons at, 73. 

Albemarle, steam ram, 704. 

Albert, Prince, and the World's Pair, 517. 

Aleutian Islands, 11. 

Alkxandee, Sik William, Earl of Stirling, 80. See 
Stirling. 

Alexander, son of Massasoit, 124. 

Algerine Pirates, 381. 444. 445. 

Algiers, The United States at war with, 890, 44.5. 
Decatur at, 445. Peace between the United States 
and, 881. 

Algonquin Indiana, Discovery of the, 17. Their tribes 
and territory, 17, With Samuel Champlain, 59. In 
the Indian confederacy to exterminate the white 
people, 18. 

Alien Law of the United States, 8S6. 

Allatoona PaM. 099. 

Alleghany MounUiins, Extent and name of the. 19. 

Allen, Ethan, Colonel, 284. At Montreal, 240. Notice of, 
240. 

Allen, Colonel, in the Indian war in 1813, 416, 418. 

Allen, Captain, of the brig Argus, 429. 

Amboy, New Jersey. 

Ambrjstek, Robert C, 448, 451. 

Amelia Island, 448. 



America. Discovery of, 34. Origin of the n.ame, 4' 
First colony in, 42. Intercourse of, with the 01 
World, 11. 

American AgricnUure, 457. Association, 228. Co! 
onies, cost of. to England, 206. Coumierce, protecte 
in 1801, 890, 891. Manufactures, 447. Svstem, 458, 45! 
Party^ 531. 

Ames, Fisuee, Notice of, 880. 

Amherst, Jeffrey, Lord, his expedition against Louis 
burgh, 196. Captures Ticonderoga.- and Crown Poinl 
199, 200. At Quebec, 203. Noticis of, 196, 199. 

Amidas, Philip, his expedition to Americ^a. 55. 

AMP0DIA, General, 481. Sunenders Monterey, 484. 

Amsterdam., Henry Hudson sails Horn, 59. Charter t 
merchants of, 72, 

Andastes Indians, 19, 28, 24. 

Anderson, John, (Major Andri5), 825. 

Anderson. Robert, Major, 549, 552. 

Andre, Major, Arnold's bargain with, 825. Capturec 
and executed ; memorial to, 826. 

Andkos, Sie Ed-mdnd, aiTives at Boston, 129. Impris 
oned, 130. Governor of New York. 147 : and of Nev 
Jersey, 159, 160. Usurpations by, 155, 156. 

Androscoggin Imlians, 22. 

Annapolis, The Continental Oongres.s meets at, 6SS. 

Anniwa.v, Fiunous New England Indian, 21. 

.1 ■.■'■■. ■•< '. r. .'ii.. of, f"" 



, 138. See D'Horrille. 



W.I. 170. 



Indiana, Moore's exiiedition against the. 
i-osses the, 44. 



De Soto 



Aj^paliKhian Moitnlnins, 1 
Appomattox Court- House, 

Aquiduy Island, Indian name of Rhode Isl.and, 91. 

Aquinitsckion i, A name given to the Five Nations, 23. 

Aebuthnot, Admiral, besieges Charleston, 809, 310. 
Attacks the French fleet, 330. 

Arbuthnot, Alexander, 448, 4.51. 

Aechdale, John, Governor, 165, 167. 

Argall, SA.MUEL, Captain, his piracies, 58. Captures 
Pocahontas, 70. Deputy-Governor of Virginia, 70. 
Story of him and Dutch traders, 72. 

" ArgttJi^^ brig, 429, 430. 

^^Ariel^ schooner, 420. 

Arista, General, at Matamoras, 481. 

Arkan^sas Indians, 32. 

Artansas, State of. 451. Added to the Union, 469. 
Secession of, 547, 675. 

Arlington, Earl of, 110. 

.\RMiSTEAD. Major, At Fort M'Henry, 437. 

Armstrong. John, General, 193. Author of the Newburg 
Address, 849. Secretary of War, 426. Notices of, 849, 
426. 

Armstrong. iTohn, Colonel, 193. 

Army, United States, condition of^ 257, 261. Dis- 
banded, 850, 681. 

Army, British^ in America, number of men in the, 258, 
Sums granted for the, 206. State of, 2S.5. 

Arnold, Benedict, Gov. of Rhode Island, IBS. 
Arnold, Benedict, General, at Fort Stnnwix. 278; Lake 
Champlain, 2-34. 261 ; Penn's House, 1(12 ,: Philadelu' ' 
287; Quebec, wounded, 241. 242; Uidgefield, 
Saratoga, 282. Reprimanded by Washington,! 
Treason of, 824, .325, 826. Escapes to the Vulti 
Depredations committed by, in Virginia, 330 ; 
New England, 340. 



60 



irUoles of Confederation, 26G, 26T, 80S, 855. 

LSUliUHTON, Lord, 473. 

ISHE, General, 2».5. Miss and Colonel Tarleton, 3-52. 

Ukley Bi-eer, 9S, 99. 

\aHiniboin Indians, SI, 32. 

l&Ton, JonN Jacou, his trading station, 4T9 

itfiripaarcr^ (nf/iitnit, 17. 

' rr-v-' N- TTrvKV, Gener.il, 468. 

••..,',, 1;.;., :mi. Battle at, 701, "03. 

, i>, :, .,1 1.1 Siinta Annaat, 497. 
: - ./,.,■, liill ui; 619. 

I n/ iron Indians, 2S. 
^. Cnrspi's. 221. 

. (. Georsiii. Captured by Lee, 836, 337. 
VusuN, Ann, the Qualceress, 122. 
JUSTIN, Stephen F.. 477. 

iustria Consul General of, and Martin Koszta, 518. 
intossee. AI.1., Battle at, 42a 
4 v/don, Territorv of, 81. 
\VF,i:n?T.. W. W., Gen., Kaida of, 600,697. 
\\T.L. Ci.unt, 93. 
ivLLOH, See. D'Ayllon. 

B. 

Raoon Lord, his expedition to New Foundland, 74. 

Baoon, Nathaniel, 110, 111, 112. 

Uainbridoe, Commodore, Protects Am. Com. 890,391, 

Captured by Tripolitnns, 891. Notice of, 891. 
Baldwin, Abraham, 856, 629. 
Balfour, Colonel, at Charleston, 887. 
Baltimore, Lord,- 152, 209. .,.,,, 

Bidlimore, M<1. Capt. John Smith on the site of, 67. 

Gen. Boss apprimches, 436,487. Congri'ss meets at, 

262 Massaehusetts troops attacked in, 550. 
Ha/rs Bluf, liiittle of, 685. 
Bank, Of 'JJassaolinselts, 372. Nation.al, 372. Of ^ew 

York 872. Of North America, 829. 872. 
Banks, N. P.. Gen., 624. Commander at New Orleans, 

036.644,677,684,636. . _ 

mptiata, the, compelled to pay fines, in Tirgini.l, 110. 
liiirbarii PoirerH. The U. S. at war with, 390. 
B.vbolav, Robert. Governor of New Jersey. 160. 
Barclay, Commodore, 420. His tribute to Commodore 

Perrv, 423. 
p. vr.io'w AETnrR. his expedition to America, 60. 
I-.,,.,,,,,,' .T,-,Fi R'.IO. 

I , ,: I ., , (1. ire. hi? flotilla, 436. Notice of, 436. 

]' .■ -17,225.2^2. 

,, More, 401. 

I William. Colonel, 271.- 

,M, John, 210. 
,1, RicUAKn,856. 
... James A., Envoy, 419, 448, 512. 

■ j.ibeof Indians, lb. 
I rt Island. 93. 

■ ' .rt V. S. ArniT takes possession of, 5--3. 
,. , 1 UiCHAls. M., 266. 

I r. vRD. p. G., General, 558, 601, 603, il2. 
I., ('olonel, 240. 
, , : I, Gunning, jr.. 350, 629. 
.,,.'x s:,n„mp,Ui. 

. • .•.■•-n. IJli. 

I , , ., , iih.r. 136.173. 

, \: .M »ith,469. 
1.,;,;. ./.!■ ,lLi.l MV, Dr.. 57. 
Bei l Joh.n. Secretary of "VTar, 474. 542. 
^«tt. Church, removed from Deerfield to Canghna- 

w-izn. Via. 
r,K,,rM..NT. Earlof, 194. 



1 the 



13. 

, /r.i^i'.ls. Battle of, 251. 
. K,. nvr.P. 109. 
. ■, iMth- n.Tir. 714. 

;.'.;.' ''i. 11^,103,110,111,112. 

, Newport, and Somers wrecked 



Bermuda Hundred, 691. 

Bernard, Governor. 220. 

Bethlehem, La Favctte at, 273. 

liEVERLV, EoBERT, Major, 112. 

Bible, the. The Si.itute book in Conn., 154. 

Biiii.i.K. Edwaku. .5>s. 

EiuDLE, Captain, SOS. 



Bio SetJiel, Battle at, 562. 

Bill 0/ Riijlds of the Continental Congress, 223. 

BiLLlNGK, Edward. 160. 

UiLLop, Captain, 257. 

Bisgham, Captain. 407. 

BirmingiMm Meeting Bouse, 273. 

Blackfeet Indians. 83. 

Black Hawk, IS. .32. 403. 

BlaH- J/airk- W(ir.4Ca. 

Blaei- I.'lul; Villii'/e, burnt. 427. 

Blacksto.ne, William, Eev., 89. 

Btaelc )y,lrri(>r.i^W:lm Ship, 619. 

Blair, John, 356, 809. 

Blakrley, Captain, 440. 

Blennerhasset, -397. 

Block. Adrian, 72, 82. 

Blockade Runners, 708. 

Block Home, Burnet's 192. 

Block. Island, Oriain of the name of; 87. 

Bloemart, Sami-el, 139. 

Bloody Creek, Connecticnt, 126. 

Bloody Marsh. Florida, 173. 

Bloody Pond, 190. 

BlOOMPIELD, JOSEPIT. 410. 

Blol-nt, William, 355,850. 
Bll'Cher, 431. 
Blttiie, Captain, 480. 

Board, of Admiralty, See Admiralty. Of Tmde, 188, 
184. Of trade and plantations, 134. Of war, appointed 
by Conaress, 294. 
BoLivAB, General, 457. 

Bonaparte, Napoleon, Emperor, 899. His decrees at 
Berlin. 400 ; Mihui, 402 ; and liambouillet, 406. Treaty 
with, 886, 603. 
•■^Bonhomme liichard," 307. 
Booksellers in %he American Colonies, 179. 
BooNK, Daniel, 300. 
Booth, Wilkes, Assassin, 720. 
BosOAWEN. Admiral. 189, 195, 196. 

Boston, Mass, Norwegians explore the region near, 
35. Founded, 118. Expedition from, to Port Eoyal, 
135, 186. Eeviilntionary proceedings there, 221. 
Boston, Port Bill, 22.5, 226. Boston Neck, 229. Forti- 
fied by Gage, 229. Cannonaded, 247. Evacuated by 
the British. 247. 
Bonqitet, ColoDcl, 19, 193. At Pittsburg, 205. Notice 

of. 205. 
BowDOiN, Governor, 853. 
" Boxer," United States Brig, 430. 
BoTD, Colonel, 295. 
BoVD, John. 819. 

Braddock, Edwaud. General, 1 34. 
Governors of the Ci)lonies, 1S5. 
Du Quesne, 1S6. Death' of, ISO. 
Bradford, William, Governor, 11.5, 113. 
Bbadsoed, William, Editor of the New York ffasette, 

150. 
Beadstbeet, Colonel, 197, 193. At Detroit, 205. 
Bragg, General. 682. 634, 68S, 603, 665, 606. 
Brandyaine, Battle of, 273. 
'■ Branililiiine," frigate, 403. 
Brant. .iosEHH. 290, 291. 
Bra.-.l,rar City. 6*4. 

Brearly, David, 356. 1 

Breed's Hill, 234. 
Brent, Charles. 489. 
Brewster, Elder, 77, 116, 
Beeyman, Colonel, 277. 
Bridqeirater, Battle at, 4.33. 
Bnsivl, England, Cabot sails from, 46. 
British Aiients among the India^ns, 373. Fleet, depre- 
dations by the, in the United States, 430 ; and in 1314, 
436, 437. Fleet on Lake Champlain, 4:55. Claims to 
Oregon, 479. 
Brock, Sir Isaac, General, 411, 414. 
Brooke, Lord, So. 
Brooke, Colonel, 437. 
Brookfield, Connecticnt. 126. 
Broo&lyn, New York, Walloons at, 78. 
Brown, Jacob, 356. 

Brown, Jacob. General, at Chippewa, 483. At Pres- 
cott, 426. At Sackott's Harbor, 426, 432. Notice of. 

Brown, Jons, E.iid of. 688. Notice of, 533. 
Brown, John, 803. 

Br.owN, Major, at Fort Brown, 482. . Mortally wounded, 
492, 
I Brown, General, (British), 336, 837. 



Meeting with the 
Expedition to Fort 



761 



Eeo-wn-b, Jonx ASD Samfei. 119, 

BcOHASAS, James. Secretarv of Stite, 478. Elected 
President. 53u. Notice of, &30. Cabinet of, 632. 

BuoKSER. General. 696. 

Blexa Vista. Battle of,4S5. 

BiFELL. Don Carlos. 591, 698, 603, 606, 633. 

Bufiilo. New York, burnt, 43T. 

Bpford, Abr.vua^i, Colonel, his troops slaughtered by 
Tarleton. 313. 

Bull, jjrousbt to America by Columbus, 41. 

£idr<i Run. First battle of, 5CS. 

Bn nkfr'a mil, 234. Battle of. 236. 

JiurffesKe.% The Virsrinia House of, 106. 

I;l-ki;ovne. Jonx, Gener.il. 234. At Fort Edward, 276, 
277. .\t L.l. I 1, i;ii;,l:.in. 272. At St. .lobn, 271. At 
Ticon<ii I _ :: - 1 , i n iiders at Saratoga, 2S1. Dines 
wiUii. ! - I. ■J>1. Notice of, ~2S-i 



l:ii,!;,^.,!„n. Count U'inop at, 262. 

lU iiM.r. Petbk H., 499. 

lU i:N-riiE, Ambrose E., General, 589, 606. Head qn-arters 

ol". tltiT. Takes command of the Army, 681. Is super- 

sed>d. 631. 6G4. 
Bl-rxs, AsTiiosT, Fugitive Slave, arrest of, 619. 
Burr, Aaron, in Arnold's expedition to Quebec, 241. 

Vice-President, 3SS. Duel with Hamilton. 361, 896. 

Proposed invasion of Mexico, 396. Tried for treason, 

893. His conduct towards Blennerbasset, 397. Notice 

of, 897. 
BuRRixGTox, George, Governor of North Croliana, 171. 
BliRRoCGiis. Uev„ The. executed as a wizard. 1.33. 
Burrows, Lieut., Captures tb» British brig "Boxer," 

482. •• 

Bl'shnell, DAVir>, his torpedo, 252. 
BcTE, I^rd. 2i8. 
Bptler. Bknjamiw. F.. 483, 579, 609. Commandar of New 

Orleans. 6 II, 632. 685. Believed of the Department of 

the Gulf. 6:S0, 688. 691. Colored troops under, 696. 
Butler, .Iohn, Colonel, 278, 290. 
Butler. Pieroe. 8.76. 
Butler, Walteb N., 291. 
Butler, Zebulos, Colonel, Notice of, 290. 
EvKOX, Admiral, 305. Succeeds Lord Howe, 292. 



c. 

Cabot. George. 444. 

Cabot, .Joii.v, Notice of, 60. 

Cabot. Sebastian, his commission from Henry TIT. 46. 
Sails for America in 1497, 46. His secon<l expedition, 
in 1498. 47. Discovers Labrador, Newfoundland and 

Portions of New Enfrland, 41. Explores the coast from 
abrador to the Carolinas. 47. Navigates the northern 
coast of Hudson's Bay. Exjilores the coast of Brazil, 
47. Discovers the Rio de la Plata. 47. Notices of, 47, 60. 

Caowalader, Lambert, Colonel, 855. 

Cadwallader, John, General, at Trenton, 20-3, 268. 

Cnkokia, captured by Major Clarke, 803. 

CiOiok-iti. Indiann. 19. 

Caldwell, Kev. Dr., .334 

Caldwell, James, 221. 

"CViiet/o/ua" The, one of Perrv's vessels, 420. 

Calep, Mr., of Boston, 183. 

Caluous. John C, his views of the war of 1812, 409. 
Secretary of War, 447. Vice-president, 454, 459. No- 
tices of, 458, 459. 

California, Conquest of, 437. Discovery of Gold, 497. 
Admitted to the Union, 001. Excludes slavery, 499. 

CALU.MET9, Indian, 14. 

Calvert, Cuarles, 153. 

Calvert, Georoe, Lord Baltimore, 81. 

Calvert. Leonard. 82, 151. 

Camhridffe, England, Meeting at, respecting tlie Plv- 
month Colony; 118. 

O/'"'"'''''/^, Massachusetts, founded, 113. The cdlege 
founded at, 121. Provincial Congress at, 2.30. 

r,(i,i./e». New Jcrsev, 93. 

"AMPiiELL, William. Colonel. 319. 

I'Axu'iiKM,, Colonel, (British), 291, 292, 294. 

C'lirtji Diitiglas. Prisoners at, 710. 

Out '(■la. .\*ttempted conquest ot; 131. 186. Pitt's scheme 
fur conquering. 199. Measures for the conquest of, 
2t)3. 244. End of French dominion in, 22. Address of 
Congress to the people of. 2.39. Proposed invasion of, 
194. Hull's invasion of. 410. Wellington's troops 
sent to, 482 Revolutionary movement iii. 471, 473. 

Canary Islands, Columbus delayed at the, 39. 

Canby, E. E. 6., General, 591, 636. 



Canon^hcf, Treaty of Peace with, 125. His perfidy and 
death, 127. 

Canonicus, Narrasanset chief, 21, 90, 91, 115. 

Ciiuterliury, Archbishop of, 121. 

Cape Ann, colony at. 116. Ba.iador, 36. Breton. 1ST, 
138. Charles, origin of the name, 64. Cabot passes, 
46. Cod, origin ot the name, 57. Farewell, 46. Fear, 
origin of the name, 55. Of Good Hope, origin of the 
name. 87. Hcniopcn, 93. Henry, origin of the name, 
64. May, 85; purchase of, and origin of the name, 94. 

Capital of the United States, 38& 

Caramelli, Hamet, 392,895. 

Carcass, described, 286. 

Caedon, Lord, 166. 

Caeleton, Sir Gut, Governor of Canada, 878. At St. 
John's. 240. At Quebec, 241. Uis propositions for 
reconciliation, 845. 

Carlisle, Earl of. Commissioner to America, 1778, 286. 

CarnifexFerrii, Battle at. 673. 

Carolina, Amiiias and Barlo%v off the shores of, 5.^. 
Colonies founded n. 62. Origin of the name. 50. 55, 
93. The colonies of, 97, 163. 164; Separated, 171. 
Grant from Parliament to, 206. Opposes taxation, 228, 

Carolina, Fort, 98. 

' Caroline,^'' steamboat. 472. 

Carpenter's //all, Philadelphia, 28S, 688. 

Carr, Sir Robert, 123. 

Carroll, Charles, of Carrollton, 253, 603. 

Carroll, Daniel, 856. 

Carroll, JouN. Archbishop, 854. Notice of, 351 

Carteret, Sir George, 93, 159. Purchases New Jersey, 
159. 

Carteret, Philip, Governor of New Jersey, 94, 159. 

Carteret County Colony, 98, 164, 16.5. 

Cartikr, JA.MES, his expeditious, 43,49. 

Cartwright, George, 1'23. 

Carver, .John, Governor, 77. 73. His interview with 
M.assasoit, 114. Death of, 115. Notice of, 7& 

Cascades. Oregon, Attacked by Indians. 528. 

Casco Village, attacked by the French and Indians, 181. 

Casev. General. 616. 

Cass. Lewis. General, at Detroit, 42t Candidate for 
the Presidency, 1843, 493. 

Castillon, General, deserts Colonel Walker at r.ivas, 
525. 

Castine, Baron de, 1.34. 

Castine. Admiral GrilHth seizes the town of, 1814, 488. 

Castle William, 220. 

Castro, General, 4ST. 

Caswell, Richard, 856, 533. 

Catawba Indians, 26, 27. Allies of Nort'a Carolina Col- 
ony, 168, 170. 

Catftwba River, 27. 

Cat Island, See Guanahama. 

Cattle, First, in Connecticut, 86. Newfoundland and 
Nova Scotia, 47. 

Cauglmaioaga, The church bell at, 135, 

Cayuga Indians, 23. 24. 

Cedar 3Ioutitain, Battle at, 624. 

Census, 871, 3Sa * 

Cent, U. S Coin, 372. 

CilAMPE, Seijeant, attempts to capture Arnold, 326. 

Champlain, Samuel, his expedition, 59. Discovers 
Lake Champlain, 69 ; and Lake Hm*on 59. His pub- 
lications, 59. 

Champlain, Lake, discovered, 59. 

CAancetlorsville, Battle ot; 649. 

Chaneo, 106. 

Chandler, Notice of, 426. 

CnAELES I, of England, 74, 107. 116. 

Charles II., of England. 109. 110. His Gifts to Lord Cal- 
pepper, and the Earl of Arlington. 110. Grants a new 
charter to Connecticut, 155. Deplares the Massachu- 
setts charter void. 129. Makes.iudges independent of 
the people. 110. Reproaches Governor Berkeley, 112. 
Gives New Netherland to his brother James, 144. 
Death of. lis. 

Charles IX., of France, 49, 51. His commission to Co- 
ligny, 50. 

Cfuirleston, South Carolin.a, founded. 99, UT. Frcneh 
and Spanish expedition against, 169. Seige of, 809, 
811. Captured by the British, 312. Evacuated, 348. 
at Oglethorpe, 100, 703. 

Charlestoicn, Mass., 236. 

Oiarter of Lilerties, William Penn's, 163. Of New 
York, 147. 

Cliatham, The Earl of, 213. His conciliatory measures,.* 
231. His denunciations in the House of Lords, 282. 



( 



762 



His letter to Sayre, 228. His opinion of the Conti- 
nental Cungress, 228. Death oi; 2S6. Notice of, 217. 
See Pitt. 

CuASR, Salmon P.. Secretary of the Treasury, 560. Notice 
of. 560, 679. Uliief-Justice of United States, 732. 

Chattanooga, CU6. 6S2. 

Chauncey, Commodore. 420, 425. 

Chekseman, General Montsoiiiery's Aid, 242. 

Che^yultepec^ Battle of, 1S4T, 494. 

Cheraio Indians. 20. 

Cherry Valley devastated, 290. 

" Cheritb'*'' sloop-of-war, 431. 

Cherubusco, General Scott at, 493, 

Ohestndt, James, 546. 

ChmapeakQ Bay exnlored by Captain John Smith, 
67. Gosnold in the, 64. Indians on the, 20. 

*' Chenapeake " frigate, 401, 439. 

Chester^ Pennsylvania. William Penn at, 97. 

Chevaux-de-fr'is6 described, 274. At Charleston, 311. 

Chevy ClKise. 283. 

CUi&ioiiig Tobacco invented by white people, 14 

Chicago, Wiawain at, 543. Convention at, 710. 

ChickahoTTiimj lii/cer, 66. 616. Battle of the, 620, 692. 

" Chichamaugay Confederata pirate, 714, Battle of, 
666. 

ChiekasaiD Baynu, Battle at, 643. 

Chickasaw Jjidians, 29, 30, 44. 

Chickasaw liiver, 29. 

Chickklev, Sir Hknry, 113, 

Child^ Scandinavian, born on Rhode Island, 85. 

CniLns, Colonel, at Puebla, 494. 

Chimney Point, 1S9. 

Chippewa Indians, 17. 18, 24, 205. 

Chippewa, Battle ot, 433. 

Choctaw Tudian^. 2!), 30. 

Chotraii In,li,i,is. -l-i. 

Choican J:ir,r. I'T. 

Christians. |[idi;ni. converted by French Jesuit3,22. 

Christian. dnHmimlon, 723. 

Christina, in Deleware. 93. 

Chronicle, William, Mayor, 819. 

Chryslers Fiehf, Battle of, 427. 

Church Benjamin, Captain, lu?. Death of, 127. 

Chwrchof Enqland in the reign of Charles II., 110. 
Established 'in Maryland, 154. In North Carolina, 
163. In South Carolina. 169. 

Church and .statP^ in Massachusetts, 113. 

Chui'chi/i.n. p rs'i-uti'-l by Puritans, 119. 

Cincituuiti Snrufif. instituted, 352. Order of the, 352. 

Cipher Writitni ..r ih*^ New York tories, 309. 

City Hall. .,r Nl-w Vurk, 366. City Hall Park, 148. 

Civilisation, New period of, in America, 52. 

Claiborne, William C. C, Governor, 440. Notice of, 
441. 

Clans, Indian. 17. 

Clarendon, Lord, 93. 

Clarendon County Colony^ 93. 

Clark, Abraham, 356, 603,-— 

Clarke, Geokor K., <Teneral. his operations in Sonth 
•Car..lin;i :in.l ( L-oririri. 314, 315, 319, 336. Uis expedi- 
tion :iLraiii~t r)ir Indians, 303. Captures Kaskaskia, 
and Cali.)ki;i. :;i);',. Nutice of, 303. 

Clarke, Captain, his tour of exploration with Captain 
Lewis, in 1^04, 479. 

Clay, Grkrs, G.-neral,at Fort Meigs, 413, 419. 

Clat, Hkni'.v, Unite<l States Commissioner at Ghent, 
443. Nominated for the Presidencv, 454. Secretary 
of Slate. 454. His compromise bill, 464. Nominated 
for the Presi.iency, 47S. Notice of, 500, 

Clay, Lieutenant-Colonel, 486. 

Clayborne. William, 82, 151. 

" Clermont,''' Fulton's first steamboat, 399, 

Cleveland, Benjamin, 319. 

Clinch. General. 467. 

Clingman, William, 611. 

Clinton, De Witt, 416. His part in the Erie Canal, 457. 
Notice of. 457. 

Clinton, Sir Henry, General, at Boston, 234, 236. Joins 
Sir Peter Parker, 248. On Lon? Island, 253. At New 
York, 272. Captures Fnrts Clinton and Montgiunery, 
283. At Monmouth, 237. His moonlight disi'atch, 
238. His marauding expeditions, 296. Succeed- Howe, 
2S7. Evacuates Rhode Island, and proceeds to the 
Carolinas, 306. 309. In New Jersev, 320. Deceives 
Washington, 320. At the Seige of" Charleston, 809. 
Sends emissaries to the Pennsylvania mutineers, 828, 
829. 

Clinton, James, General, at Tioga Point, 804. 



Clinton, George, Governor, 287. Vice-President, 396. 

4U4, With General Knox, 350. Notice of, 350. 

Clymer, George, 356, 602, 629. 

Cobb, Howeli^ General, 715. 

CocKBURN, Admiral, His marauding expeditions, 430, 
440. 

Cod Fishery, 47,116. 

ConoiNGTON, William, 91. 

Coffee, General, in the expedition against the Creeks, 
42a Notice of, 423. 

Coffey, Colonel, 675. 

Coins and Currency of the United States, 372. Copper 
coins, 372. 

Colden, Cadwalladee, 215. 

CoLiGNY, Admiral, 49, 50. Sir Walter Ealeish studies 
the art of war with, 52. The friend of Huguenots, 49. 

Colleton, James, Governor, 166. 

Colleton, Sir John, 9S. 

Collier, Sir George, 297.- 

Colonies, American,' History of the, 51, 52. 104, 174. 
American population of the, 179. New England, pro- 
posed Union of the, 121 ; the Union dissolved, 122. 

Colony, The earliest in America, 42. 

Colorado, 67a 

Columbia, District of, 3SS. 

Columbia River, 279. 

Columbia, 9. C, Fall of, 712. 

Columbus, Christopher, 37, His voyage to Iceland, 87. 
Queen Isabella fits out a fleet for him, 37. He sails 
from Pal OS, 39. His voyages and discoveries, persecu- 
tions and death, 41. 

Comanche Indiaiis.ZZ* Territory of the, 45. 

Combahee River, D'Aylhm at tlft mouth of. 48. 

Commerce of the American colonies. Restrictions im- 
posed on the, 212. American, 381. 382, 390, 391; Pro- 
tected, 391 ; Injured by England and France, 400. 401 ; 
Injured by pirates, 453. Of Great Britain and the 
United States, 367. 

Committee of Safety of Massachusetts, 234. Com- 
mittees of Correspondence, 226. 

Conio, Witchcraft at. 132. 

Company of Free Traders, 96. 

"C'onceswoMS," The, of Berkeley and Carteret. 159. 

Confederation, American Articles of. 266. 267, 353, 355. 

Confederation of New England colonies, 121. 

Confederates, Finances of, 679. 

Confederacy, Excitement in, 545. 

Congaree Indians hostile to the South Carolina col- 
onies, 170. 

Congress, First Continental, at Philadelphia, 227, 228. 
Second Continental, 215, 238; Appoints a Committee 
to confer with Washington, 239; Measures of, 245; 
Armed Marine of, 307: Committee on Naval Affairs- 
307; Continental Naval Board of Marine Committee, 
and Board of Admiralty of, 308; Resolution on Inde- 
pendence, and Committee on the Declaration of Inde- 
pendence, 251; Committee for conferring with Lord 
Howe, 259; Sends an embassy to France and to other 
European courts, 266; Rejects Lord North's Concilia- 
tory Bills,2S6. Of the United States, resolution of the. 
to allow military officers half pay for life. 349 ; Disbands 
the array, 850; Efforts of, at New Tork, 362 ; Recom- 
mends the appointment of a day for thanksgiving and 
prayer, 370; Measures of the, respecting "Re vcnuea., 
866,367: Extraordinary Sessions of, 475." Provincial, 
at Cambridge, Massachusetts, 230; Makes salutary 
change in postal arrangements, 507; Sends steam ves- 
sels to coast of China and round Cape Horn, 515; Re- 
construction policy of, 726; Passes tenure of oflice bill, 
729; Impeaches the President, 729, 732. 

Congress Mexican, Assumes provisional authority, 497. 

''Congress," frigate, 414. 

Co7inecUcut, Origin and sigTiificiition of the word, 85 
Settlement of, 62. Peqnod Indians in, 21. History o 
th^Colony of, 154. Constitution of, 154. Charter ol 
155. Takes part in the war against King Philip, 155 
Refuses to surrender its charter, 156. Joins the con- 
federacy of colonies, 121. Grant to, from Parliament. 
206. 

Connecticut River, Discovered by Block, 72, 82. Col' 
ony at the, 65, 86. 

Canonehet, 21. 

Connor, Commodore. Sails for the Gnlf of Mexico, 480. 
Captures Tampico, Tabasco, and Tuspan, 4b5. At 
Vera Cruz, 489. 

^'Constellation,'" frigate, 882. Captures the frigate L* 
Insurgente, 886. Action of the, 'nith the frigate La 
Vengeance, 885. 



INDEX. 



^63 



ConsUhcUon of the United States, "Washington sug- 
gests a convention on the subject of a: history uf 
the, 355; articles of the, 359, 360, 361. 
ConstituHon of Government, Pilgrim, T8. 
'•'•Constitution,'''' frigate, 882, 415, 440. Action of the, with 

the Guerriere, 414. 
Continental, Army, 238. Congress: see CouErress. 
Money, 345; Depreciation of, 293, 323: Counterleited, 
293. 

CoNTREC<EOK, M., attacks tho Ohio Company's men, 

182. 
Contreras, Battle of, 1847. 493. 

Convention on the Ai-ticles of Confederation, 356. At 
Albany, 1754, 183. 

Conway, Thomas, General, 2S5. 

Conway, Henby Seymour, General, his motion in Par- 
liament, 346, 347. 

CooDE, The insurgent, 153. 

Copley, John Singi-kton, 209. 

Copley, Lionel, Koyal Governor. 153. 

CoppiN, Pilot of the Mayflower, 78. 
Copp's Hill, 235. 

Cooper, Ashley, Lord, 98. 

Cooper Iliver, Origin of the name, 99. 

Cordova, Feanoisco Feunandez de, discovers Mexico, 
43. 

Cof€6 Indians, 17, 20, 57. Conspire against the North 
Carolina settlements, 163. 

Corinth^ Battle at, 685. Evacuation of, 604. 

CoKNBURY, Lord, 149, 161. 

Complatiter, 26, 304. 

Cornstalk unites with Logan against the white men, 
20. Uis bravery and death, 20. 

CoRNWALLis, Charles, Lord, on Long Island, 253, 254. 
Captures Fort Lee, 259. Pursues Washington, 260. At 
New York, 262. At Princeton, 268. At Charleston, 
811. In South Carolina, 313. At Sander's Creek, 815. 
In command of the British Army at the South, 815. 
At Charlotte, 318. At Winnsborough, 819. Suc- 
ceeds Phillips, 830. Pursues Morgan, 332. Abandons 
North C:u-oliua, 334. At Wilmington and Petersburg, 
838. His operations in Virginia, 883. Surrenders at 
Yorktown. 341. Hi.s cruelty, 313. Notice of, 318. 

CorpiLs ChriHti village, Mexico, 4S0. 

CoRTEz, Fernando, his exjiedition to Mexico, 43. De- 
thrones Montezuma, 10. Notice of, 43. 

CoRTOREAL, Gasper, his expedltiou to America, in 1500, 
47. 

Cosby, William, Governor, 150. 

Costa Riga declares war against Nicaragua, 1856, 526. 

Cotton, Kev. Mr., US. Cuines to America, 86. 

Cotton, Cultivation of, in the United States, 368. 

Council of Plymouth, 117, 120. 

Council Indian, how composed, 16. 

'•'•Countess of Scai^borough'''' captured by Paul Jones, 
807. 

Counties, Origin of, 73. 

Cowpens, Battle of, 331, 832. 

Cows brought to America by Columbus, 41. Taken to 
Virginia, 63. 

CoxE, Tench, 369. Notice of, 363. 

Craig, Major, 345. 

Craik, l)r\. his anecdote of Washington's escape from 
death, 186. 

Crampten, Mr., British Minister, dismissed, 523, 529. 

Craney Inland, 430. 

Craten, Lord, 98. 

Craven, Charles, Governor of South Carolina, 170. 

Crawford.; William H., Minister to France, 429. Secre- 
tary of til ! Treasury, 447. Nominated fur the Presi- 
dency, 454. 

CreeJc 'Indians, 20, 30, 103, 16S, 437, 428, 455, 456. 

Creoles, Origin of the, 41. 

*''Orescejit City,'''' steamboat, 512. 

Crimea, the. Enlistments in American cities, for the 
English Army in, 528. 

Crittenden, George B., Colonel, 593. 

Crittenden, William L., at Cub* ; executed, 508. 

Croghan, Major, Notice of. 420. 

Cromwell, Oliver, 155. His supposed intention to mi- 
grate to America, 120, 130. Opposed by Virginia, 103. 
Notice of, 103. 

Cross of St. Georce, 144. Of St. Andrew, 144. Pintf, 
erected by De Soto, 44. Planted on the shore of Gasp6 
inlet, 48. 

Crow lyidians, 32, 83. 

Crmcn Point, 199. Champlain at, 59. Johnson's expe- 
dition against, 185. 



Crfgek, Lieutenant-Colonel, 835. In South Carolina. 3l£ 

815. 
Cuha, Discovery of, 40. Fears of invasion of, 508, 

Difficulties about settlement of, 520. 
Culpepper, Lord, Grants to by Chai-les II., 110. 
Culpepper John, 99. The revolt led by, 164. Lays oul 

the city of Charleston, 165. 
Currency, National, Of the United States, 372. 
Cuetin, Governor, calls out Militia, 653, 
Curtis, S. K., General. 691. 
Gushing, Caleb, 5i0. 
CosHiNG, Thomas, 583. 
Gushing, William, Judge, 369 
Cushman, Eobert, 77. 
" Cyane,^'' frigate, 440. 



Dacres, Captain, 414. 

Dade, Francis L., Major, massacred, 407. Notice ot 

467. 
Dtihcotah Indians, 81, 82. 
Dale, Sir Thomas, arrives at Jamestown, with supplies, 

69. Governor of Virginia, 70. 
Dahlgren, Admiral, 688, 673. 
Dalton, Georgia, Raid at, 682. 
Danvers, Witchcraft at, 138. 
Dare, Eleanor, her daughter Virginia, 56. 
Dartmouth College, 178. 
Daughters of Liberty, 216. 
Davenport, Joun, 8S. 
Davie, William PvICuardson, Colonel, SIS, 856. Envoy 

to France, 385. 
Davis, Jefferson, Secretary of War, 553. Notice of 

547, 569. Elected President of Confederacy, 641. 

Flies from Ptichmond, 713. Taken prisoner, 733, 
Bavis, Jefersos C, 591. 
D'IIanville, 133. 
D'Ayllon, Lucas Vasqttez, 42. 
Dayton, Jonathan, 356, 629. 
Deane, Silas, Member of the first Continental Congress, 

5S3. Chairman of the Committee on Naval Atfairs, 

807, 308. American Agent .in France, 206. On the 

American embassy to France, 266. 
Dearborn, Hrnry, 890. Commands tho Army of the 

North, 412. At York, Canada, 425. Notice of, 410. 
Debt of United States, 679. In 1863, 734. 
Decatur, Stephen, Commodore, 415. In the Mediter- 
ranean; at Algiers; at Tunis, 445, His exploit at 

Trifioli, notice of, 892. Captured, 440. 
Declaration of liightn, 215. 
Deerf-eld, 126. Attacked by Eouville, 135. 
De Aaht, John, 588. 
De HeisteiS, 253, 254. 
De Kale, Baron, in the Southern campaign, 309, 314. 

Death of, 316. Notice of, 316. 
Delancey, James, Governor, 183, 185. Favors a Stamp 

Act 541. 
Delaware' Settlement of, 92. Colonies, 144. Swedes 

in, 62. Yields to the Dutch, 147. An iudepefldent 

colony, 159. 
Delaware Buy, Verrazani anchors in, 43. 
Delaioare Indians, 17, 21, 161, 363. 
De la Ware, Lord, Governor of Virginia, 6a At James- 
town, 69. Character of; death of, 69. 
Delft-Haven, Holland, Puritans sail from, 77. 
De'Monts, 58. 
Deseret, the country of the Mormons; signification of 

the name, 504. 
De Soto, Ferdinand, 44,45. 
D'EsTAiNG ; see Estairig. 
Detroit, Capture of, 424. 
Devens, Charles, General, 585. 
De Vries, Captain. 92. His plantation, 140. 
Dexter, Samuel, 839. 
Dickenson, John, Chairman of the convention on the 

Constitution of the United States, 355. His letters 

213. 
Dieskau, Baron, Fate of his expedition, 189, 190. Death 

of, 190. 
Dime, United States coin, 372. 
Dimoiddie Court House, 717. 
DiNwiDDiE, Robert, Governor, 185. His letter to St. 

Pierre, 181. His independent companies, 1S4. 
Directory, The French, 383, 384. 
DoBBS, Governor. 185. 
Dobb'8 Ferry, 257. 
Dollar y American, 87^ 



764 



Dominion, The Old : see Old DomlDion, 

Donelsoii, Fovt, Victory at, 597. 

DoNGAN, Thomas, Governor, 147. 

DoNipjiAV, Colonel. 4SS. 4S9. 

DoNOp, Count, at Burlinaton, 2C3. Death of, 293. 

Douglas. Stephen A., 541. 

Doner, atmckvd l.y the French and Indians, 1639, 130. 

DowNiE. Commodore, 4S4. Death of, 435. 

Dpnfl, 667. 

Drake, Sir Francis, 56. At St. Au^stine, 57. Dis- 
covers the tobacco-plant ; introduces it into England, 
70. 

Drummonti. General, 4-32, 433. At Burlington Heights, 

- 433. At Fort Erie,434. 

Drcmmond, William, Rev., 111. Exeented. 97,112. 

DuANE, William J., refuses to -withdraw the Govern- 
ment funds from the United States Bank, 465. 

Dfciie, .jAroB. llev., 223. 

Dudley, .Iosepii, 129. 

Dudley, Thomas, 117. 

Dunbar, Colonel, 1S6. 

Dunmore, Lord, 237, 24.3, 5S9. 

DUPONT, S. F., Commodore, 583, 609,671. 

DusTAN, Mrs, captured by the French and Indians 
184. 

Dutch, The, their maritime enterprise, 71. East India 
Company of, send a ship to tho Hudson Kiver, 71. 
Purchase Manhattan Island from the Manhattan 
Indians, 21. Settle at New Amsterdam, 62. In New 
Netherland, send a friendly salutation to the Massa- 
chusetts Colony. 118. Their friendly intercourse with 
the Puritans. S.5. Oppose Captain Holmes, 65. 
Ptircli"- ■ Tj>r_- T^l:ind, 114. Claim jurisdiction upon 
the I ■ '-'1. Settle in South Carolina, 99. 

Tak. W-w York, 147. 

Dutch y '■ ' / / . ■■ntpany, 59. 71. 

Dutch II..-. 7"..../ (..-«/WKy, 72, 93,139,141. 

Dutch I'oiiit, Connecticut, S5, 



Eagle, American frold coin, 372. 

Early, General, 69,'i, 098. 

Eastlntlia Company sead tea to America; notice of 
the, 224. 

East Jeraet/, '\m. 

Eaton, Tu'eopuilus, Governor, 88,154. 

Eaton, William, Captain, Consul at Tripoli, 392. 

£,/,/,,, Indiati. 2.3. 

Ki.EN, William. 2nC. 

Edii'fnn. North Carolina, First popular assembly at, 93. 

£,lido Ishiml. 009. ■ 

EOucatinii fostered by the Massachusetts Colony, 
121. In the colonies, 178. 

Edwards, .Ionathan, 210. 

Effingham, Governor, Character of, 113. 

EU/a. Bonaparte at, 4^31. 

Electors for President and Vice-President of the United 
States, 801. 

Eliot, .John, Rev., 123. 

Elizabeth, Queen of England. 61, 76. 

Elizabeth hlandn discovered, 67. 

Elizabethtuwn, New Jersey, 159. 

Ellet, Charlks, Jr., Colonel, 605. 

Elliott, Susanna. Mrs.. 805. 

Ellison's Mill, Battle at, 619, 620. 

Ellsworth, Colonel, takes first secession flag, 564. 

Ellsworth. Oliver, 356,359. Envoy to France, 1799, 
8S5. On the Judicary of the United States, 363. No- 
tice of, S.'.^ 

Elm, Penn's Treatv, 96, 161. 

Emancipation, Proclamation of, 639, 640, 680. 

Endicot, .John, 117. 

Enaltind. sec Great Rritain. 

^ Enterprise'' brig, 430. 



'■"bri 



,410. 



Erie 111, Hans. Ill, 23. 
Erie rr(«<(/, 450, 467. 
Erie, Like ; See Lake Erie. 
Emue/aii, Battle at. 423. 
Erskine, General, at Trenton, 268. 
Erskine, Mr., British Minister to the United States, 406. 
Esopns Tnilians, 143. 
Esquimaux Indians, 17, .509. 
" Essex " fricrate, 414, 430, 431. 

Estaing, C.iunt d', sent with a fleet to America, 286. 
Hl6 fleet disabled by a storm, 289. In the West Indies, 



At the siege of 



292. Ofl' the coast of Georgia, 
Savannah, 305. Notice of, 2S9. 

Estramadura, Cortez died at, in 1554, 43. 

Etehemin Indians, 22. 

Eiitaw Springs, Battle o^ .333. 

Everett. Edward. Mass., 542. 

EwELL, General. 617, 654. 

EwiNQ, James, Gener.al, at Trenton, 263. 

Exeter, New Uampshire, founded, SO. 

F. 



FadrJleJd, Cnnnecticot, 88. 

Fair Oaks, Battle at, 619. 

Falls of the James Rivet, 105, 108. 

Famine in the Virginia Colony, 09. 

Farragut, Commodore, 610, 6.30, 6.32, 678, 70S. 

Fauchet, M., succeeds M. Genet, 378. 

Faulkner, Major, 430. 

Faust, John, his printing office, 62. 

Fayettemlle, Engagement at, 675. 

Federalist Party, 377. 

"Federalist," The, 861. 

Felucca Gun-hoat, 401. 

Fendall, Governor. 163. 

Fenian Erotherhood, 728. 

Ferdinand and Isabella, 8S, 60. 

Ferguson, Adam, 2S6. 

Ferguson, Captain, &36. 

Ferguson, Mrs., her attempt to bribe General Heed, 
2S6. 

Ferguson, Patrick. M,ijor, at King's Mountain, 17S0, 
319. Death and grave of. 319. 

Fernando de Taos, Massacro at, 4S9. 

Ferbab, Nicholas, 107. 

Few, William, 355, 366. 

Fidelity, The Order of, 852. 

Fillmore, Millard, Vice-President, 493. President, 501 . 
Notice of, 501. Cabinet ol^ 502. Close of administra- 
tion of, 512. 

Fine Arts in America, 209. 

Finances of the United Utates, 679. 

Fisher, Mart, Quakeress, arrives at Boston, 122. 

Fisheries, 849, Prtdiibitory Act of Parliament respect- 
ing the, 231. Diflieulties between Great Britain and 
the United States respecting the, 511, 528. 

Fishing Creek. 27. 

FiTzsiMONS, Thomas, 856. 629. 

Fire Nations, The, Hi..itory of, 23. Captain John 
Smith's friendly relations with, 67. Allies of Governor 
Winthrop. 181. Attempts of James IL to introduce 
French priests among them, 147. Their treaty of 
neutralitv, 1.35. 

Flag Culpepper, 24-3. P.oyal, of Great Britain, 144. 
Union, 24.6, Of the thirteen stripes, unfurled by 
Washington at Cambridge, 144. 

Flag, Secession, 566. 

Flathead Indi, 



Fla.r 



.206. 



Fleming, Captain, Death of, 269. 

Fletcher, Benjamin, Governor, 149, 156, 164. 

Flint River, Do Soto on the banks of the, 44. 

Floating Batteries described, 201. 

Florida, Discovery of; origin of the name, 42. Narvaez, 
Governor of, 4-3,44. Melcndez's expedition to, 50, 51. 
Oglethorpe's expedition to, 17'2. Ceded to England, 
204. Eestored to Spain, 849. Ceded to the United 
States, 1819, 451. State of, added to the Union, 478. 
Secession of, 517. 

Foote, a. II., Commander, 695. Wounded, 605. 

J''o».<«:— Adams. 874. Amsterdam, 139. Andrew, 173. 
Bower, 433. Brooke, 407. Brown, 4S1. Butler, 67T. 
Carolina, 51, 9S. Casimir, 142. 148. Clinton, 283, 824. 
Cumberland, 193. Darling, 694. Dearborn, 412. De- 
fiance, 374, 416. Deposit, 416. De Eussy, 677, 
Diego, 172, Donelson, 505, Drane, 467. Du Quesne, 
27, 132, 185, 186. E(»lvard, 189, 190, 191, 192, 275. Erie. 
433, 434. Fisher, 71-3. Forty Fort, 290. Fredciici\. 
178. Frontenac, 198, Gaines, 709. Galphin, 336. 
George, on Lake George, 198, 414, 425, 426, 42T, 
George, New York City, 243, 35L Granby, 235. Gris- 

■ wold, 340. Hamilton, 253. Harrison. 416, Hatteras., 
680. Henry, 695. Ilindman. 543. Independence, 20, 
220. Jackson. 610. King, 467. La Favette. 298, 586. 
Leavenworth, 483, 486. Le Bneuf, 181. iee, 2.69, Ly- 
man, 189. Mackinaw, 411. Macon, 607. Malilen, 410. 
Meigs, 418. Mercer, 274, 275. MitlTin, 274. M'Henry, 



INDPX. 



765 



437. Mimms, 427. Monroe, 615, 695. Montcomery 
2S.3. Morg.an, 488. Moosa, 172. Motte, 335. Moultrie. 
249, 810, 463. Nassau. 73, 93, 94. Ifecessity, ISS! 
Niiigaia, 1!)9, 200, 427. Ninety-Siy, 316, 38S, 836. 
Ontario, 189,' 193. Oranse, 73, 1.39, 144, 148. Oswego, 
189, 192, Pemherton, 643. Pepperell, 1S9. Pickens, 
630. Pilln\v-; 605, 632. Pitt, 198. Powhabin, 691. 
Presque Isle, 131. Prince George, .335. Pntnam, 233, 
324. ReciiviTv, 374. Eepuhlic, 617. St. Frederick, 
189. St. Philip. 440, 610. Sandusky, 419. Schuyler, 
278. Simon, 173. SUinwix, 273. Steadman, 717. 
Stephenson, 419. Stoddart. 898. Sullivan, 249. 
Trumbull, .340. Venango, 181. Wagner, 673. 674. 
Warren, 5S7. Washington, 268. Watson, 335, Wayne, 
874, 416. William, 17.3. William Henry, 191, 194. 

Forrest, N. B., Guerilla Chief, 633, 631. 

Foster, General, 671. 

Fox, Cu.VRLES, his oi>i)Osition to the measures of Great 
Britain, 283. His remark respecting the battle of 
Guilford. 8.38. 

Fox, George, visits his Quaker brethren in America, 
94 Notice of, 122. 

Fox. Indians^ 17. Conspire against the English, 205. 
See Sacs and Foxes. • 

France^ First Arnericau embassy to, 266. Alliance of, 
■with the United States, 2si. Fleet of, sent to America, 
236. Secret treaty of, with Spain, 306. Depredations 
by, on American commerce, 382. Fleet of. attacked 
by Arbuthnot, .330. War with United States, 885. Its 
coinmerce, 401. Negotiation with CTnited States, 406. 
United States Minister to, 429. Claims of the United 
States against. 463. 

Frattee, F.mperor of, 727. 

Francis I., his expedition to America, 47. 

Feanklin, Benjamin, 210. Ilis plan of Colonial Confed- 
eration. 183. A Colonel, 193. At Boston, on the sub- 
ject of the invasion of Canada, 2.39. Circulates in Eng- 
land the State-papers of tlie Continental Congress, 230. 
On the Committee to confer with Lord Howe, 257. On 
the Comniitte to draft a Declaration of Independence, 
251, 252. On the emtjassy to France. Issues commis- 
sions to Naval Olficer9,303. Commissioner on the Treaty 
of Peace, 348. The Pope's Nuncio makes overtures to, 
respecting an Apostolic Vicar in tlie United States, 
863. Member of the Convention (m the Articles of 
Confederation, 856. His proposition respecting prayers 
at the Convention, 359. His account of the'fiither of 
Cotton Matilier, 134. 

Franklin, (General, 625, 6SJ. 

I ;: I ii N. Search for, 509, 510. 



r,'. 



if, 083. 



2r.',i. 



: THE Great, his opinion of Washington, 

: III. of Prussia, 481. 

r;;f/,ri. ■/..■./,„,;-/. 625. Battle of. 631. Battle near, 692. 

P-v, / ,/ :■ ,. lirowth of, 114. 

'■'!■' • Ml il. in Massachusetts, lis. 

^'i:i M ,1.1 1 i; AKLES, Colonel, his exploits in Califor- 
j(i: , 4 7: I I.I Angeles; at San Gabriels deprived of 
Ills c"rnlil,s^il,ll. 4S7. Senator from California, 499. 
Notice 111", 437. Explorations of 515, 574. 

'BKNcn, Parker It., Cilonel, 427. 

'■''rench Colon// on Sablo Island, 57. Acadia, 121. 
Possessions in North America, between the Penobscot 
and St Croix, 129. In Carolina, 56. Uevolutiim, 877. 
Sc^ttlement, the eai-licst in the New Worid, 53, 69. 



Spi.lh 



, 468. 



; Indi: 



The 



xpeailionag. 



iinquins, 17. 
r„,r]iestE.\-- 
i. .■!!. Sub- 
ilcd by the 
nst Charles- 



rren,-!i .(iKl TnMtm Wur, 19, 104, 138, 179. 

Ffenchloiitii, burned. 480. 

Fresh Water Jlixei; 85. 

Frobisiier, Sm Martin, his expedition, 53. The ship 
used bv, CO. Notice of, 51. 

"Frolic!" brig, 41.5. 

Frontenac. M.. Governor of Canada, 131. Burns Sche- 
nectady, 130, 131, Repelled by Schuyler, 149. 

Frv. .Tosiii-A A., Colonel, 183. Jleath of, 183. 

Fugitive Slrire Lnu; 507, .521. 527. 

FiTLTON, KoBERT, Noticc of, 898, 309. 

'•FundamenUd ConstiiuUonay The, of Shaftsbury and 
Locke, 104, 165, 167. 



Funeral Ceremonies, Indian, 15. Pyre Algonquin, 15. 
Fur\ Trade in, 73, 116, 1-39, 140. 



G. 

Gaedsden, CnRtsTopnEB, Lieutenant Governor, 312. 

Gage, Thomas, General, A Lieutenant-Colonel at tho 
battle of Mouongahela, 180. Governor of M(mtrea], 
203. Enters Boston with soldiers, 220. Governor of 
Massachusetts, 226. Sends his secretary to dissolve 
the General Assembly ol Massachusetts, 227. Fortifles 
Boston, 229. Notice of, 239. 

Gaines, Edmund P., General, Arrests Aaron Burr, 898. 
At Fort Erie, 733. His expedition against the Semi- 
noles; joined by General Jackson, 413. Assailed by 
the Seminoles, near Withlacoochee, 467. Notices of, 
443, 467. 

Gai-latin, Albert, Member of the Honse of Representa- 
tives,339. Secretaryof the Treasury, 890, 4116. Envov, 
419. United States Commissioner at Ghent, 1S14, 438. 

Galloway, .JosEpn, 260, 5SS. 

Galveston; Pirates and slave-dealers at, 443. 

GA.MBIER, Lord, British Commissioner at Ghent, 1814 



Gansevoort, Colonel, At Fort Stanwix, 373. 

Garun^ulu, 36. 

Gardiner. Colonel, 295. 

Gaspe Inlet, 48. 

"Gaspe," schooner, 223. 310. 

Gates, Horatio, General, His appointment as Adjutant 
General, 233. Succeeds General Thomas, 3iil. Super- 
sedes General Schuyler, 277. At Bemis's Heights, 278. 
Burgoyne surrenders to, 231. Chairman of the Boai-d 
of War, 294. His flight to Charlotte, S16. Trial of, 
830. Notice of, 814. 

Gates, Sir Tuomas, 68. At Jamestown. Returns to 
EnglantL 

Geiger, Emily, 837. 

Genet, Ed.mond Chakles, Minister from France to tho 
United States, 377. Fits out privateers, 377. Kccalled, 
in 1798. 378. Notice of, 877. 

George I, of England, 186, 187. 

George II, of England, Accession of, 137. Charter 
granted by, for the jiroposed Georgia Colony. 100. 

George III, of England. Accession" of, 213. His insan- 
ity, 93. Leaden statue of, at New York, pulled down, 
262. 

George, Prince of Denmark. 136. 

"Oeorge Washington,'^ frigate, 891. 

Georgetotcn, Burnt, 430. 

Georgia, Settlement of, 99. Colony in. founded by 
Oglethorpe, 62. Colony of; origin of the name, 100. 
Invaded by the Spaniards. 172. Keceives Parliamentary 
aid, 209. Claims of, to Cherokee lanils. 461. Contro- 
versy in, coucerning the Creek lands, 455, 456. Seces- 
sion of, .547. Quiet in. 673. 

Gerard, M., Fnn.-h .Mini.siiito the United States, 287. 

Ger7nan8m Nuriii ('it<ili m, u;-^. 

Gerry, Elbruii.k, :;.";. I.n,.iy. .33,5. Vice-President, 497. 

Gbrmaine, Ge'ip.i.e. Lull!. JyJ, ;i45. 

GermantQwii, Battle of. 375. 

Gettysburg, Battle o^ 665. 

Gibson. C. W., Major, 683. 

GiDDiNGS, M.ijor, at Ceralvo, 486. 

Gilbert, Edward, 499. 

Gilbert, Sib Humphrey, 52, 63. His expedition to 
America; notice of, 52. 

Gilbert, Sir John, 63. 

Gilbert, Raleigh, 63. 

Oilman, Nicholas, S.".6, 629. ». 

GiLMOEE, Q. A., Gcna|d, 607, 673, 

Gist. General, .347. * 

Gl,'iv7.r. . r.iiil ■ III. 621. 

(?/■"!' \i I. lurtifiedbv Comwalli3,.340. 

Go,i/'.. Ill .1 II to Virginia, 68. 

Goi.FKi.i, lll..^;.^-. -Ml 

Gonvx, ^A^RKL. 92. 139. 

GoKFE, William, The regicide judge, 12.3, 126. 

Gold, Thirst for, in tho Virginia Colony, 67. Dis- 
covery of, California, 497. 

Golden. Circle. Knights of, 656, 687, 710. 

Gol.dsboro\ Raid on, 671. Battle at, 714. 

Goldsmiths among the Virginia colonists, 07. 

Gore, Ciieistopher, 222. 

Geop..;e9, Sir Fernando, 63, 79, 129. Associated with 
.John Mason, 79. 

GoEUA-M, Nathaniel, 856, 859, 



766 



GosNOU), BARTnoLOifEW, 57, C3, 65. His discoveries; 

his fnrt, 57. Death of, G5. 
GouLDBotTRNE, Ueney, British Commissioner at Ghent, 

GouBGES. DoinNic de, Surprises and captures Fort Car- 
olina, 51. 

GoTJernment, Three forma of^ in America, 211. 

Graffenreid. Count, 16S. 

Grant, James, Colonel. 204, 

Graxt, General, (British), 253. His reply to Eall, 262. 

Grant, Ulysses S,, General. 595, makes vigorous pre- 

. parations for ascon(lin<; the Tennessee river, 601. 634, 
M2. Begins sieire of Vicksburir, 645, 666, 67S. Com- 
mander-in-chief, 6S1, 6^9. 690, 6!I2, 693, 716, 719. Fare- 
well address of, 723. Placed in charge of the War 
Department, 730. 

Grasse, Count de, 839, 340. 

Graves, Admiral, 340. 

Gray, Samuel, killed at Boston, by Preston's men, 221. 

Grayson, William. 855. 

Great Britain acknowledges the Independence of the 
United States, 34S. Non -intercourse with the United 
States, 899. Injures the commerce jI' the United 
States, 401. Naw of. 414. At war with the United 
States, 409 ; Treaty of Peace, 443. Claim* of, to terri- 
tory in North America, 17, 63, ISO, 47S, 479. Roval 
standard of, 144. Ill feeling against, 511. Fi-iendly 
relations with disturbed. 526. Her symyjathT with re 
bellion, 561. Deuiaads return of Mason add Slidell, 
58S. 

Great Horaeslioe Bend^ General Jackson at the, 1841, 
423. 

Great Kanawha River^ Battle at the, 19 

Greex. Koger. 97. 

Green Bat/. Indians on the western shores of, 18. 

Green, Christopukr, Lieutenant-Colonel, of Khodc 
Island, 275. 

Greene, Nathaniel, General, appointed Brigadier- 
General, 238. At Fort Lee, 259. At Trenton, 259. Ac- 
companies La Fayette to Rhode Island, 289. At 
Springfield, 820. Succeeds Gates ; his operations, 
830. Joins Morgan at the Yadkin; his retreat from 
Virginia, 333. Opposes Cornwallis at Guilford court- 
house. 333. Pursues Cornwallis ; at the battle of 
Hobkirk's Hill; his letter to M. Luzerne, 834. At 
the siege of Fort Ninetv-Six, 386. Pursues Stewart, 
837. At the battle of £utaw Springs, 838. Eeceives 
intelligence of the capture of Cornwallis, 345. Takes 
possession of Charleston, 847. 

Greene, ZECHARrAH, Rev., 253. 

Green jhUp^ Treaty of, in 1795, 24. 

Grenville, George, Author of the Stamp Act, 221. 

Geenville, Sir Ricuard, his E.vpedition to America, 55, 
56. 

GrenviUe, Georgia, 213. 

Grev, General, his Marauding Expedition, 290. 

Grev, C!ii>tain, of Boston, 479. 

GRn>LEV. Richard, Engineer of the Continental Army, 
138, 190, 193. 234. 

Gkiekson, Colonel, Raid of, 645. 

Gsier, Mrs., Judge Henry's account of, 241. 

G-EiPFiTn, Admiral, at Castine, 42S, 

Gbijalva, Juan de, his Expedition to Mexico, 43. 

Groveton, Battle near, 626. 

Gu-adahijw Hidalgo, Treaty of, 521. 

Guanahama, The place of Columbus's first landing in 
America, 40. 

Gudrida, Wife of a Scandinavian Navigator, 85. 

Guess, George, a native Cherokee, invents an alphabet 
of his huiicuaire, 28. 

duilford, Battle of, 333. 

Gim-boatR of the United States, 4M. 

*'6D8TAvua Adolpuus," The assimicd name of Arnold, 
92, 325. 

GwiWN, WiLLiAii M., Senator, 499. 

H. 

ITabeaft Corpus, Suspension of writ of, 656. 

Jlart^iefi Bluff, 643. 

Hakluyt. Richard. 63. 

Hale, Sir Matthew, condemns persons accused of 

witchcraft, 132. 
Hale, Nathan. Captain, executed, 258. 
" Half- Moon;' The. 48, 59, 71. 
Halleck, H. W.. General. 595. 591, 623, 625, 653. 
Hamixton, Alexander. General, Washington's favorite 

Aid and Secretary, 860, 861. Member of the Con- 



vention on the Articles of Confederation, 1787, 356. 
Signer of the Constitution of the United States. One 
of the authors of "The Federalist," 361. Secretary of 
the Treasury, 870; his financial Reports, 370, 871. 
His Scheme respecting Public Lands, 872. His dis- 
agreement with Jellerson, 374. His duel with Burr, 
896. Notice of. 860. 

Hampden, John, 85. His supposed intention to migrate 
to America, 120. 

Hampton, Wade, General, 410, 427. 

Hamptoth Roads, The British fleet in, 430. Armament 
in, 582. A naval force in, 613. 

Hancock, John, at Salem, 230. Game's purpose to 
hang him, 234. Leads troops to Rhode Island, 289. 
His sloop '-Liberty," 220. Notice of, 230, 231. 

Hancock, General, 654, 689. 

Hansford, Charles, executed, 112. 

Hardy, Commodore. 430, 437. 

Harlem Heights, Washington at, 257. 

Harlem Plains, Skirniisli at, 253. 

Hagmer, General, his Expedition against the Indians, 
873. 

Harper^a Ferry, Insurrection, 438. In 1861, 557, 629. 

Harper, John, A., 409. 

Harrington, Jonathan, 223. 

Harriot, his " Report on the new found land of Vir- 
ginia:" notice of, 55, 56. 

Harrisourg^ Pennsylvania, National Convention at, 458. 

Harrison, Benjamin, at Boston, 239. 

HarrisoJi's Landing, 622. 

Harrison, William Henry, at the battle of Tippecanoe, 
403. Commands the army of the North-east, 412. 
His Expedition against the Indians, 416. At Fort 
Mfigs, 418. Att.acks Mahlen, 423. I'resident of the 
United States; his administration, 473. Death of, 
475. Notice o4 473. 

Hati/ord, Connecticut, SS. Convention at, 444. 

Hartley, David, 348. 

Harvard, Ebekezkr, 22, 873. 

Harvard, John, Rev., 121. 

Harvard College , 121, 378. 

Harvey, Sir John, 107, 165. Impeached, 207 

Haslett, Colonel, Death of. 269. 

Hatteras Indians, 20, 55, 167. 

Hatteras Inlet, Fight at, 679. 

Havana, The body of Columbus removed to, 41. 

Haverhillj Massachusetts, 134. 

Haviland, Colonel, 203. 

Bavre-de- Grace, Maryland, 82,430. 

Hawley, Jesse, 456. 

Hayne, Isaac, C-olonel. 887. 

Hayne, Robert Y., 408, 464. 

Hayes, J., General, 696. 

Hazzard, W. W., his plantation, 173. 

Head qf Elk, Maryland, 340. 

Heald, Captain. 412. 

Heatu, Sir Robert, 97, 98. 

Heath, William. General. 23& In the Hiehknds, 259. 
At Peekskill, 260. In New Jersey, 2&4, 265. ' 

Heokewelder, his History of the Indian Nations, S3. 

Heights of Abraham, 202. 

Heintzelman. General, 619. 

Hell Gate, New York, navigated by Block, 72. 

Henderson, General, 4S8. 

Hendrick, Death of, 190. 

Henry, Prince, of Portugal, patron of navigators, 36. 

Henry IV., of France, his edict of Nantes, 166. 

Heney IV., of Castile and Leon, 33. 

Henry VII., of EriL'iaiid, 46. 

Henry VIIL, of Emrland, defies the Pope; Defender 
of the Faith, 75. flevival of an obsolete statute of, 
221. Punishes witchcraft, 132. 

Henry, Patrick, member of the First Continental Con- 
gress, 223. His eloquence, 237. His regiment at the 
battle of the Gre.at Bridge, 248. Member of the Con- 
vention on the Articles of Confederation, 856. De- 
clines the appointment of Envoy to France, 385. 
Notice of, 214. 

Henry, Judge, 241. 

Herklmee, General, At Oriskany, 278. 

Herrera, President. 4S1. 

Heasiatis, the, account of, 246. Maranders, 296, 297. 
Capture of, at Trenton, by Washington, 268. With 
Burgoyne. 281. 

Heyes, Peter, 92, 94. 

Hi-a-tcat-ha, Legend of, 28, 24. 

Hichittie Indians, 80. 

HiGGiNSON, Rev. Mr., 117. Death of, 114 



767 



Bigh mils ofSantee, 887. 

Highlanderis in Georgia, 171. 

Hill, A. P., Gent-ral, 619, 693. 

Hill. D. H., General, 619, 620, SH. 

Hilton Head. 704. 

HiNDMAN, T. C C37. 

HiNMAN, Captiin, 3u3. 

ffi-o-ku-too. Seneca Chief, 25. 

Ifobkivk'8 IIUl, B.'itlle of, 334, 

ITobokeM, Slaughter of Imiians at, 141. 

HoBOMOK. a famous Xew Eoghind Indian, 21 

ITochehiga. Cartier at, 4S. 

Hoke. General, T04. ' 

Hood, J. B., General, 700, 702, 705. 

Hooker. J.. General. 016, 622, 629. Placed in command 

of the armr. 031, 647. Resigns command of the army, 

65S, 667, 668, 701. 
HoOKKK, TnoMAS, Rev., his colony, 86. 
HoLBOiENR, Admiral, 194. 
HoUan'}, Expcdirion from, to Anierica, 71, 72. War with 

England, 147, 327. 
Holmes, Admiral, 201, 
Holmes, William, Captain, S5. 
Hopkins, Eowabd, Governor, 85, 155. 
Hopkins, Ezek. first Commander-in-chief of the Amer- 
ican Navy, 803. 
HoPKiNsoN, Fkancis, Notico of, 285. 
HoPKiNSON. Joseph, authr>r of *■ Hail Columbia,"" 2S5. 

'* Hornet," shH.p of wai-, 414, 42S, 429. 
Horry, Colonel, 336. 
Uorae, The first taken to Virginia, 63. Columbus takes 

horses to America. 41. Taken from Cuba to Florida; 

their fate, 44. Taken by De Soto to Florida, 44. 
HoniAM, Admiral, 292. 
•lIoxiMitonic Jndiiinsi^ 189. 
House of Bui-gesses^ Virginia, the beginning of the, 

106. 
IJ0U86 p/'^fi/>rtffiftMto^?>€« of Massachusetts Colony, 122. 
Houston, William, 356. 

HOCSTON, WlLLLAM CllURCniLL, 356^ 

Houston, General, at tbe battle of San Jacinto, 473. 

Howard. John Eager, Colonel, at the battle of the Cow- 
pens, 332. 

Howard, Admiral, 57, 

Howard, O. O., General, 701, T08, 

Howe, George, Lord, Notice of, 197. 

HowK, Riciiarv, Lord, at Boston, 247. At New York, 
252. Prepares to attack New York ; paroles General 
Sullivan; asks Congress to appoint a Committee of 
Conference, 257. His letter to Washington, 253. Meets 
the Committee appointed by Congress, 257. In Rari- 
tan Bay, 287. His fleet disabled by a storm in, 2S9. 

Howe, Robert, General. 244, 292, 298. Suppresses the 
mutiny at Pompton, 329. 

Howe, Sir William, General, 202, 234, 235. At Quebec, 
202. At New York, 252. His Proclamation, 260. 
Perplexes Washington, 272. At Brandy wine, 273. At 
Elktou, 173. Attem|it3 to entice Washington from 
his encampment, 1S3. Knighted, after the" battle of 
Brooklyn, 273. 

Jluamanthi, Buttle of, 494. 

Hudson, Henry, Captain, his glowing account of his 
discoveries, 71. Fate of, 59. 

HuGER. Colonel, defeated by Tarleton, 311. 

Iltigiienoh, the. Persecution of, in France, 166. Ad- 
miral Coligny, the friend of, 49. In North Carolina, 
163. In South Carolina, 166. Influence ot; in Amer- 
ica. 52. 

Hull, Isaac, Commodore, 414. 

Hull. William, General, 410, 411. 

HuLSEMAN, Chevalier, 510. Letter of, 517. 

Hir.MPURET, Alexander, SO. 

Humphrey, John, 117. 

Hunt, Captain, kidnaps Indians, 74. 

Hunter, Robert, Governor, 150. 

" I/miter's Lodgen,''' 472. 

Hunter, General, 593, 003, 672, 673. 

Ilaron, Lake: see Lake Huron. 

Huron, King, dies in France. 49. 

Hu.ro7i Indium, 21, 23. With Samuel Champlain, 59. 

Muron- Iroquois Indians^ 22-26. Their territory, 23. 
Their Language. 12. 

Huron Coi/H^//- i^^^ded by the Five Nations, 24. 

Hutchinson, Governor, 222. His famous "Letters" 224, 
225. 



[NSON, Captain, 126. 
Hutchinson, Anne, Mrs., 80, 91, 120. Murder of, 141. 
Hutchinson Controversy^ 88. 



I. 

Iceland^ 34, 85. 

Ile-auip'Noia; 2r3. 

lUinoia Indians, 17, 18, 19. Invaded by the Sacs and 
Foxes, 18. 

Hlinais, Territory and State of, 390, 443. 

Inipeadinient o/ Andrew Joknaon, 732. Verdict given, 
733. 

Independence, American, General desire for, In 1776; 
250. War for, 229. Asserted by the Committee of 
Conference with Lord Uowe, 257. Acknowledged by 
Great Biitain, 348. 

Indians alliances against the Colonies, 124. Chiefs 
dine with Governor Winthrop, lia Confederacy 
against South Carolina. 170. Presents received from 
Great Britain, 206. Religion, 15. Treaties, 362, 863. 
lYeaty of Peace, 374. 

Indians. The, 11. Resemblance of. to Asiatics, 11. Ac- 
count of the Aboriginal tribes of, 12. Employments of 
women among, 12, 13. Extreme Western, 82, S3. 
Population of, in the United States. 32. Their plan 
to exterminate the white people; slaughter of, 106. 
Troublesome in Oregon and Washington Territory, 525. 

Indian ITar, 462. 

Indies, the, Columbus's voyage in qnest of a western 

f:issa^e to, 84. The trade of, monopolized by the 
talian cities, 36. 

Indigo, American, 206. 

Industry, private. Effects of. In Virginia, and in Ply- 
mouth, 70. 

Ingoldsby, Richard, 153, 150. 

Intolerance in Massachusetts, IIS, 119, 123. In Mary- 
land, New York, and New England, 132, 133. 

^''IntrepidC The, Tripolitan vessel, 392. 

Iowa Indians, 82. 

lowct, state of; added to the Union, i78. 

Iron cfiain across the Iludmon, 824. 

Iroquois Indians, 24. 81. 

iKviN, Colonel, at Agua Frio, 4SG. 

Irvine, William, 8o5. 

Isabella, Queen, Sister of Heniy IV., of Castile and 
Leon, 83. Co!ambus''8 personal interview with, 3S. 

Italian Cities, their monopoly of the trade of the In- 
dies, 36. 

luka Springs, Battle near, 634. 

Izard, General, Succeeds Wilkinson, 432. Notice of, 
434. 

J. 

Jackson, AiftEKW, General, anecdote of him, when a 
bov, 314. Tbemother of.3I4. His confidt-nce wun by 
B.urr, 397. His expedition against the Creeks, in 1S13, 
428. Storms Pensacola, 433. At Now Orleans, 433, 
439. His treaty with the Creek Indians, 438. His 
expedition against the Seminoles. 44S. Captures Pen- 
sacola, 451. Subdues the Seminoles. 30, 464,459, 46L 

Jackson, Stonewall, 573, 624, 625, 629. 

Jackson, T. J., 617. 

Jacksonville, Att.ick on, 608. 

Jackson, James, Notice of, 347,848. 

Jackson, Robert, 314. 

Jacksonhorough, South Carolina Legislature at, 338u 

Jalapa, Generals Scott and TwiTga at, 489. 490. 

James I, of England, Character of; persecutes Puri- 
tans. 76. His proposal to contract for the whole crop 
of tobaccoin Virginia, 107. His acts of usurpation in 
Virginia, 107. Death of, 116. Patents granted by, 

James II, of England, Accession of; his character, 118, 
147. Oppressive measures of, 129. His arbitrary pro- 
ceedings respecting the Jerseys, 160. Driven into 
exile, 162. 

Jameson River, Origin of the name, 64. English navi- 
gators enter the, 20, 61. Indians on the, 17. 

James, Colonel, 326. 

Jatnestoicn, Virginia, founded. 166. Origin of the 
name, 64. Cultivation of tobacco at. 70. Famine at, 
saved by Pocahontas, 69; saved by Chanco. 106. Na- 
thaniel Bacon at. 111. Destruction oi; by Bacon, 112. 

Ja7nes Island, Fight at, 674. 

Japan opened to United States trade, 511. Sends Em- 
bassy to United States. 512. 

jASi'teR, Sergeant, S49, 305. 

^^Java,'" frigate, 415. 

Jat, John, one of the authors of the Federalist, 861. 
Commissioner on the Treaty of Peace, 348. First 



768 



Chief Justice of the United States. 309. Special En- 
voy to Great Britain, 379. His treaty, 379, 3»0. Notice 
of, 879. 

Jefferson, Thomas, on tlie Committee to draft the De- 
claration nf Indt'rieniience. 251. Tarleton's attempt to 
capture. '-^'M*. ('oTnmi-^ioner on the Treaty of Peace, 
34S. Si-iri:!' \ "I Ki.r. i^-n Afhirs. 8T0. His disagree- 
ment ^^i^il II iini i-'i, ot4. His remarks respecting 
Ak'erinc |.:: > i -, ■^1 ; :^.nd on Coins and Coinage, 372. 
Viei-I'n.M 1« 1,1. ,;-.j. I'lvsident, 88<.S96. Hiaembario, 
402,403. His iiccount of Logan, 26. Death of, 457. 
N'otice of, 3sS. S^a. 

Jekfbets, Cilcnel. 112. 113. 

Jennings, Colonel, 416. 

Jknxfke, Daniel, of St Thomas, 256. 

Jersey, Giant from Parliamen* to, 206. West, 139. 
ITnion of the Jerseys. 161. 

Jersey -Pflion-fl'iip, 259. 

Jessu'ff, Bashaw of Tripoli. 392. 

Jesl'p, Thomas S., at Fort Dade; notice of, 463. 

Jesuits, the, Origin of, 130. Missionaries, ISO. Their 
influence over the Indians, 22, 130. 

John, King of Portugal, his expedition to America, 47. 
Names the Cape of Good Hope, 87. 

^^John- Aflatnu.^^ frigate, 4:33. 

.TruiSST.iN, .A I IIEV.T SVUNET, 594. 

Jon>-'>N. .VMii:in\-. appointed provision.al Governor of 
TtiLM. -.^s ■. .'i I'.i. Elected Vice-President. 710. Sworn 
as I'rtsi.Uiit. Till. Cabinet of, 720. Sketch of, 721. 
Toua di^rigarcluftheintcrests'of freedmen, 725. Pro- 
claims civil war at an end, 727. A'etoes bill for negro 
suffrage, 723. laipeachment of, 732. Pronounced not 
guilty. 783. 

Johnston, Joseph E., 616, 618. 645, 69S. 

Johnson, Isaah. and Lady Arabella, 113. 



, 873. 



Johnson, Sip. Nathaniel. Governor. 109. 

J^iNSoN, UicHARD iM.. Colonel,424. Vice- President, 469. 

•TouNSON, JloBEKT, Goveruor, 171. 

Johnson, Thomas, nominates Washington as Com- 
mander-in-chief, 239. 

Johnson, Sir William, his exploit against Dieskan, 190. 
His expidition a-oinst Crown Point, 1S5, 139. Ac- 
comp:iiii.-s Pri.l.-aiix to Fort Niagara,200. At the bat- 
tle of Qiulu'C. 211;;. Notice of 278. 

.TOHNSON, William Sasicel. 856. 566, 639. 

JtoiNSTONE, George, Commissioner to America, 286. 

J„ueshnrit\ Capture of 702. 

Jo.NES, .ToHN Pai-i, Commodore, His exploits 306. 307. 
Sails for Il.dland. 307. His fleet, 808. Congress pre- 
sents a loia medal to. 303. Notice of, 306. 

Jones, Sip. William, decides against the Duke of York's 
claim to New Jersey, 160. 

Jones, Captain, of the' sloop "Wasp." 415. 

JuJiciiirt/ the r'nite-l .■<tates,S6S,S(i9. 

Ji-MoNvn.i.E, M., Di-ath of 1S3. 

Juri/, Trial by, estaldished in the Colony of Virginia, 
106. 



Kanf FiisHvKrsT Fxplorer. Sketch of, 509. 

A I I i 1 It n tf 51s Open to siaverv. 526, Legis- 

1 itui f H \i knee and bloodshed in, 529 
K 1 Ti't 2 3' 
^ I 11 

A 1 Iv Milor Clarke, 303. 

A '•. 23 

K 
K 1 W Colonel, at Santa Ft, 4S6. At 

s III il 14 1 Notice of 4S0. 
Kfaeny Philip 619 Death of. 627. 
A ustyqe Am rienn man of war, T08. 
A /» B ttl ot th 2>-3 

Kf Tii s p \\ in I iM a In es Stamp Act. 541 
Kfm mi \ 1 tut r-General, 470. 

A (Ml 10 

A I ^ 1 1 I P rh m at, 63. 
A il II PI ilicUlihis96. 

K I I / II I ^1 

Kfnt n sni N , ins Maior Clarke. 80.3. 
A I k I 1 i 1 I 1 1 the Union, 877. Confederates 
>t n f th 11 in 503 Lost to Confederates, 59S. 

li I I n ( t I nion Army, 605. , ' 

Kri n Miiiiial IST 
K me < eek hkirmish at, 295. 
Ke\ FRANns S 437 
Kickapoo Indians, 17, 18. 



KlDD. Captain. 14!1. 

KiEj-r, Sir William, Governor. 140, 141. 

KiLPATBioK, General, 651, 6sS, 702. 

King, Kofus. 356. American Minister at London, 401, 
404,446. Notice of, 396. 

Kin^ Georges War, 136. 

King Philip, 21. Arouses the New England tribes 
against the English. 22. His hostilitv to the Wliiu 
Men. 125. His' war of extermination, 126, 127. Death, 
22. 128. His son, solil as a slave, 128. 

Eiiiff's Mountain. Major Ferguson at, 819. Battle 
of,'319. 

Kingston. New York. Burned, 2S8, 297. 

King WiltiamS War, 134. 

Kipjt^s Bay. 258, 

KiRKLANti. Samuel. Eev. Missionary to the Six Na- 
tions; Notice of 25,26. 

Kitt<ming. Chastisement of the Indians at, 193. 

Knisteneaux Indians, 17. 

Knowlton, Colonel. Death of. 253. 

Knaw-Sothings, 529. 

Knox, Henry, General. Takes possession of Fort 
George, 350, 351. At Washington's last Interview 
with his oBcers, 362. Secretary of War, 370. Notice, 

Knoirille. Saved. 671. 

Knyphai'sen, Geueral. At Brandywine. 273. 'At 

Spiingfleld,820. At Westchester, 259. At New York, 

•309. 
KoNosrniONi. The name of the Five Nations, 23. 
Koscii'SzKO, ThaudeI'S. 836. Notice of, 336. 
Kossuth, Louis. Visit of, 510, 



Lahrador. Discovered by Cabot, 46. Coast of, ex- 
plored by Wevmouth. 58, 

La Colle. Battle at, 482. 

Laconia. Territory of, 79. 80. 

La Fayette, General. His first interview with Wash- 
ington, 272. At Brandywine, 272, 45-3. At Bethle- 
hem, 273. At Monmouth, 2Sa In Ehode Island. -.'89. 
Obtaios aid from France, for the American cause. 806. 
His return from France. 321. In Virginia, 330. 389. 
Pursues CornwalMs, 839. Visits the United States, 
45-3. Lays the coi-ner-stonc of a monument to Do 
K»lb. 816. Notice of, 278. 

Late Champhlin. Eiscovered. 59. 

LaH-e Erie. Battle near, 190. Indians on, 19. 

Lak-e Huron. Discovered, .59. Indians on, 17. 

Lamb, John, Colonel, 242, 270. 

Lancaster, Massachusetts. Burnt, 127. 

Lander, Gen., 651. 

Lanils. Public, of the United Slates, 372. Indian, 
ceded to the United States, 24. 

Lane, Kalph. Governor, 65. 

Lane, General. At Puebla, 494. 

Langdon, John, 356, 629, 

Languagen. Indian, 12. 

Lansing, John J., 356. 

La Place, M.. 234. 

Laturop, Captain, 126. 

LAtjDoNNiERE. Hls expedition to America, 50. 

Laurens, Henry. Commissioner on tho Treaty cf 
Peace 843. 

Lauren's, John, Colonel, 329. Death of, 843. 

La Vega, General, 482, 483. 

Lawrence, Governor. Expedition .against Acadie, 1S5. 

Lawrence, J.vmks, Captain. Notice of, 429. 

Lawrnece, KirHABD, Colonel, 111. Executed, 112. 

'* Lawrence,'^ ship. 420. 

Lear, ToitiAS, Colonel. Consul-Gencral in the Mediter- 
ranean, 395. Compelled to purchase his freedom, 445. 

Leiiyard, William, Colonel, 840. 

Lre, Akthir. American Ambassador to France. 206. 

Lee, Charles, General. A Captain at Ticonderoga, 
wounded. 197. Major-General. 238. At Boston. 2.39. 
At New York. 248. At North Castle, 259. At Mon- 
mouth. 288. His letter to Wayne, 293. 

Lee, Charles. Attorney-General, 1796, 383. Notices 
of 243, 2SS. 

Lee, Henry, General. His exploit at Paulns's Hook, 
94, 294 With General Marion, 33.5, At Fort Ninety- 
six, 337. Suppresses the Whi,skey Insurrection, 373, 
His funeral oration on Wash'ington, 387. Notice oi; 
333. 



769 



Lee, Eobkrt E., General. 538, 563, 619, 628, 681, 64S, 

652, 690, 718. Surrender of, 719. 
Lee, Richard Hbnry. His Resolution on American In- 
dependence, 250, 2.M. Notice of, 250. 
Lee, W. H. F., General. 643. 
Leisler. Jacob, Goveraor, 131,148. 
LRrrcii, Major. Death of, 253. 
Lb MovNE, James, 50. 
Lenwi Lennpe Indians, 17, 20, 21. 
Leon, Ponce de. General. At Braceti, 493. 

" Leopard " fiigate. 402. 

Leslie, General, 332. At Charleston, 847. 

" Levant^'' Bloop-of-w.ir, 440. 

Levi, M. Successor to Montcalm, 203. 

Lbwij*, Andrew, General. Notice of, 244. 

Lewis, Colonel. At Frenchtown, 416, 418. 

Lewis and Clarke's Expedition, 395. 

Zmoiston, Delaware, 92, 94, 430. 

Lsvyiftton, New York. Burnt, 427. 

Lexington. Battle of, 232, 233. 

L&yden. Netherlands. Puritans at, 77. 

Libhy Prison^ Gli2. Plan to blow up, 683. 

" Liberty'''' sloop, 220. 

Liberty-pole. At Plymouth, Massachusetts, 79. 

Ligonia. Agricultural settlement of, 80. 

Lincoln, AniiAnAM. Sketch of, 548. Elected President, 
544. Inauaurated, 551. Calls for troops, 5G0. Deliv- 
ers Emancipation Proclamation, 640. Visits City 
Point, 720. Re-elected, 710. Murdered, 720. 

Lincoln, Earl of, 113. 

Lcnooln, Benjamin, General. At Boundbrook, 270. 
Commands the Southern Army, 204, At Charlesti>n, 
296. Besieges Savann.ih, 805. At Charleston, 809. 
Surrenders to Clinton, 311. At the siege of Yorktown, 
842. Suppresses Shay's Rebellion, %fS. Notice of. 295. 

" L^Insurgente " frigate. Captured by ^^Con&tellation^'' 
885. 

" Little 3611" sloop of war, 407. 

Little Itnek, Arkmima, 675, 676. 

Little Wabash. Major Clarke at the, 80.3. 

Livingston, Ebward. Author of the penal code of 
Louisiana, 451. His defense of General Jackson, 443. 
Notice of, 451, 4.'i2. 

Livingston, Robert. Patroon, 149. 

Livingston, Robert R. His connection with Robert 
Fulton, 899. Notice of, 866. 

Livingston William. His Address to the An^lo-Amer- 
iean Colonies. 228. Member of the Convention on the 
Articles of Confederation, 856. 

Lloyd, Thomas, 102. 

Locke, John. His " Fundamental Constitntions," 99, 
164. 

London Company. Send Henry Hudson on an expedi- 
tion to America, 69, Send Captain Newport to Roan- 
oke Island, 64. New charter of the, 6S. Third char- 
ter of the, 70. Dissolved, 81, 106, 107. Crystal palace 
in, 516. 

Longstrekt, James, General, 619, 620, 652, 667, 670, 689, 
717. 

Logan, John. Mingo Chief, 20, 26. 27, 

Lang Island, ti. Granted to the Earl of Stirling, 144. 
Battle of, 254. 

Long Inslad Indiana. 21, 141. 

Long Island SoitJid. Explored by Captain Block, 72. 

Long Parliament. The, 152. Confirms the charter of 
Rhode Island, 157. 

Lords of Trade, 184. 

VOrlent, Naval expedition fltted out at, 808. 

Lookout Mountain, Events at, C6S. Battle of, 668. 

Los Angelos, Stockton and Fremont take possession of, 
437. 

Lottery authorized by Congress, 293. 

LocDON, Lord, 191, 192, 193, 194. 

Loois XIV., of France, revokes the Edict of Nantes, 166. 
James II., of England, flees to the court of, 130. Ac- 
knowledges Charles Edward, as king of England, 134 

Louisburg, Captured, 136, 138, 196. 

Lowifnana, Ceded to Fiance in 1800; sold to the United 
States, by Napoleon, 204. Territory ; State, 451, Ad- 
mitted to the Union, 409. Secession of, 547. Opera- 



tion 



,644. 



Loins Philippe, Driven from the throne of France, 510. 

LovBLL Mansfield, General, 609. 

Ludlow, Captain, Death of, 429. 

LiTDWELL, Philip, 165, 167. 

lAindy's Lane, Battle of, 433. 

Lutherans, Persecuted and slaughtered by Melendez, 51, 

LuzEENE, M,, General Greene's letter to, 334. 



Ltford, Persecuted by the Pilgrims, 119. 
Lyman, General, At Fort Edward, 189, 191, 
Lyon, Nathaniel, General 572, 578, 566. 



M. 

McClellan, George E., General, 562. 563. Takes com- 
mand of U. S. Armv, 571, 5S.^ 612, 618, 620. Retreat 
of, 621. Wants more men, 623, 628. Relieved of hU 
command, 631. 

MoClernand, John A., General, 596, C4.3. 

MoOooK, A. McD., General, 594, 701. 

M'Clure, James, In Convention on the Articles of Con- 
federation, 356. 

M^Clure, General, At Fort George, 437. 

M-CEE.i, Jane, 277. 

McCoun, General, 600. 

McClTLLOCK, Ben., General, 573, 

McDonald, Donald and Flora, 248. 

McDougall, General, At Peekskill, 270. Secretary of 
the Continental Bo.arii of .Admiralty, 808. 

McDowell, Charles, .\t King's Mountain, 819. 

McDowell, Irving, 567, 618. 

McPherson, General, 643. 

M'Henry, James, 856, 8Sii 

Macomb, General, At Plattsburgh, notice of, 4R4. 

Maodonough, Commodore, Notice of, 484, 485. 

Majiison, James, 356. One of the authors of the Feder- 
alist, 861. His view of the Revenues of the United 
States, 867. Secretary of State, 890. President of the 
United States, 404, 415. Notice of, 405. 

Magaw, Colonel, At Fort Washington, 258. 

Magoffin, Governor, encourages secession, 575. 

Mao RUDER, Colonel, 562. 

Maine, Discovered, 68. Indian tribes of, 127. Settle- 
ment of, 80, 122. A part of Massachusetts until 1S20, 
129. A State, 462. Boundary of, 462. 

3fai3e, The first that was found by Miles Standish, 115. 

Malvern mils, Battle of, 632. 

Manchester, Burnt, 427. 

Manhattan Indians, 21. 

Manhattan Island, Sohl to the Dutch by the Manhattan 
Indians, 21. Purchased by Minuit, 139. Origin of the 
name, 48. The fort at the southern extremity of, 72. 

Manly, Captain, 808. 

Manahoao Indians, 17. 

Manassas, Evacuated by the Rebels, 612. 

Manning, John, The traitor, 147. 

Mansfleld, Battle near, 684. 

Mansfield, Lord, His decision respecting slavery, 583. 

Mansfield. Captain, 481. 

.Manso.v, M. D., General, 68.9. 

Manteo, Indian Chief, Lord of Roanoke, 55, 66. 

Manufactures, American, 177, 178, 216, 447, 458. 

Mariana, Territory of, 79. 

Marine Committee of Congress, 80S. 

Marion, Gener.il, 204. In South Carolina, 314. Emloits 
of, 817, 818, 319, 820, 838. Refuses to drink wine, 317. 
His first appearance at Gates's camp, 813. Anecdote 
of him and a British oflicer at Charlestown, 320. His 
camp destroyed, 320 ; his brigade defeated, in his ab- 



,845 



Markham, William. '.I'i li'!, n;j. 1 1;,?. 

Marlhurougli.-^V..-,,. ■ . ■: :;:,127. 

M,rn-i,t;n' Contra. ' i : -i. hy .\ndros, 1.30. 

Mai-.sii, Oolonel, K\-|,r,i,ti L-jinst Port Royal, 135. 

Marshall, John, Envov to France. 385. Announces the 
death of Washington, 886. Administers the oath of 
office to President Monroe, 446 ; Adams, 454, 461. No- 
tice of, 851. 

Martha^s Vineyard, Discovered, 57, 58. Christian In- 
dians at, 12.3. 

Martin, Alexander, In the Convention on the Articles 
of Confederation, 856. 

Martin. Luther, In the Convention on the Articles of 
Confederation, 356. 

" Mary Johnson," the assumed name of Arthur Lee, 
266. 

Maryland, settlement of, 80-83. Origin of the name of, 
81. Roman Catholic colony in, 62. The Seneca Indi- 
ans make war upon the colonists, 82, 110. Declaration 
of Rights, in 1639, 151. Civil war in. Toleration Act ; 
an asylum for persecuted Churchmen and Puritans, 
151. Colonial government of; civil w,ar in, 152. 
History of, 151. 

Mason, George, in the Convention on the Articles of 
Confederation, 850. 



INDEX. 



770 

Masov John, merchant and naval commander, 79. 
Go" eVnorrf Portsmouth, England, 80. Controversy 

Mason! John, Captain, exterminates t^e Peqnods 8T, 88. 

Mason James K., author of the Fnsnnve ^"« Lav, 
821 Confederate Commissioner, SbT. Keturns to 
England, 5S9. 

II asmckiisetU Indians. 11. ■„■»„,„ „p iii 

Mm«Khmem, settlement of, 62. History of. 114 
Colony; charter, 117. Character of the >;"l°">',i".' 
rapid ii'owth of the colony, creates alarm m England 
120 Fortifications in, 121. Joins the confederacy of 
colonists, Vl\. Government of; commerce o^ with 
the West Indies, 122. Growth of the colony 129. 
Controversy of, with ti.c hdrs of Geor^-es and Mason, 
l-->9 A rovnl province, 1.39. Cost of settling, 209. 
E'arly legislation of, 175. Grant from Parliament to, 
9nii Assemblv's view of taxation, 219. A flotilla 
fitted out by, in 299. Board of Admiralty of, 807. Ke- 

MASsIsoiTl'diicf of the Wampanoags, 90. Sachem, 114, 

115 Hi3S"ns,'21,124. 
Mathek, CoTToy. 1*5.^ Notice of, 1.34 ,^,^ ^^^^ 

jlu^llvws; GeneraU liritish), 297, 32o! 

MiiurUiux. ti.e, OriL'iirof thuname, 71. 

MiVEivicK, UicnAEn, 123. . 

Mi-n-iioOD, Lieutenant-Colonel, at Princeton 268. 

Maximilian, Einpenir of Mexico, deatli ot,TJS. 

May, 0>uNil.ius Jacoksen, First Director of New 

May,' JaVoiui's, Captain, Captures General La Tega, 482 

^^ Uiti/' F/on-er,'^ Puritan vessel. 77. 

Meadk Geobue B., General, 621, 622. Takes command 

of th? army, 65:3, 659, 681, 692. 
Itfp^lenlniri/ Deciar«(ioii of Independence, m. 
i/Xr IV-sented by Congress to Washington after 

the battle of Germintown, 275; to General Wayne, 

298, to the captors of Andie 827. Struck by Louis, 

XIV. aft> r the repulse of Phipps, ISl. 
J/itff^rr? MissKhnsttts Burned. 127. 
Medi 1 1 1 rv7 . I V \ cspuciub's letter to. 41. 



It Hartford, Connecticut, 86. 



■ J/c< 



ion, 44S. Session of, M7. In possession of the Union, 

3IMsidppi liii)er, Events beyond, 684. Valley of, 591. 
War in, 565. 

Missouri Indiatis. 32. _» ^ . , . , ^,.r t ^ 

msscmri,\\. State. 448,452, 57^. Eaid into, 677. Lost 
to Confederates, 598. „,,,.„-, , , ^nc 
Migxouri Compromiser The, 452. Ecpeal of, 626. 

MlTCIlELI,, Ormbsy M., 6U6. 

J/ow"«^''The "nHtlsh repulsed at, 433, 708. Fleet at, 709. 
8nrn-iidiT<il', 716. 

J/„/;i7;.(H //"'/."1S.29, 31. . ,^, . 

Jfoliiiii-I: /niliiins 21,23. Active enemies of the Amcn- 
cans "6 lli-a-wat-ha'a address to the, 24. Refuse to 
ioin'Ki'ng Philip, 127. At New Amsterdam, 141. 
Chin, sovereignty over the Riyerlndians, 141 Allies 
of Colonel Williams, 190. Join St. Leger, .478. 

Mohawk Valley, Devastation of the, 290. 

Mohegan, Indians. 17, 21, 85, 86. 

MoUnm del Rev. Battle, 494. 

Monckton, Colonel, 18,i, 201. Grave of, 283. 

3lon ey. Continental, 245. The first coined in the United 

Monitor and Merrimadc, Contract between, 614. 
Monk. General, 98. 

Monmouth. New Jersey. Battle of, 2b7. 
Moneeati Indians. 17. . , „ .. t> -i . aai 

Monroe, James, His treaty with Great Britain 401. 
President of the United States, 446. Ke-ekcted Presi- 
dent, 458. "Monroe doctrine." 448. Notice ot, 446. 
Mo'nroe, Colonel, At Fort William, Henry, 194. 
Monroe, Major, At Point Isabel, 481. 

Montaguea Indiana. 17. 

Montaitk Indians. 21. 

" J/i>n,<a«l-," Monitor, 672. r ,on on") 

Montcalm, Marquis de, 192, 194. Notice of, 120, 202. 

Montgomery. Ala, Surrender of, 715. 

Monterey, Battle of, 484. 

Montezuma, 10. His deputation to Cortez, 4.3. 

MoNTOoMEEr, John, G<ivernor, 150. 

Montbomeey, Colonel (British). In the Cherokee coun- 

Mo'SIom'ert, Eicuarp, General, 238, 241. Assaults 

Quebec. 242. Notice of, 240 ■ f «,„ 

-- Commodore, Takes possession of ban 



Mr 



Linor of Florida, 50.61. 
\nt, Livingston's, 215. 



Memo) lal to I 

Memiphiii, 0^3 I 

Mjsnpoza taidiml, 38, 45 

ScErHuM.''fi'n:'i.i:i92 259. Notice of, 269. 

JSrEPii;!: WiLuirM? lecretary of the Treasury, 

499. „..,, fJ 

Metaoomet: see King Philip. 
Metamonis. General Ampudia at, 4bl. 
J/Wco, Origin of the name, 593. Civilization and the 

iits in 43 Burr's proposed invasion ol, 896. war 

xviih 4*0 ' The City of. 494. Treaty of Peace, 497. 
Jo" i/,"V»™!l7,k25. Treatywiththe, 408 Their 

territory, 19. Conspire against the English, ITW, 

MiANToNMon, Narrnganset Sachem, 21, 87, 91. 125. 
MrrANoi'v Head Sachem oftheSeininoles, 466. 
mcUgan'. Peninsul.i. Indians on the 18. Territory, 

896. State of, admitted to the Union, 469. 
Michigan Indians. 19. 
Micm<ic Jmtians,22. 
Middle Ptant,itions. The, ill. 
MliTLiN, Thomas, General, 254, 257, 268, 3o6. llis aa 

dress to Washington, notice of, 862. . , ,.q 

Milboene, Deputy Governor, 134, 148. Executed, 148, 
lllt^u Colonel, Defeats Tecumseh, near Brownstown, 

411. Attheb-attlcofLundy'sLane, 4S3. 
Mill Spring, Victory at, 694. 
3Hne Itiver, Abatis on, 660. 

3[inetaree Indians,S\,2,% ^u- t on 

Vingo Indians. 23. Logan, the Mmgo Chief, 20. 

Miniiua Indians : see Mohawlc Indians. 

MixoN, Generill, Driven from Santillo, 48!). 

jl//iiKi 'Indians. Their territory, 21. 

3nnt. VI the United States, .372. 878. 

MiNiTTE Peter, Governor, 8.5, 9.3, 139. 

j)fisc7ii«»2</. The, at Philadelphia, 2,.6 

3tishawan. The foundation ot Charleston laid at, 117. 

3IlssiMagues Indians, H, 20o. .,, , , ,i,„ r'n 

Missimppi, Territory, 338. St-ate admitted to the L n- 



of the name, 48. Surrender of, in 



,, 168, 170. 



Francisco, 487. 
Montreal, Origii 

203. 
Mookes, General, 435. 
Moore, James, Governor of South Carolin 
MooRE, Colonel, 168. .... j i .» 

Moravians and La Favette, after bis bemg wounded at 

M^kTan'' John H*; Guerrilla Chief. 632. 658, 661, 688. 
MonoAN, Daniel, General, at Quebec, 242 At Saratoga 

282. At the Cowpens 831. Notice ol, 3-31. 
Morgan William, 467. 
McRiiAN Colonel, At Agua Frio, 486. 
3Iorocco. War of the United States with, 1801. 890. 
J/unnOTii, The, 499, 604. Their movements, 537. 
Morris, Gouverneue, 185, 856. His remarks on Coins 

and Currency, 872. Uis part in the Lrie Canal, 467. 

Notice of, 364. 
3[orris Island, 673. . „ , 

MOEEIS, Lewis, First Eoyal Governor of New Jersey, 

MoERiB EoBEET, Supplies Washington with money at 
Trenton, 263. Agent of Marine ; his privateers, 80S. 
Uis National Bank, 829. At the Convention, on the 
Articles of Confederation, 356. His views of harmonis- 
ing the money of the United States, 372. Notice of, 

Morris Eogee, Notice of, 259. . « ,. ^ 

Morris, Commodore, His exploit on the Penobscot 

Eiver, 438. 
MoEEis, Major. Death of, 269. , , ^ , . . „„„ 
Morristowi New Jersey. Washington's winter quar- 
ters at, 269, 806. Sufferings of the American troops at, 



Morse, 8. F. B., Sketch of, 607 508 
MoTTE, Eehecca, Notice ol, 83o, .336. 
Moultrie, General, 2U4, 295. Notice of. 249. 
Mount Hope Bay, A Scindinavian child born 

shore of, 35. 
3fountIndependenfe.m. 
Mount nrnon. Leonard Calvert at, 82. 
Mum/ordscille, Battle at, 683. 



771 



Murfi-tesboro', Battle at, 688, 706. 
MOERAY, General. 2U1. 203. 
MiJEKAY, W. v.. Envoy to France, 8S5. 
Muskogee Indiana, 29. 

K. 

Naliant, 57. Captain Block at, 72. 

NanMrannd River^ Settlement on the, 97. 

Nanten, The Kilict of, 166. 

Nanticoke. Indiami, Allies of the Five Nations, 17, 20. 

Ifantucket, Discovery of. 57. Christian Indians at, 123. 

Napoleon: see Bonaparte. 

Narragatiitet Iiufians. 21, 22. 86. Propose to exter- 
minate the white people, 87. Treaty of Peace with 
the, 125. Join King Philip, 127. 

NarraguiiAet Bay, Penetrated by Captain Block, 72. 

Narvaez, Pampuilo, Governor of Florida, 4.S. 44. 

Nash, Governor, 3S0. 

NoKhmlle, Tenn., Evacoatioa of, 599. Threatened, 6-52, 
705. 

Katchez Indians, 29, 30. Population of, 81. Langnage 
of the, 12. 

National, Bank of the United States, 372, Currency, 
872. 

2fauinh6ftg Colony. 117. 

" NautilvA " brig. 414. 

Kavajo luMunJi. 483. 

Kami Stores, Imported from America into Great Bri- 
tain, 2(16. 

Kaval Engagement in Charleston Harbor, 672. 

Navigation Act, The, 109, 123, 177. 

Naioy, American, Origin of the. 24.5. 246, 382. Bank of 
Comman ders, 808. State of, 407, 414, 445. 

Jronclii </s. Ii9d. Ships of, 636. 

Navy, British, 206, 445. 

NEAt, Captain. Dc.ith of. 269. 

NebniKkii, Territory or,513. Opened to Slavery, 526. 

Negro Plot, in New York, 150. 

Negro Slaves : see Slaves. 

Negro Troops, Medal for, 596. 

Neilson, .Iohn. 856. 

Neosho IndiaTiA, 24. 

Neutral In<fians, 2-3. 

Nevada, Becomes at State, 765. 

New Amsterdam, Menting of Dutch deputies at, in 143. 

New Berne, N. C, Battle at 606. Seige abandoned, 705. 

New Brunswick, Origin of the name of, 58. Boundary 
oi; 472. 

Nwbtirg Addresses, 349. 

Newcastle. Delaware, 93. 143. William Penn at, 96. 

New England Indians, 17, 22. Invaded by the Five 
Nations, 24. 

New England, Scandinavians visit the coast of. 34. Ex- 
plored by Captain John Smith. Origin of the name, 
74. Proposed union of the colonies of, in 121. Popu- 
lation of; in 1675, 126. Effects of King Philip's War in 
129. 

New Bra Gunboat, 682. 

Nemfaundland, Portuguese settlement in, 47. Seen 
by C.abot, ^ii. Cod-fisher at, discovered by Cabot, 47. 
Visits to, by early navip.itors. 52. 

New France, The name ,'iven by Verazzani to the re- 
gions discovered by h .a, 48. 

New Hampshire, Ot\z-.\ of the name, SO. Settlement 
of, 62, 122. A royal'i.rovince, 80, 129. Grant to, 206. 

New Haven, Colony, 121, 127, 164. 

New Jersey, Origin of the name, 159. Wampum manu- 
factured in, 13. Swedes in, 62. Founded, 98, 159. 
Sale of, by the Duke of Tork, 144. The Dutch take 
possession of, 147. Discontents in 159. Invaded by 
Matthews, 820. History of the colony of, 159. 

New London, Burnt by Arnold. 340. 

New Madrid, Evacuated by the Confederates, 600. 

New Mexico, A Territoi-y of the United States, 497, 501. 
Claims of Texas to portions of, 499. Petition of, for a 
civil government, 499. 

New Netherland, 72, 73. Founded 139. Given by 
Charles II. to the Duke of York. 113, 144. 

New Orleans, Ceded to Spain, 204. Battle of, 439. 
Naval battle at. 010. Fearful panic in, 611. 

Newport, Curistopher, Captain, 6.5. 68. 

Neicport, Rhode Isla,nd, 48. Ternay's fleet at, 321. 
Tower at : see Tower. 

New Rodielle, Mrs. Hutcheson takes refuge at. 120. 

Newspapers, in the American colonies j in the United 
States, 179. 



New Sweden, 93, 143. 

New Windor. Washington bead-quarters at. 823. 

New York City, Dutch settlement at. 62. Origin of, 72, 

144. Expedition from, to Canada. 131. Colony at, 189. 

The Dutch taken possession of, 147. Evacuated, 350. 

Great lire at, 471. Crystal Palace in, 516. Riot in, 

667. 
New Tork, History of the Colony of, 139. Grants from 

Parliament to, 206. General Knyphausen at, 809. 
New J OI* Bay, 48, 57. 
Nezperce Indiuwt, 8.3. 

Niagara Faih, Battle at, 4-3.3. Village at, bnml^ 427. 
Niagara Frontier. Shirley's expedition to the, 185, 189 
" Niagara "ship, 425. 
Niantic Indians, 87. 
Nicaragua, State of, .5'22. 
Nicholson. Francis, Governor, 148, 171. 
NicuoLSON, Colonel, 136. 

Nicola, Colonel. His letter to Washington. 349. 
Nicolas, Father, Removes the Church-bell from Deer- 

fleld, 185. 
Nicolls, Rioharp, Colonel, 123, 144. 
yiiiety-six. Origin of the name, 335. Siege of^ by 

Greene, 336. 
Niniqret, 21. At New Amsterdam, 141, 142, 154, 155. 
Nipmnc Indians, 22, V25. 
Norfolk, Virginia, 244, 297. 
North Carolina, Secession of, 547. Events in, 704. 

Sherman's march through, 71'2. 
North, Lord, His Conciliatory Bills, 286. The news of 

tfie capture ot Cornwallis, S4o. Retires from oflSce, 

3J5. Notice of, 224. 
North'Ea*.tern Boundary Question, 476. 
North Carolina, 98. Colony, 167. Opposed taxation, 

223 Jin'ns the Confederacy, 871. 
NortX Cantle, The American camp at, 259. 
Nort/ifleld. Connecticut, 126. 
Northman. 34,85. 
North Point, Battle of; 487. 
North Virgina, 63. 
North West Territory. 363. 
Norridgeujf -k Indians, 22. 
Nottoway l\ Hans. 23. 
Nova Scoti\ iS, 132, 136. Origin of, 80. Portognesa 

settlemcntr. 47. 
Nova Civsarea. '\ 
Nueces, The, GV ral Taylor at, 4S1. 
Nullitiers of SoLi-u Carolina, 463. 
Number Ten Island, 599, Capture of; 604. 

0. 

Oconee River, 28. 

Oibracock Inlet, 54. _^ 

Ogdei'sburg, CaptorWf, 425. 

Ogeechee River, 28. 

Ogilvie. Captain, at Queenstown. 413. 

Oglethorpe, James Edward, General. His voyage to 
America, 100. Founds Savannah, 62, 100. Uis first 
interview with the Indians at Savannah, 30. His 
colony, 171. Meets Chiefs in Council. 103. His con- 
test with the Spaniards, 172. Notice of. 99. 

O'Haea, General, At the siege of Yorktown, 342. 

Ohio Company, The, Organized, 863. George II.'s 
grant to, 181. 

Ojeda, Accompanies Vespncins, 41, 60, 

Old Dominion, The, Origin of the name, 109, 

Omaha Indians, 82. 

Oneida Indians, 23. Favor the Americans, in the 
Revolution, 26. Hi-a-wat-ha's address to the, 24. 

OpEciLANCANoroH, 66, Capturcs Captain John Smith, 
106. Hostile to the Virginia Colony, 108. 

Ord, General, 635. 

Orders in Council, 400, 402. 

Oregon Indian.^. 83. 

Oregon Territory. .33. British claims to, 479, Settle- 
ment of the boundary question, 497. 

Orphan House, Whitfield's, 171, 172. 

Osage Indians, 32. 

OSCKOLA, 466, 463. 

Ostend Circular, 520. 

Oswald, Richard, English Commissioner on the Treaty 
of Peace. 343. 

Oswego, 192. Battle at. i n 1 814, 432, 4.3S. 

Otis, James, 207. 208, 212, 213. 219. Notice of, 212. 

Otoe Indians, 82. 

Ottawa Indians, 17. Attempt to exterminate the 



772 



white people in, IS, 205. Aid the French against 
the Sacs and Foxeg, 18. Their war with the Five 
Nations, IS, 26. 

Outagamie Indians. See Fox IndiaTis. 

Oyater Point, South Carolina, ^^, 166. 

OyBter liw&r^ iucursiou of French and Indians at, 134. 



P. 



Packenham. General, at New Orleans, 439, 440. 

Paduca-h, 6S3. 

Painb, Thomas, hia "Common Sense," 250. 

Palo Alto, battle of, 4S2. 

Paloft, Columbus sails from, S4, 39, 40. 

Pamunk&y Indiana. 111. 

Panama, Comiuissiimers at, 4.i7. Railroad in, 52'3. 

Pan'uco lii/ver, the foltowers of De bota at the, 45. 

Paper Mockades, 444. 

Paper Monet/, issued by Massachusetts, 122, 132. 

Papineao, Louis Joseph, 472. 

Pauedbs, General, succeeds Herrera, 431. 

Paris, treaty of peace at, 2U4, 348. The allied armies 
enter, 431. 

Paukep.. Sir Petfp^ 248, 261. 

Parliament, its Act of Supremacy, 75. Its appropria- 
tion to Geoigia. 100. Grants by, during the Seven 
Years' War in America, 206. 

Passamaquoddtj Indians, 22, 

Pateeson, "William, 356, 359. 

Pairoo7i8. Account of the, 189. 

Paulding, John, 326. 

Paulus's Hook; 94. 

Pauw, Michael, 94, 139. 

Pavoiiin, teriiiory of, 94. 

Pawnee Indians, 33. 

PawtiLcket Indians, 22. 

Payne, General, 416. 

^' Peace- Makers'^' in Pennsylvania, 162. 

Peace-Party, of 1S12, 410. 

Peace, lYeaty of, Guadalupe Hidalgo, 497. 

Pea liidqe, battle of, 592, 635. 

" Peacock;' bri^, 429, 440. 

Pearce, Colonel, at York, Canada, 425. 

Pearl liiver, 29. 

Peers of England, cannot be arrested for debt, 150. 

Peirce, E. W., General, 563. 

" PeMca7t;'' sloop of war, 430. 

Pembekton, John C, 642. 

Feinaquid Point, ^^IZl. Capture of the garrison at, 
130, 134. 

PeThsacola, abandoned by the Confederates, 609. 

Pendleton. Nathaniel, 356. 

^"Penguin;"' bris:, 440. 

Pknn, William, his charter from titles II. ; purchases 
part of New Jersey, 95. His voyage to America, his 
government, 96. His advice to the Duke of York, 
respecting an assembly of Kepreseutatives, 147. His 
purchases of parts of New Jersey, 160. His arrival in 
Pennsylvania; his treaty with the Delaware Indians, 
IGl. His Charter of Liberties ; his return to England, 
162. Deprived of his provisional government; hia 
rights restored in ; returns to England, 163. Philadel- 
phia founded bv, 162. Susgests a Union of the Colo- 
nies, 183. Involved in debt, 209. His sons, 163. No- 
tice of, 95. 

Pemmcook Indians, 22. 

Pennsylvania, origin of the name, 96. Swedes in, 63. 
History of the Colony of, 161. Mutiny of the troops 
of, 32a 

Penobscot Indiana, 22. 

Pen-sacola, Florida, stormed, 438. Captured, 451. 

Peoria Indians, 19. 

Pepperell, William, 187. 

Pequod Indians, 21, 86, 87. 

Percy, George, Acting-Governor of Virginia, 6S, 69 

Perky, Commodore, expedition to Japan, 500. 

Perryville, battle near, 634. 

Peery, Oliver H., Commodore. His exploits, 423, 430. 
His expedition against pirates, 453. Notice of, 423. 

Perry, M. C., Commodore, captures Tampieo, Tabasco, 
and Tuspan, 485. 

Petersburg, attack on, 691. Seige of, 693, 717. 

Perth Amhni/^ New Jersey, origin of the name, 160. 

PETKits, Hugh, S6, 119. 

Petrkr, UioiiARo, Secretary of the Board of War, 294, 

Pecrdb; seen by Columbus and his crew, 39. 



Philadelphia, founded, 162. 

'■ Philadelphia;'' the, 891. Decatur's exploit in firine 

the, 392. ^ 

Philip U., of Spain, his measures against the French 

Protestants in America, 50. 
Philip, King; see King Philip; notice of, 124. 
Phillips, Genera!, ioins Arnold ; death of, 330. 
Phillipse, Mary, Miss, 259. 
Phipps, Sir William, his expedition against the French, 

131. At Quebec, 131. Sent to Kngland, 132. 
''Phcehe;' frigate, 431. 
Pianheshaw Indians, 17, 19. 
Pickens, General, 295, 314, 315, 319. At Ninety-six, 336. 

Notice of, 337. 
Pickering, John, member of the Convention on the 

Articles of Confederation, 356. 
Picture WHting, Indian, 13. 

Pierce, Franklin, in the army in Mexico, 49S. Inau- 
gurated President, 513. Notice of, 513. 
Pierce, William, iu the Convention on the Articles of 

Confederation, 3.%. 
PiGOT, General, 289, 835. 
Pike, Albert, notice of, 592. 
Pike, Zebulon M., notice of, 425. 
"• Pil'Qrims;'' The; voyage of to America, 77, 78. Names 

of; fabulous etory of, 73. Salutation of, by Samoset, 

114. 
Pillow, Gideon J., 566, 596. 
Pilot Knob, 687. 
Pinokney, Charles, in the Convention on the Articles 

of Confederation, 1787, 356. 
PiNCKNEY, Charles Cotesworth, in the Convention on 

the Articles of Confederation, 356. Envoy to France, 

1797, 3S5. Candidate for the Presidency, 888, 396, 404. 

Notice of, 385. 
Pine Tree Mon&y., 122. 
Pinkney, William, His Treaty with Great Britain, 400. 

Notice of, 401. 
Pipe of Peace, Indian, 14. 
Piscataqua^ Letters from the King's commissioner at, 

118. 
Piracy, The Earl of Bellemont's efforts to suppress, 

149. In the West Indies, 149. 
PiTCAiEN, Major, 232. 
Pitt William, 195. His views of tixation, 217, 544. 

His scheme for conquering Canada, 199. Resigns his 

office as Prime Minister, 213. Notice ofl 217. See 

Chatham. 
Pitt William, the younger, 867. 
Plains of Abraham, 201, 202, 241. 
Planetarium, Ritteuhouee's, 210, 269. 
Plattsburg Bay, Naval action in,435L 
Pleasant Hill, Battle near, €85. 
Plymouth Colony^ Its Government, 116. Joins the 

Conft^deracy of Colonies, 121. 
PlyTnmith Company, 63, &4. Explore North Virginia, 

73. Employ Captain John Smith, new charter of the, 

1620; supenseded by the Council of Plymouth, 74. 

Consent to the establishment of a Puritan Colony in 

North Virginia, 77. 
Plyjyiouth, Council of; 74. 
Plymouth Rock, 79. 
Pooahontas, The story of, 66. Guardian angel of the 

Virginia colony, 69. Captured by Captain Argall; 

baptized; marries John Kolfe, 70. John Randolph, 

decended from, 404. Portrait of, 66. 
" PoieUei-s;'' ship, 415. 
Point Comfort, 64. 
Poi7it Isabel, 481. 

Paint P/easant,The Shawnoese Indians subdued at, 19. 
Pokonet Indians, 22. 
Polk James K, President of the United States, 478. 

Proclaims Peace with Mexico, 497. Notice of, 478, 

479. 
Polk, Bishop, General, 6S1. 
Polk, Lkonidas, General, 566, 577. 
PoMEROY, Seth, General, 198,238. 
Pompton, New Jersey troops at, 32S, 329. 
Ponce de Leon, Juan, Discovers Florida, 42, 43. 
Pontiao, Ottawa Chief, 18, 204. 205. 
Pope, The, His ApostoHc Vicar in the United States, 

353. Bulls of, 46. 
Pope, John, General,, 591, 600, 623, 624. 
PopDAM, Georob, Member of the Plymouth Com- 
pany, 63. 
PopHAM, Sir John, At Kennebec, 73. Death of, 74. 
Popular Iiight8,ia Virgina, 112, 113. 
Populat-ioTij Of the American colonies, 179. Increaao 



INDEX. 



Y73 



of, in the United States, 417, 448. Of InUian Triboa 

81, sa. 
" Porcupine^ schooner, 420. 
PoEKY, Secretary of Virginia, 97. 
Porter, David, Commodore, 430. Ilis Ei-peJition 

against pirates, 453. Notice of; 431, G09, 642. 
Porter, Fitz'Joux, C19, 620. 
Port Eudsotu, 635, Surrender of, 646. 
Port Royal, Nova Scotia. Founded, 58. Seized by 

Phipps, 131. E.Kpedition against, 185, 136. 
Port Royal, South Carolina. Oslethorpe at, 100. Lord 

Cardon settles at ; claimed by t}ie Spaniards, 166. 
Portgmoutli. New Hampshire. Founded. SO. 
Portugal, Claims of, against the United States, 46S. 
Portuguese. Settle in Newfoundland and Nova Scotia, 

ges to, 41. Ponce de Leon 



47. 



Porto Rico, Exploring 

Governor of; his return to, 42. 
Post Ojfice of the United Sutes, 378, .507. 
Potomac, ArmyofThe; losses in, 679,571, 047,623. 
Potomac Rlner, blockade of, 684. 
Potter, Colonel, Death of, 269. 
Pottowatomie Indians, 17, 18. Conspire against the 

English, 205. 
Potts, Isaac, and General Washington, 2S.'i. 
Poutrinoourt. M. At Port Uoyal, Nova Scotia, 58. 
PoWHATTAN, 65. His hlstorv, 20. His eldest brother, 
66. His daughter, Pocahontas, 20, 66. His hostility, 
his friendship, 70. Death of, 106. 
Poiohatan Imlians, 17, 20, 107, 108. 
Pmohatan River, 64. ' 

Prayer, At the Continental Congress, 228. At the Con- 
vention on the Articles of Confederation, 359. Mac- 
donough's 435. 
Preble Jedediah, General, 230. 
Preble, Commodore. In the Mediterranean, 391. 
Prescott, General (British), Captured; exchanged for 

General Charles Lee, 261, 271. 
Prescott, William, Colonel, 234, 235, 236. Notice of, 

234. 
"President^' frigate, 407, 414, 440. 
Press, Freedom of the, restrained by Andros, 130. 
Preston, Capt.ain, 221, 222. 

Provost, Auocstine, General. In East Florida, in 
294. At Brier Creek, 295. Prepares to invade South 
Carolina, 296. 
Pkevobt, Sir George, General, Succeeds General Brock, 

416. At Sacketfs Harbor, 426. At Plattsburg, 4-34. 
Price, Colonel, la New Mexico, 489. 
Price, Sterling, General, 566, 591, 676. 
PeIdbaux, General, 199, 200. 
Prince of Orange, The, Friendly to America, 266. 
Princeton, New Jersey, Captured by Cornwalls, 260. 

Battle of, 269. 
" Prijiceton," steamer, 475. 

Prino, Maktin, His Expedition to America, 58, 73. 
Printing, Effects produced by the art of, 62. Forbid- 
den in New York, by Jadies 11.. 147. In the Ameri- 
can colonies, prohibited by William III.. 153. 
Piniitiftf; Press, The Frst established in Virginia 114. 
Prison Ship, Jersey, 269. 
Privateering, 149. Account of, 246. Privateers fitted 

out by Robert Morris, 808; and by M. Genet, 837. 
Private Jwlgment, Doctrine of, at Plymouth, 116. 
Proctor, General, 416. At Fort Meigs, 413, 419. Routed, 

424. 
" Prophet,^ The, 408. 

Protestant, Origin of the word, 62. Reformation, 62. 
Feeling a];oused in England, by the cruelties of Me- 
lendez, 52. French Protestants in Carolina, 55. Prot- 
estantism in England, 75. 
Providence Plantation, 91. 
Providence, Rhode Island. Founded, 90. Burned, 

127. 
Public Lands of the United States, 872. 
Puebla, The City of. Captured bv General Scott, 490. 
Pulaski, Count, 274. Notice of, 305. 
Pulaski Fort, taking of, 608. 
Pulpit Rock, Lookout mountain, 669. 
Pujuiah Indians, 82. 

PuriUins, 75, 76. Friendly intercourse of the, with the 
Dutch, 85. Of Massachusetts colony, 118. Settle in 
New Netherland, 143. 
POTNAM, Israel, General, 194, 234, 23,5, 238. In the 
French and Indian War, 198. Enters Boston, 247. On 
Lon» Island, 2.>3. At the house of Roger Morris, 259. 
His exploit at Greenwich, 297. Notice of, 253. 
Putnam, Kufus, General. Notice of, 36-3. 



Putnam, H. P., Colonel, 674. 

Pvle, Colonel, Dcfeaied by Colonel Henry Lee, 333. 

Q. 

Qnnhong, Englishmen slain at, 120. 

Quakers, Origin of tbe name. 94 Their tenets, 12.8. 
In Pennsylvania, 94. In Massachusetts Ray, 123. In 
North Carolina, 168, 281. In New Jersev, 160. Com- 
pelled to pav fines, 110. Persecuted, 94,'l22, 123. 

Quaker Ifitl.' Bntlle of, 290. 

Quebec, Algonquins at, 17. Founders of 74. Military 
operations at, 201. Surrender of, to General Murray, 
208. ' 

" Quebec Act,'' The, 225. 

Queen Anne, of England. 1.84. Queen Anne's War, 135. 

Queenstown, Battle ot, 413, 414. 

QuiNCT, Josiah, Defends Captain Preston, 222. 

Qninipiac Creek, 83. 

Quitman, General, 483, 494 Notice of, 494. 

Quoii~e?i-ia-cut, or Connecticut, 85. » 



Raisin Ri'Ser, 417. 

Raleigh, Sir Walter, Stndies the art of war, under 

Coligny, 52. Introduces tobacco into England, 70. 

Historical error respecting, 100, Notice of, 55, 66. 
Raleigk Tavern, The, 226. 

Rall, Colonel, With his Hessians at Trenton, 262 
Ramsay, David, Notice of, 812, 617. 
Randolph, Edward, 129. 
Randolph. Edmund. 356, 359. Attorney General of 

the United States, 869. 
Randolph, John, Notice of, 403, 404. 
Randolph, Peyton, 228. 
Rank; Of American, Naval and Military commanders, 

80S. 
EAPEL-rE, Sarah, 7S. 
Rappahannock AY<(<Jo«, battle of, 639. 
Rappahannodc River, explored by Captain John Smith, 

Raritan Indians, 140. 

Eatclipfe, President of the Plvmonth Colonv, 6.5. 

Rawdon, Lord, on the Santee River; at Sanders's Creek, 

815. At Hobkirk's Hill, 834. Embarks for England, 

887. 
Read, George, 856. 
Rebellion, preparations for, 550. 
Red Cross of St. Geoi-ge, 144. 
Red River, campaign of, 644. Expedition to, 684. 

De Soto's followers wander among tributary 



Red Riv 

streams of the, 45. 
Reformation, the Protestant, 62. Effects of in Franc 



Reno. (;,iirr:il, killrd, 628. 

Repii/./,,y,,i r,t,i,i. the, 377. 

RepnhUciRism iu llaryl.and, 152. 

Representatives in Congress, 866. 

Remca de la Palma, battle of, 483. 

" Retaliation,'' schooner, captured, 385, 

Revenue of the United States, 388. 

Revere, Paul, 2.82. 

Revolution, American, history of the, 207. The Shaw- 
noese aid the British in the, 19. The Lenni-Lenapes 
join the British, 21. Officers and soldiers of the. nro- 
vided for, 453. 

Revolution, English, of 1683,162. 

Ehett, Colonel, 169. 

Rhode Island, explored by Scandinavians, 35. Origin 
ot 89, 91. Founded, 62, 119. Origin of the name, 91. 
Seal of, 91. Colony of, proposes to join the Confed- 
eracy of Colonies, 121. History of, 157. Charter of, 
158. Refuses to be included in Connecticut Colony, 
155. Religious toleration in, 151. Persecution of 
Roman Cathohcs and Quakers in, 153. Sir Peter 
Parker at, 261. Evacuated by the British, 806. Joins 
the Union, 871. State Constitution of, 157, 447. 

Riall, General, at Chippewa, 438. 

RiBAULT. John, sails with Huguenots for America, 50, 
Fate of him and his party, ,50, 51. 

Rice, origin of the culture of, in Sonth Carolina, 167. 

Richmond, McClellan turns back from, 621. Events at, 



774: 



6T9. Seige of, C93. C.impaiga agaiust, C93. Evacua- 
tion of, US. 
Eledesel, Baron, with Burgoyne. 281. 
KiLKY, General, Governor of California, 499. 
Jiinff, presented by Winthi-op to Charles II., 155, 
lIiNtiGOLD, Major, 482. 
lliNGGOLD, Captain, his expedition, 415. 
Jlio del Noi'te, Coronada's expedition to the head waters 

of the, 45. 
Rio Grande^ 480, 4S1. Boundarv of the Aztec Empire, 

10, 6T8. 
KiPLET, General, at Fort Erie, in 1S14, 433. 
RisiNGu, Governor, 143. 
liiTTBNHOusE, David, 210, 211. 
Hiver Indians, 140, 141. 
IIOANOKE, Lord of, 56. 
Jioanoke Island, 55. 64. Attack on, 90. 
RoBu. William, at the battle of Kind's Monntiin, 819. 
liOBRRTVAL, Lord, his expedition to New France; arrives 

at Ni'wfoundlandj his second expedition, 1649, 49. 
IloniNsoN, John, Kev., at Leyden, 77. His remark 
rcspecflntj Standish's slaughter vt Indians, 115, 116. 
His family join the Plymouth colonists. 116. 
liocnAMiiEAF, Count de, arrives at Newport, 321, His 
first interview with Washington, 323. At Bdbbs's 
Ferry, 339. At Yorktown, 341. Notice of, 339. 
RocHK, Marquis de la, 57. 
Jioekets^ used in war, described, 437. 
Rockingham, Moi'qiiisof. 217. 
. Rodney, C^esae, Attorney-General of the United States, 
406. 
Roi-fp,, John, marries Pocahontas, 70. 
Rogers, C. R, P., Commodore, 407. 603. 
Rogers, Major, 194. His expedition against the St. 

Francis Indians, 200. 
lioijian CatholicSy auricular confession of, 3S, Punish 
witchcraft, 182. Found a colony in Maryland, 62, 81, 
151,152. Persecuted by Puritans, 119; and in Marv- 
bnd, New York, and New England, 131, 132, IM. 
Provincial offices in New York filled by, 147. The 
prevalence of their faith' in Lower Canada, 203. Par- 
liamentary concessions to, 225, 
RoQCB. Francis de la, see Robertval. 
Ro8£, Mr., Bi-itish Envoy to the United States. 402. 
RosECRANS, W. S., General, 563, 634, 637, 663, 605. 
Roys, General, 436. Death ot 437. 
lioxburif, Massachusetts, founded, 118 
RoDSSEAir, General, 706. 
lioyal Standard of England, 144. 
RuGGLES, Timothy, 190, 215. 
Hu/JTiy Indians supplied with by the Dutch, 140. 
Rtrsn, Benjamin. Dr., bis letter to Genei-al Wavne, 29S. 

Notice of, 250, 251, 
RirssEL, JouN, United States Commissioner at Ghent, 

443. 
Russell, Lord John. 512. 

JCusnta, England's first maritime c6nnection with, 47. 
Vassalaije in, 63. The Emperor of enters Paris, 431. 
Treaty of the United States with, 409. 
Rdtuekfobd, General, 295. 
RcTLEDGE, Edward, on the committee to confer with 

Lord Howe. 257. 
RuTLEDOE, John, iin Convention on the Articles of Con- 
federation, 356. 359. Dell-Jids Charleston, 310. His 
proceedings alter the capture of Lord Cornwallis, 345. 
Judge of tlie Supivme Court of the United States, 
869. Notice of, 310. 
IiyfiWicl\ the treaty at, 134. 



Sacs and Firres, 17, IS. 

iSt. ylKf/MJJ#i;2P, Florida, Ponce de Leon lands near, 42. 
Ribauit's expedition arrives at, 50. Founded, 51. 
Spanish militai-y post at 61. 609. 

jSt Aui/itstine, Mexico. General Twiggs at, 493. 

fSt, Clai7\ General, 275. His e.xpcdition against tho In- 
dians, 1791, 374. 

tSt. Cror-r River, De Monts at the, 5S. 

iSt. Doinin,go, discoverv of, by Columbus, 40. Exploring 
vnyaL'es to, 41. D'Avllon dies at, 43. The body of 
Columbus removed to. 41 

St. Fraticis Indians, Major Rogers's expedition against 
the, 200. 

Sf: John's, Newfotindlan.i. Gilbert at, 52. 

St. John'^8 Ricer, named by Ribault " liivcr of May," 50. 



St Laiorence River, origin of the name, 48, Indians on 

the, 82. 
St, Leoer, Colonel, in the Mohawk Valley, 27S. lavcsts 

Port Stanwix, 278. 
St. Mary's, Florida, pirates and slave-dealers at, 448. 
St. Mary's, Maryland, 151. Founded; legislative As- 
sembly convened at, S2. 
St. Piekee, M. de. Governor Dinwiddle's letter to, 181, 

182. 
St: Regift, Genenal Wilkinson at, 427. 
Snlem^ Massachusetts, cohmv, 117. The General As- 
sembly of Blassachusetts meets at, 226, 227. Witch- 
cratt at, 132, 133. 

Salem, New Jersey, origin of the name, 95. 
Safmoji Falls village attacked by the French and In- 
dians, 131. 

SaHillo, General Wool and Colonel Doniphan at, 4S4, 488. 

Saltonstall, Sir Richard, 117, US. 

I Samoset salutes the Pilgrim Fathers, 114. Teaches 
Standish how to cultivate Indian corn, 115. 

San Antonio, 483, 493. 

Sanitary Commission, 723. 

Sanders^s Creek, battle at. 315. 

Sandys, Sib Edwaed, 77, 105. 

SaJi Gabriel, battle at, 487. 

San Juan d'Vlloa, Castle of, 4S9. 

San Luis Potosi, 485. 

Sah Salvador, see Guanahama. 

Santa Anna, Antonio LoPiz de, 477, 4S5, 486, 489, 490. 
Sketch of, 514. 

'■'■ Saratoga.'''' ship, 435. 

Sargent, Wintiirop, 363. 

Sasco Swamp, 88. 

Sassacus, Pequod Sachem, 21, 87, 83. 

Sassamon, John, 124. 

Saunders, Admiral, 201. 

Savan7ialb Indians^ 80. 

Sarannah, Ge<irgia, founded, 62, 101, 103. Siege of, 305. 
Evacuated by tho British, S4S, 7U3. 

Sat-akd-Skal, Lord, 85. 

Sayhrook, Connecticut, settlement at, 86. Andros's ex- 
pedition to, 147. Colony at, 154. 

Sayle, William, his colony ; death of, 98. 

Satre, Stephen, Chatham's letter to, 22S. 

Scandinavian, Voyages, &4. Child born at Rhode Is- 
laufl, 35. 

Schenectaday, Desolated, 131. 143. 

Schofield, J. M., General, 635, 705, 713. 

ScJwharie Valley, Devastation of, 290. 

Schools, Established in Mass., 121. 

ScHirvLER. Philip, General, Conveys to Albanv the re- 
mains of Lord Howe, 197. At He atix Noix.'240. " At 
Fort Edward, 276. Superseded by Gates, 277. Notice 
of. 289, 240. 

"^ Scorpion,^'' The, One of Commfldore Perry's vessels. 
420. 

Scott, Dred, Fugitive Slave, decision concernine, 532. 

Scott, Winfield, General, At Fort Geoige, 426."^ Cap. 
tures Fort Erie, 4=33. His mission to remove toe 
cherokecs; his expedition ai^'ainst the Seminoles, 467. 
On the (.Janada frontier, in Maine, 472. Plan of his 
Mexican campaisrn, 4S3. At Vera Cruz, 485, 489. At 
Cerro Gordo, 469, 490. At Cberubuscn. 1647, 493. 
At Chepultepec. 494. At Mexico, 494. 495. Nomin- 
ated President of the United States, 513. Notice of, 
4S5, 507. 

Seauurt, Samuel, Bishop of Connecticut, 354. 

Sears, Isaac, 232. 

Seaver, Ebenezer, of Massachusetts, 409. 

Secessioii, Authors of, 540. 

SEDGwncE, Qenend, 650. Killed, 690. 

Sedgwick, Theodore, Address of, 516. 

Sedition Law of the United States, 386. 

Seekonk River, 89, 90. 

Seminole Indians, Subdued bv General Jackson, 80. 
Deputations of, 448, 466. Treaties of the, with the 
United States, 408. 

Semmes, Raphael. Captain of "^Za&a»m." 641, 707. 

Seneca Indians, 23,110. Red Jacket Chief of the 14. 
At Genesee Flats, 304. Conspire against the English, 
205. Hi-a-wat-ha's address to the, 24. 

" Serapis,^'* ship. Captured by Paul Jones, S07. 

Settlement, Era of, in North Ameriea, 61. 

Seven Years' TTur in America, 179. ' Cost of the, 204, 
206. 

Seven Pines, Battle of, 619. 

Sevibr, John, At King's Mountain, 819. 

Sewabd, Willlam U., 5S8. 



INDEX. 



775 



ShackamatMn^ Pennsylvania, %. 

"Shtirles ofjjeat/h" The, 291. 

SuiFiESBUEY, Earl, of, 9S, 99. His " Fandamental Con- 

stitutioti," 1&4. 
^ Shannon^'" frigate, 429. 
SiiARPE, Governor, 184, 185. 

, KonRRT G. .Ir.._<^a''---' ''>74. 

The site of Boston, 



S/m„ 



nut. M,i 

,1 



Sbavs, Daniel, 
SuEAFFE, Gent-r: 
Shelby, Isaac, 
Sanctions IIopl. 
■ 416. D,-.'liiKS 
447. Nuiir.s, 
S/tel/!/,GUnK.-:U 
Hhenajuloah Vu 
Shekidan 1*U1LI 
SUEEMAN R 



"<. 17, 19. Join the Frencli, in the 

111 War, 19. Aid the British, 19. C.m- 

:l English, 205. Treaty with the, 363. 

1, 416. ^ft York, Canada, 425. 

Governor, At King's Mountain, 319. 
ill's I';xpedition against the Indians, 

th.:- ;i]ii. ointment of Secretary of 'SVar, 



, Vir'jinia. 



,, - . „.... 697,652. 

[■ 11., General, 690, 69-2, 697. 
, On the Committee to draft the Deciar- 
of Indepetulence, 251. In Convention on the 
Articles of Confederation, 356. 
SitEBMAN, T. W., General, 5S2. 
SUER.MAN, \V. T., General. 599, 609, W2, 669, 6S1, 699,701. 

His m.irch to the sea, 70.3, 705, 712. 
Shields, General, In Mexico, 493. Notice of, 493. 
Rlulnh, Battle of. 602. 

iShipfi, lialeigh's 55. The class of, used by the early ex- 
plorers of America. 60. 
Snipi'EN, Edwakd, General Arnold marries the daughter 

of, 324. 
Shippe.v, Captain, Death of, 209. 

Shiklev, William. Governor, :i.37, 184, 185. His Ex- 
pedition against Niagara, 1&.5, 189 ; and against Acadie, 
Succeeds Braddock ; Governor of the Bahamas, 



191. 
Siit'BKicK, Commodore. 

Monterey, 4S7. 
BilLTE, Governor, 136. 
Sibley, II. B., 693. 
Sickles. Daniel, 6.50. 
Sieven I'll. Al.lH,.J-.i. 



Willi Colonel Kearney, at 



li>l(l, 270. 
I liiitnn's dispatch to Bu 
1 the United States, 122. 



Sii'i 



li II ,.nd History of the, 26. The British 
GoveiniULiit aihlbCb the colonies to secure the friend- 
ship of the, lb3. Ncutrailtv of the, 192, 193. Their 
treaties of friendship, 199, 863. Join Amherst, 203. 
Sullivan's E.vpedition against the, 80-3, 804. 

Skene, Philip, 275. 

Skenesboroug'i, or Whitehall, 276. 

Slaves, The nativis of .America used os, by Columbus, 
41. In<lians sold as, 74. Sold to the Virginia planters, 
by the Dutch. 105. Commencement of negro slavery 
in South Caroiin.i, 9S. Labor by, general in Georgia, 
174. In New England and other colonies, 177. Slave- 
ships fiom Africa to S.avannah, 174. In the United 
States, 371. Debates on slavery in Congress, 4.52. 
CEnrles Eenton Mercer's Uesolution, declaring the 
slave-trade to be piracy. 693. The Ashburton treaty, 
respecting slave-trade, 472. Excluded from California, 
499. Ui-opening of, 535. 

Slrmmer, Lieut, D>0. 

Slioell, John, Confederate Commissioners, 5i:5, 537. 
Keturns to Enghind. 539. 

Bloat, Commodore, Captures Menterey, 4:37. 

SlOgctm, U. W., General, 703. 

Sloughter, Henry, Governor, 148. 

S.MIBEKT, JODN, Al'tist, Introduccs portrait-painting 
in America, 168. 

S-MiLiE, John, Member of the Committee of Congress, 
on the War of 1812, 409. 

Smith, A. J., 637. 

Smith, C. P., 696. 

Smith, E. Kirby. 632. 

Smith, John, Captain, 6a His voyage to America; 
President of the Jamestown colony, 65. .Captured by 
Indians; saved by Pocahontas, C6. Remonstrates 
against gold-digging; leaves Jamestown in disirust. 
His explorations and travels, 67. Eeturns-to England. 
68. His popularity with the Indians, 69. Employed 



by the Plymouth Company; captured by a French 
pirate 74. Offers his services tn the Puritans, 77. The 
Indian capturer of 106. His History of Vu'giuia 65 
Notice of, 65. J b . 

Smith, .Joseph, founds Mormon sect, 504. 

Smith, T. Kirby, 6S4 

Smith, Peesifek F., General, at Coiitreras, 493. 

Smith, Samuel, General, at Fort Mifflin, 275. Notice of. 
436. ' 

Smith, W. F , General, 692, 6S2. 

S .lYTH, Alexaniier, General, 414. 

Srtttke Iiuliann.m. 

Snorre, the child of Gudrida, 35. 

SoMERs, Sir George, 63. 

*'iS07ners." the, one of Commodore Perry's vessels, 420 

Sonora, Colonel Fremont at, in 1846, 487. 

Sons of Libert)/, political associatious, 215. Of Massa- 
chusetts, 233. Of New York. 248. 

SoTHEL, Seth. Governor, 16.5. 167. 

Sont/mmpfmi. Ensland, Puritans sail from, 77. 

South CttroUnn, Catawbas in, 27. Colony, 16S. Occu- 
pied by Ihe British, in 17S0, 813. Secession of, 546. 
Quiet in. 672. 

finuth M.,.,,it.,;„. b.ltle of. 023. 



Spain ci .i, ; Ujl I'l ,ii,las to Engl.ind, 204. At war with 
Englaml ; sicret treaty of, with France, 306. Treaty 
of, with the United States, 881, 451. Difficulties with 
519. 

Spaniards claim Port Eoyal, 166. Menace South Caro- 
lina settlements. 167. Moore's expedition against, 169. 
Contests ot; with Oglethorpe, 172. 

Spaninh voyages and discoveries, 36-45. 

Specie payments, 8u8i>ended, 471. 

'' Speeilwrl/.,'' Puritan-sliip, 77, 115. 

Spencer, Joseph, General. 238. 2S9. 

Spottsvh'unia Court Uoune, battle at, 689. 

Spkaiout. Uichaed Dobbs, 356. 534, 629. 

wmut, 113. Williams's, at Providence, 



.1, 90. 



h,,H. 



r,127. 



■. iimneeticut; S6, 127. 

Sprirnin'ti!'l, New Jersey, skirmish at, 820, 321. 

Sdoanto, Indian Chief; 74, 114. 

Stamp Act, the, becomes a law, 213. Fate of, in Ameri- 
ca, 21.5. ltepealed,217. 

Stanton, Edwaud M., attempted removal of, 780. 

Sta.vdisii, Miles, Captain. 78, 115. 

Stark, John. General, 198.234, 277. 

Star-Spangled Banner, origin of the, 437. 

States, State Kiu'hts Doctrine, 463. 464. Appro 
Fugitive Slave bill, 536. Disapprave, 6:i6. 

State Banks, the public funds distributed au 



of the 



470. 



the, 



Pursued by 



Steele, General, 676, 636. 

Stephens, Alexander H., 543. Arrest of; 722. 

Stephens, Samuel, Governor, 93. 

Steoben, Baron, in Virginia, 833. Pursues Cornwallis, 

839. Notice of, 291. 
Stewart, Commodore, 440. 
Stewart, Colonel, at Orangeburg, 

Greene, 337, 33S. 
Stevens, General, death of. 627. 
Stewart, J. C. B., General, 619, 690. 
Stirling, Lord, General; 144, 213, 254, 261. His skirmish 

with a corps under Cornwallis, 272. Notice of, 254. 
Stirlinc. Colonel (British), 259. 
Stockbridf/e /ndianfi, 187. 
ST'ICKTon, IloBERT F., Commodore, lakes possession of 

Los Angel. .s; at San Gabriel, 4S7. Notice of. 487. 
Stoodert, Benjamin, first Secretary of the Navy, 382, 

Stoneman, General. 643. 

Stone. Willia.m. Governor, 152. 

Stcninf/tmi, Commodore Hardy at. 4:>7. 

Slono Indiana, depredations by the. in the Caroliuas, 

165. 
.ftiiny Creek, skirmish at. 426. 
Stony Point, capture of, 297, 29a 
Stoughton, Captain. 8"^ 

Streets of Philadelphia, origin of the names of, 163. 
Strrigiit, a. D., Colonel, 662. 
Stricker, General, at Baltimore, 437. 
String, Wampum, 13. 
Strong, Caleb, 356. 
Bfubsis, General, 638. 



■"iQ 



STtTTvESANT, pKTEit, Governor, 93. 141, 142. Captures 
Swedish forts ; chiistises the Esopus Indians, 143. 

Sit^' Tr&amry l^cheme^ 471, 475. 

Sugar BUI. the, 213. 

buLUVAN, JouN, Genera!, 238. At Brooklyn. 253. Pa- 
rnled, 257. Succeeds General Charles Lee; joins 
Washington, 2(il. At Trenton, 263. At Brandywine, 
273. Supersedes General Spencer, 2S9. At the l)attle 
of Quaker Hill, '290. His expedition against the Si.-s 
Nalions, 303, 3114. At Tioga Point ; at Chemung, 304. 

ScTMNKE, General, 615, 621. 

^ulUrn^ the, Mary Fisher's mission tu, 123. 

SuMNBR, Jethro, General, 837. 

Su-MTEll, Thomas, General, in South Carolina, 314. On 
the Catawba; at Hanging Rock, 815. At Fishing 
Creek, 316. Kcturns to South Caroline, 17S0, 319. 
The South Carolin.i Gamecock, 319. 

S'lwter, Fort, first gun fired at, 553. 

KTUtiitiehaivna Indians, 17, 110. 

Sutter, Captain, of California, gold discovered near the 
mill of, in 184«, 497. 

Swamey, Kin* Philip attacks the men of Plymouth at, 
125. 

t^wamp Angel, the, 674. 

/Swedes seize Fort Casimir, 142. Subjugated bv the 
Dutch, 143. In New Jersey and Pennsylvania, 63. 

tSwefUnh Colony in America, S !. Fortresses, captured 
by Stuy vesaut, 1*3. West India Company, 93. 

Srvine, taken to America, 44; to Newfoundland and 
Nova Scotia, 47, 58 ; to Virginia, 68. 

Sycamares, at Providence, lihode Islaud, 90. 

Sy.MMES. John Cleves, 3G3. 

Syyacme, New York, great Council Fire at, 23. 



T. 

Tnhaco, Yucatan, 70. 

Talludega, battle at 42S. 

'^ TnllaJutkKee^^ Confederate privateer, 714. 

TaUuitluitchee^ General Coffee at, 428. 

Tdmarona Inditins, 19. 

T,impa Bmu Do Soto limds at, 44. 

Tampico, Captured by Commodore Conner, 485. 

Tasey, Kogee B., Chief .Justice, Eemoves the Govern- 
ment funds from the United States Bank. 465. Ad- 
ministers the oath of office to President Van Buren, 
470; to-President Harrison, 474; to President Taylor, 
499. Sketch of, 533. 

Twi/r Bill, Of lb2S, 459, 463, 461. Modifications of the, 
476, 477, 497. 

Tarleton, Colonel, Loss of his cavalry horses on Cape 
Hatteras, 309. Defeats C.ilonel Huger, 811. His 
Flanghter of Buford's troop.'!. 813. At Sanders's Creek, 
316. At Fishing Creek, 310. At the Cowpens, 381. 
Notice of. 316. 

TamiUmi^ Without representation, is tyrannv, 104, 165, 
211,212. William Pitt's opinion of, 217. Views of in 
the Carolinas, 164, 165; and in Massachusetts, 219. 

Tavlok, Bayard, Poem of, 557. 

Tatloe, Dick, 677. 

Taylor, Zachary, General, Succeeds General Jesup in 
the Seminole war, 463. His armv of occupation, 4S0. 
At Point Isabel, 481. Captures Matimoras, 483. At 
Monterey, 484 ; Victoria, 485; Buena Vista, 486. Map 
of the region of his operations, 486. President of the 
United States, 1849, 490. Death of, 601. Notice of, 
498. 

Tayloe, General, 622. 

Tect, Tax on by the British Government, 223. De- 
struction of at Boston, 225. 

Tecitmtua, 20, 4u8, 411. Defeated by Colonel Miller, 41 1 . 
Rouses the Southern tribes of Indians, 427. Death, 
425. Notice of, 424. 

Te Deum,, The, Sung after victories and deliverances, 
265. 

Tennessee, Secession of. 547. Persecution of Union 
men, 675. Lost to Confederates, 698, In possession 
of the Union Army, COS. Events in, 661. Restored 
to the ITnion, 727. 

Tenure of Office, Bill or, 729. 

Teenay, Admiral, His fleet at Newport, 321. His death, 

Terry, A, II., Admiral, 713. 

Territory, Indian, Claimed by England, 17. Southwest 
of the Ohio, 372. Territorial Government of the 
United States, 862. " The Territories," 96. 

Tfcas, Retained by Spain, 451. Annexation of to the 



United States, 477, 478. State Constitution oi; 479. 

Claims of, 499. Secession of, 547. Expedition for the 

recovery of, 678. 
Thames River, Connecticut, Discovered by Block, 72- 

87. Mohecan Indians on the, 21. ' -^ < 

Thames JHver, Canada, Battle on the, 424. 
TlianJcsgiotng and Prayer, Congres.^ recommends the 

appointment of a day for, 870. National, after the 

Peaceof 1814,144. 
TuAYENDANEG-v; See Erant, JosErn. 
TiWMAS, George H., Gener.al, 694, 663, 605, 706. 
TucMAS, JouN, General, 238. In Canada ; Notice of, 

243. 
Tilo.MAS, Lorenzo, Appointed Secretary of War, 731. 
TuoMi'SON Benjamin, Colonel, Count Rumford ; and 

notice of, 346. 
TnoMrsoN, Colonel, At Sullivan's Island, 249. 
Thompson, David, His colony of fishermen, 79. 
TiioMp-soN, M. Jeff., Guerilla Chief, 676. 
TuoMi'Si'N, ^V'lLJ.i:v. General, His expedition to Florida, 

ISM, 4i;r.. I'.silh ..r. 467. 
TnoMsoN, »'h \iM IS, Srrretary of the Continental Con- 
gress ; Cmu^ii'^s pit SL-nts an urn to his wife, 228. 
Thornton, Captain, At the Rio Grande, 481, 482. 
Thoroughfare Gap, 625. 
TuiiRY, M., The Jesuit, 130. 
Ticonderoga, Samuel Champlain at, 59. Abercrombie's 

Expedition against, 196. Ruins ol", 197. Captured by, 

Allen and Arnold, 238. 
" Tigress^^ schooner, 420. 
Tinicum Island, 93. 
Tippecanoe, Battle of, 408. 
Tobacco, Its use among the aboriginals, 14. Introduced 

into England, 70. A circulating uiedium in Virginia, 

105. James I. proposes to contract for the whole crop 

of, in Virginia, 107. Culture of, at Plymouth, 116. 
Tabasco, Cortcz lantls at, 43. Captured by Commodore 

Perry, 485. 
To-MO-cm-CHi, Creek Sachem ; his speech to Oglethorpe, 

108. 
Tompkins, Dathel D., Governor, 412. Vice-President 

of the United States; notice of, 440. 
Tonmny Uill, Rhode Island, 125. 
Torpedoes, 673. 
Tories, In the Carolinas, 309. The term Tory explained 

226. 
ToTTEN, Colonel, at Vera Cruz ; notice of, 489, 
TowNsuEND, Charles, Chancellor of the Exchequer, 

TowNSHEND, General, 201. At Quebec, 201-203. 

Treat, Robert, Governor, 156. 

Treaties, Indian, 862, 363. Treaty of peace between 
Great Britiin and the United States, 443, 444. Treaty 
between Spain and the United States, 451. 

"Ty'dJi^," British steamer. 

Trenton, New Jersey, Captured by Cornwallis, 260. 
Battle of, 262. 

Tri- Mountain, or Boston, 118. 

Tripartite Treaty, The, 613. 

Tripoli, The United States at war with, 390, 391. De- 
catur at 445. 

" Irippe,^ sioop, 420. 

TP.IST, Nicholas P., United States Commissioner to treat 
for peace with Mexico, 494. 

Tboup, Governor, 456. 

Trumbull, Jonathan, notice of, 324. 

Tryon, Governor, 223. Driven from New York, 248. 
At Compo, 270. Atrocities committed by, 270, 271. 
His marauding expeditions, 296. 

Tucker, President of the New Jersey Convention, 2G0. 

Tunis, The United States at war with, 18UI, 890. De- 
catur at, 445. 

TuppER, General 416. 

Tuscarora Indians, 20, 23. Defeated by the Caroli- 
nians; Join the Five Nations, 25. Conspire against 
the North Carolina settlements, 168. 

Tnspan, captured by Commodore Perry. 485. 

Twiggs, General, 483, 489. At Cerro Gordo, 489, 490. 
At St Augustine, 493. Notice of, 493. 

Tyler, John, Vice-President of the United States, 478. 
Succeeds President Harrison; Notice of, 475. 



Vchee Indians, their territory and language, 12, 28. 
Unoas, Mohegan Chief, 87. His rumor against the Nar- 
ragansetts, 155. 



INDEX. 



nr 



Undekhtll, John, Captain, 87, 141. 

Union Flag, 144. 

tlnitarian^, persecuted in Maryland, 82, 151. 

United States^ Confederation, articles of, 266, 267, 353, 
S55. Constitution, 855. Mint, 3T3, 878. Post-office, 
873. Navy, origin of, 3S2. Commerce, 881,882. Non- 
intercourse with Great Britain, 899. Injured by 
England and France, 400, 401, by pirates, 453. Bank, 
446. Oposed by President Jackson, 462, 465, 466. 
GoTeroment in great dan^r, 627. Treaties with 
Great Britain, 84S,3S0, 443; France, 3S6; Kussia, 469: 
Spain, 8S1; Belgium, 469; Mexico, 497; Algiers, 3&1; 
Tripoli, 895; Maini Indians, 463. Wars :— England, 
409; France, 335; Mexico, 480, 522; Morocco, 390; 
Tripoli and Tunis. 390; Algiers, 890. Claims of the, 
against France and Portugal, 46S. Dispute of the, 
vrith Great Britain respecting Oregon, 405, 406, 479, 
480. Exploring expeditions return to, 476. Indian 
population of, 32. 

United Sfutes, debt of, 673. Finances of, G73. Debt in 
1S68, 734. 

" United States " frigate, 8S2, 414, 415. 

Utah, 499. Territory of, 537. 

Uirec/it, Peace of, 136. 



Valencia, General, at Contreras, 493. 

Vallanpigham, Clement L., 656,711. 

Valley Forge, Washington in winter quarters at, 2S4. 

Valparaim, Naval action at, 431. 

Van .jfren, Maktin, Secretary of State, 461. Vice- 
President of the United States, 464. President, 469. 
Notice of. 469. 

Van Dam, Eip, 1.53. 

Van Doi:N,MARrir, Earl, 592. 

Vane, HENEr,S6. Governor; favors Anne Hutchinson, 
120. 

Van Hoenb, Major, 411. 

Van Ernsselaer, Solomon, Colonel, 413. 

Van Kensselaf", Stephen, General, commands the 
Army of the Centre, 412, 413. Notice of, 412. 

Van Kensselaer. Killl4n, 139. 

Van Twiller, Woutee, 139. 

Van Waet, Ibaao, 326. 

Vaenuh, James M., General, 855. 

Vasco de Gama, passes the Cape of Good Hope, in 3T. 

Vanbreufl, Governor-General of Canada, 203. 

Vacghan. JonN, General, burns Kingston, 2S3, 297. 

Velasquez, esneditions to Mexico, 43, 

Vera Cms, itsfortrt-ss; capture of, by General Scott, 489. 

Vergennes, Count dc. his dissatisfaction respecting the 
Treaty of Peace. 348. 

Vermont, added to the United States, in 1791, 871. 

Verplanck^s Point, captuieof the furtressat, 297. 

Veeazzani. John, his expedition to America, 47. 

Versclie River, or Connecticut River, 82. 

Vesper Ift/mn, sung by Columbus and his crew, 89. 

Vesppciits, AMRiur-FS, accouut of, 40, 41. Visits the 
West Indies, and South America, 41. Discoveries by, 
60. 

Vick^hurg, 635, 642. Assault on, 645. Surrender of, 
646, 681. 

VroTOEiA, General, 477. 

ViLLiEEB, M. de, 183. 

Vincennes, Captured, and re-captured, 1779, 803. 

"' Viper'''' brig, 414. 

Virginia, Origin of the name of, 55. Capes of, 59. 
North, 63. South, 63, 63. First settlement of, 62. 
The colonists of, subdue the Shawnees, at Point Pleas- 
ant, 19. Lord Do la Warr, governor of, 68. Famine 
in, 69. Eopresentative AssembW in, Tl, 105. Tobacco 
a circulating medium in, 105. Opposes Cromwell; 
invites Charles H. to bo king of Virginia, 109. The 
Seneca Indians make war upon, 110. Response of the 
Burgesses of, to Ji^ffries, 113. Militia of, counties and 
parishes of, 114. Takes measures against the French, 
182, 133. Grant from Parliament to, 206. Lord Dun- 
more driven from, 243. The Virgina Plant, 359. Se- 
cession of, 547. 

" Vixen'''' brig, 414 

Volunteers^ call for, 554. 

Voyages and Discoveries. Spanish, 36-45. 

" Vulture'*'' sloop-of-war, 326. 

w. 



Wadswoeth, General, killed, 689 
Waldbon, Major, Death of, 130. 



Wa 



165. 



WADSwoETn, Captain, 156, 157. 



Walker, Sir Hovendon, at Boston, 136. 

Walkee, William, Colonel, his military operations, 523, 
524, 525. 

Walker, Captain, of the Texan Eangers, 481, 482. 

Wallace, Sir James, 223. 

Wallace, Louis, General, 590, 6S3, 695. 

Walla- Walla Biver, Battle at the, 523. 

WnllooTis, arrive at Manhattan, in 78. 

M^'alnut SpiHngs, 484. 

Walpole, Robert, 213. 

Walton, George, in Convention on the Articles of 
Confederation, 356. 

Wampanoag Indians, 22, 114, 124. 

Wanouesb, Indian chief. 55. 

War, of the Spanish Succession, 235. Of the Austrian 
Succession, 137. See United States. 

War Civil, end of, 553. 721. 

Ward, Artemas, General, in the French and Indian 
War. 198. His appointment as General, 280, 234, 238. 
At Boston, 239. Enters Boston, after its evacuatioD, 
247. 

Warner, Seth, Colonel, 234. 240, 176, 277. 

Warren, Joseph, Dr., 232, 233. 

Warren, Admiral, 137, 138, 191. 

Waeren, General, 660. 

Waewick, Earlof,85. 

Warwick, Rhode Island, burned, 127. 

Washburn, C. C, General, 673. 

Washington City, burned by General Ross, 1SI4, 486. 
The Seat of Government of the United States, 888. 
Addition made to the capitol at, 509. In great dan- 
ger, 558. Plans for the capture of, 623. In great 
peril, 625. 

Washington, George, Bearer of Governor Dinwiddie's 
letter to M. St Pierre, ISl. Coloni;l Fry's Lieutenant, 
in the French and Indian War, 182. At Great Mead- 
ows, 183. Resigns his commission. 184. Braddock's 
Aid, in the battle of Monongahela; his wonderfu( 
escape from death, 186. With General Forbes against 
Fort Du Quesne, 193. Member of the first Conti- 
nental Congress, 1774, 588. Commander-in-chief at 
Cambridge, '238. Cartses the Declaratirn of Indepen- 
dence to be read to each of his brigades, 252. His return 
from Long Island, 254, 257. At llariem Heights, 257. 
Exposure at Kip's bay, at the house of Roger Morris, 
259. Crosses the Delaware, 260. Captures Hessians 
at Trenton; invested with the power of Military dicta- 
torship, 264. His victory at Princeton, 263. Opinion of 
his exploits in New Jersey, expressed by Frederic of 
Prussia, 269. Perplexed by gowe ; his first interview 
with La Fayette, 272. Crosses the Schuylkill, 274. At 
White Marsh, 288. Pursues Clinton at White Plains, 
Middlebrook, 238. Disapproves of a proposed invasion 
of Canada, 204. At Valley Forge, 274, 2S4. Schemo 
for superseding him, 285. At Monmouth, 287. Called 
by the Indians, "Town Destroy;" Cornplftnter''8 Ad- 
dress to, 804. In winter quarters at Morristown, 306. 
Fits out armed vessels at Boston, 807. Lieutenant- 
General of the French empire ; his first interview with 
Rochambeau, 323. Reprimands Arnold, 325. Proposes 
to attack New York, 839. Writes deceptive letters to 
General Greene, at Torktown, 340, 341. At New 
York, after the capture of Comwallis, 846. Suppresses 
the general discontent in the army, 849. Quells the 
mntiny of the Pennsylvania troops, 350. Nicola's let- 
ter to him, 849. His Farewell Address to his- com- 
panions in arms, 850, and his farewell to his officers, 
351, 352. Resigns his commission; President of the 
Cincinnati Society, 853. President of the Convention 
to revise the Articles of Confederation, 356. Presi»lent 
of the United States; his administration 864. His 
journey to New York, 3(34, 365. Takes the oath of 
office, 366. His tour through the northern and eastern 
States, 1789, 870. His Farewell Address to his country- 
men, 382. Retires to Mount Vernon. 3S3. Death of, 
3S6, 357. Lee's Funeral Oration on, 337. Bonaparte's 
tribute to, 837, 383. Tribute to, by the British fleet, 
388. 

Washington, Martha, notice of, 856. , 

Washington, William Augustine, Colonel, 334. No- 
tice of, ^32. 

Washington Terrttortf, 430,513. 

" Wasp," sloop, 414, 415, 440. 

Watson, Colonel, on the Pedee, 820. 

Wat&rford, Henry Hudson at, 59. 



778 



■Watsb, General, surprised by General Gray, 274. Cap- 
tures of the Pennsylvania troops, 828. Pursues Corn- 
wallis, 339. At Savannah, 846, His Expedition against 
the Indians. 874. Crushes the Lenni-Lenapes, 21. 
Notice of. 298. 

"Weed, General, 194. 

Webstee, Danirl, Secretary of State, 4T4, 502. His 
negotiation with Lord Ashburton, 473. 

■Webster, Fletcueb, Announces the death of President 



Ha 



,475. 



Webster, Lit-utenant-Colonel, 834. 

"Webster, Captain, at Saltiilo, 4S6. 

"Weitzel, Godfrey, General, 113. Entered Eichmond, 
718. 

" TTe/^'OHie," ship, 96. 

WELLiNfiTON, Lord, cnters Paris, 431. 

"Wells, Colonel, one of chief leaders against the savages, 
416. 

Wdsk hidians, 32. 

Wervss, Major, at the Broad River, 319. 

Weroicoromocco, Virginia, 66. 

Wesley, John, Rev., in Georgia, 171. 

West Josepu, his colony, 93. 

Westcheater, New York, General Knyphausen at, 259. 

Weatern Virginn^ admitted as a State, 561. Struggle 
to get possession of, 578, Close of Campaign in, 579 
660. 

West Indies^ The, Voyaa-es of Columbus and Vespucius 
to. 40, 41. Trade of, 367. 

Went Je7'S6y, Remarkable law enacted by the Assembly 
of, 160. 

WeMon^s Colony, 115. 

West Pointy New York, Arnold appointed to the com- 
mand of. 325. 

Weymouth Geoeok, Captain, 58. 

WeymmitJi, Massachusetts, burned, 127. 

Whaleboat Warfare, 308. 

Whalley, Edward, Regicide Judge, 123. 

Wbkeler, Captain, 126. 

Whbelock, Rev. Dr., his School at Lebanon, 25. 

Wheelwrigut, John, Rev., founds Exeter, 80. Favors 
the religious views of Mrs. Hutchinson, 120. 

Whig and Tory^ explanation of the terms, 226. 

Whipple Abraham, Comraqdore, 223. His flotilla, 
notice of, 310. 

WkUky InsiirreeUon, The, 378. 

White, John, Governor, 56, 57. 

WntTE, Peregrine, the first English child bom in New 
England, 7a 

While, Colonel, on the Santee River, 811. 

WiHTEFiELD, George. Rev., Ju Georgia, 171. 

Wiite Plainfi, New York, Washington at, 258. 

Wife, price of ii, in Virginia, in 1620, 105, 

Wildern^JiH, The, GS9. Battle of, 690. 

Wilkes, Commodore, his Expedition, 476, 477. Takes 
Mason and Slidell prisoners, 5S7. 

Wilkinson, James, General, sent by Gates with a 
verbal message to Congress, 2S2. His Expedition 
against the Indians, 874. Burr's associate, 396. With 
General Dearborn, 810. Succeeds Dearborn; his 
operations, 426. At Prescott, 426, 427. At. St Regis ; 
at French Mills, 427. At Plattsburg, 432. Notice of, 
426. 
. Willett, Colonel, 273. 

William III., and Mart, accession of, 130, 143. Their 
war with France, ISO. William prohibits printing in 
the American colonies, 153. Interested in Captain 
Kidd's Expedition, 149. 

William and Mary-College^ 17S. 

WiLLLAMS David, cue of the captors of Andr6, 826. 

Williams, Epuraim, Colonel, death of, 190. 

Williams, James, Colonel, at King's Mountain, 819. 

Williams, John, Rev., captured by Indians: liate of his 
wife, 135. 

Williams, Otho H., Colonel, 818. 

Williams, Rogers, 87,153. Founder of Rhode Island, 
89, 119, Persecuted, 119. Pacifies hostile Indians at 
New Netherland. 141. Notice of, 89. 

William'a College, founded, 190. 

WUliama's Sprinn, 90. 

Williamshui'g,y\vs\m:\.. 111. Battle of, 616. 

Willmot. Captain, death of, 348. 

Wilson James, in Convention on the Articles of Con- 
federation, 356. 359. Judge of the Supreme Court of 
the United states, 369. 



Wilson, Rev. Mr., Saltonstall's letter to, 118. 

Wilson, Robert, Ensign, 342. 

WihoiVs Oreek^ battle at, 574. 

Wittwycb, Indians massacre the inhabitants of. 148. 

Winchester, General, 416, 417. Notice of, 418. 

Winder, General. 426. At Bladensburg. 436. 

WiNGFiELD, Edward M. His conduct toward Captain 
John Smith ; deposed, 65. 

Wbmebago Jndinaa conspire against the English,205. 

WiNSLOw. Edward, Governor, 85, 1S5. Received by 
Massasoit, 114. Cows and a bull imported by, 116. 
His letter to Governor Winthrop. 142. 

WiNSLOw, John A. Captain of the Kearsage, 708. 

WiNBLOw, John, General, 185, 191. 

Winston. Joseph, Colonel, at King's Mountain, 319. 

Winter, severe, of 1777-1778, 2&4. 

Winthrop, John, Governor, 117, llS. His expedition 
against Canada. 131. Applies to Charles 11. for a new 
charter, 155. Indian chiefs at the table oi; 113. No- 
tice of, 118. 

Wint/aio Bay, La Fayette lands on the shore of, 273. 

Wisconsin, admitted to the Union in 1S4S, 497. 

Wise, Henry A., 539 56^. 

Wiftsagusset Settlement, 115, 116. 

Witchcraft^in Massachusetts, 132.133. 

Wolfe, James, General, 196, 199, 200. At Quebec, 201. 
Death of; monument to, 202. 

Wolfe's Cove, 202. ^41. 

Wolfe's Jiavine, 202. • 

Women, Indian, condition of, 14, 15. The first two on 
the James River, 67. A hundred and fifty, become 
wives of Virginia planters, 71. No white, in Virginia, 
in 1619; ninety sent by Sandys, in 1620: sixty, sent, 
in 1621, 105. (See Wife.) 

Woodford, General, 244, 311. , 

WooDUHLL, Nathaniel, General, 193, 254. 

Wool, John Enlis. General. 413. At Monclova; at 
Parras. 4S4. At Braceti, 4S8. At Saltillu, 439. No- 
tice of, 4S4, 526, 617 

Wool. Means used to prevent the scarcity of, in Amer- 
icas 216. 
WooLSEY, Captain, 433. 
Woostek, David, General. 238, 243,271. 

Worden, John L. Lieut., 672. 

Worth, William J., General, at Monterey, 4S3. At 
Saltillo, 4S4. At the Castle of Pcrote, 490. At Mex- 
ico, 494. Notice of, 498. 

Writs of Assistance, 212. 

Wyandot Indians, 23, 24. Cede their lands to the 
United States, 24. Conspire against the English, 1763, 
205. Treaty with the, 363. 

Wyandot Comity invaded by the Five Nations, 24. 
Wyatt, Sir Francis, 106. lOS. 

Wyiming Valley, devastation nf, in 1778, 290, 291. 
Wythe, George, in Convention on the Articles of 
Confederation, 356. 



Y. 



Yale, Eltsha, Benefactor of Yale College, 173. 

Yale College,\TiS. 178. 

Yamacraw Bluff, 100, 103. 

Yamasee Jndlaiis, 30, 163, 170. 

Yankee Doodle^ th« National Song, 220. 

Yates, Robert, in Convention on Articles of Confed- 
eration, 856. 

Yazoo City, 683. 

Yazoo River De Soto on the banks of the, 44. 

Yeamens, Sir John, 93. 

Yeardlky, Georgr, Governor, 70, 107. His Represent- 
ative Assembly. 105 

Yeo, Sir James.'432. 

York, Duke of. 94. His American possessions, 129. 
Sells New Jersey, 159. 

ForA^o^OTi, Virginia, fortified by Cornwallis, 340. Sur- 
render of, 34C 842, 845. 

Yaungstowii burnt, 427. 

Z. 

Zenger, John Peter, Editor of the New York Week^ 

Journal, arrested, 150. 
ZoLUOOFFfifi, Felix K", 575, 577. 593 



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